Rey Manaj

Rey Aldo Manaj (Albanian: Rei Aldo Manaj; born 24 February 1997) is an Albanian professional footballer who plays as a striker for La Liga club Barcelona and the Albania national team.

Club Career

Early career

Manaj was born in Lushnje, Albania in 1997, and moved to Italy with his parents, where he began his football youth career at the age of 11 with Piacenza. Principally he had two trials at two major academies at Italy Milan and Atalanta but didn't managed to pass at either one. When he was 11 years old in 2008 he managed to enter at Piacenza academies where he achieved a few trophies and individual ratings. In 2012 this academy managed by Leonardo Garilli family was declared bankrupt in 2012 and Manaj moved to U.S. Cremonese managed by Gigi Simoni.

In 2013, Cremonese loaned him to Sampdoria youths which was managed at the time by Pedone. During a training game against the first team, as soon as Manaj saw that the goalkeeper Junior da Costa went wide, he tried to catch him by surprise with a shot from the middle of the field.

This page also has a version in other languages :  Рей Манай (russian)