Alban Hoxha

Alban Bekim Hoxha (Albanian pronunciation: [alban ˈhɔdʒa]; born 23 November 1987) is an Albanian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Albanian club Partizani and the Albania national team.

Club Career

Dinamo Tirana

Hoxha started youth football at age of 6 and was raised through the ranks at his hometown team Turbina before joining the youth team of Dinamo Tirana in 2004. He was loaned back out to Turbina for the 2005–06 campaign, where he played in the Kategoria e Pare. He returned the following season and joined the first team at Dinamo as Ilion Lika understudy. He made his top flight debut with Dinamo on 10 March 2007 in a home game against Elbasani. He featured in 11 league games between March and the end of the season due to first choice keeper Lika being sidelined with injury.

The following season, he became second choice to Elvis Kotorri following the departure of Ilion Lika, and he made 2 league appearances as Dinamo were crowned Kategoria Superiore champions for the first time since 2002. During the first half of the 2008–09 season he only made one league and one cup appearance before being loaned out to fellow Superiore side Apolonia in January for the remainder of the season. He made 8 appearances while on loan at Apolonia and kept 3 clean sheets, helping the team avoid the relegation play-off places by a single point.

He returned to his parent club Dinamo ahead of the 2009–10 season and made 6 league appearances as he won his second Superiore title with Dinamo. The following season, he competed with Albanian international Isli Hidi for the first choice spot in the team, and following Hidi's departure to Olympiakos Nicosia in January 2011 he became Dinamo's first choice keeper for the first time and eventually featured in 24 league games as Dinamo narrowly avoided relegation after beating Beselidhja in the relegation play-off.

At the time with Dinamo, he had a short spell with Kosova Vushtrri in the Kosovo Superleague.

This page also has a version in other languages :  Альбан Ходжа (russian)