Bledar Kola

Bledar Kola
Personal information
Full name Christoforos Bledar Kola
Date of birth (1972-08-01) 1 August 1972
Place of birth Mirditë, Albania
Height 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position Midfielder
Youth career
Besëlidhja
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1988–1989 Besëlidhja
1989–1990 Partizani 35 (6)
1990–1991 Elbasani 21 (1)
1991–1994 Panargiakos 77 (13)
1994–1996 Apollon Smyrnis 63 (10)
1996–2000 Panathinaikos 106 (10)
2001–2002 AEK Athens 11 (0)
2002–2003 Kallithea 16 (1)
2003–2004 Apollon Smyrnis 19 (2)
Total 348 (43)
International career
1990–2001 Albania 39 (6)
Managerial career
2004–2011 AEK Athens (youth)
2010 AEK Athens (interim)
2012 Apollon Smyrnis
2013 Omonia (assistant)
2014 Panargiakos
2014–2016 Panionios (assistant)
2016–2018 Panathinaikos (assistant)
2018–2019 AEK Athens (assistant)
2020 APOEL (assistant)
2021 Universitatea Craiova (assistant)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Bledar Kola (born 1 August 1972) is an Albanian retired football player and later manager.

Early life

Kola comes from Mirditë, but grew up in the city of Lezhë. He was an exemplary student. He started his career at Besëlidhja Lezhë, and then moved to Partizani Tirana. Later he moved to Greece where his playing career took off.[1]

Club career

Kola started his career at Besëlidhja and in 1988 he was promoted to the first team. In 1989 he moved to Partizani and in the following season he played for Elbasani. In the summer of 1991 Kola took part in the Mediterranean Games with Albania in Greece caught the eye of the manager of Panargiakos, Angelos Anastasiadis. Thus he was acquired by the Greek club, where he played for 3 seasons.[2] In 1994 he joined Apollon Athens and he helped the team with his performances qualify for the UEFA Cup in 1995 and the Cup final in 1996.

In the summer of 1996 he made the big step of his career and was transferred to Panathinaikos, where he played for 4.5 seasons. In November 2001, he became Greek, was baptized an Orthodox Christian and took the name "Christophoros".[1] On 19 January 2001 he moved to rivals, AEK Athens.[3] During his spell at the club he won the Cup in 2002.[4] On 7 July 2002 his contract with was terminated and he signed for Kallithea.[5] In January 2003, Kola was released by Kallithea after failing a doping test.[6] Afterwards he returned to Apollon, where he finished his career in 2004.[1]

International career

He made his debut for Albania in a December 1990 European Championship qualification match away against Spain and earned a total of 39 caps, scoring 6 goals.[7] His final international was a March 2001 FIFA World Cup qualification against England in Tirana.[8]

National team statistics

Albania national team
YearAppsGoals
199010
199110
199210
199300
199440
199530
199640
199752
199872
199961
200050
200121
Total396

International goals

Scores and results list Albania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kola goal.
List of international goals scored by Marinos Ouzounidis
No. Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
12 April 1997Nuevo Estadio de Los Cármenes, Granada, Spain Germany1–02–31998 FIFA World Cup qualification
22 April 1997Nuevo Estadio de Los Cármenes, Granada, Spain Germany2–32–31998 FIFA World Cup qualification
310 February 1999Ta' Qali National Stadium, Ta' Qali, Malta Latvia1–12–2Friendly
410 February 1999Ta' Qali National Stadium, Ta' Qali, Malta Latvia2–12–2Friendly
59 October 1999Qemal Stafa Stadium, Tirana, Albania Georgia2–02–1UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
624 March 2001BayArena, Leverkusen, Germany Germany1–11–22002 FIFA World Cup qualifier

Managerial career

Kola took temporary charge at AEK Athens in August 2010 and was named full-time manager of Apollon Smyrnis in July 2012.[9] He also coached Panargiakos and from 2014 was the assistant of Marinos Ouzounidis at Panionios, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens, respectively, until 2019.[10]

Honours

AEK Athens

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Χριστόφορος Κόλα". aekpedia.com.
  2. ↑ "Foreign Players in Greece since 1959/60". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 10 December 2008.
  3. ↑ "Ανακοίνωσε Κόλα, "τέλειωσε" με Ντόντσεφ η ΑΕΚ". in.gr. 19 January 2001.
  4. ↑ "Greece 2001/02". RSSSF.
  5. ↑ "Στην Καλλιθέα ο Κόλα". contra.gr (in Greek). 7 July 2002.
  6. ↑ "Drie 'Grieken' ook na tweede test positief". vi.nl. 3 February 2003.
  7. ↑ "Albania – Record International Players". RSSSF. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
  8. ↑ "Player Database". eu-football.info. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  9. ↑ Bledar Kola, trajneri i Apollon Smirnit – Panorama (in Albanian)
  10. ↑ Refuzoi ofertën për Kombëtaren shqiptare, Bledar Kola mbetet “pa punë” në Greqi – Panorama (in Albanian)
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