Armando Sadiku

Armando Durim Sadiku (born 27 May 1991) is an Albanian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Indian Super League club Goa.

Despite being the top scorer of the team at this time, he was sent on loan to fellow relegation strugglers Vaduz, which was dubbed as an "owngoal" by Swiss media.

An Albanian international, Sadiku with 12 goals scored, is his country's joint active player top goalscorer along Sokol Cikalleshi and 4th in the overall ranking.

[10] In the summer of the 2009, Sadiku completed a transfer to newly promoted Kategoria Superiore side Gramozi, owned by the brother of Albanian oil tycoon Rezart Taci; it was the club's first ever top flight season.

[11] He made his first top flight appearance on 23 August at the age of 18 in the opening matchday against Shkumbini which ended in a goalless draw, with Sadiku coming on in the second half.

[18] A minute before his dismissal, he scored but was caught offside by the assistant referee Eduard Miho, which enraged Sadiku, who ran towards him and pushed away by throat, spitting and also insulted him the process.

[31] He made his competitive debut one week later in matchday 3 of championship against Biel-Bienne, netting a brace to lead the team into 4–0 home win.

On 10 May 2014, during the league match against St. Gallen, Sadiku entered as substitute in the 70th minute and was injured shortly after, breaking knee ligament which would keep him sidelined for the next 6 months.

[45] Sadiku made his on-field return on 30 November 2014 in 2014–15 Swiss Super League matchday 17 versus Basel where he came as a substitute in a 1–2 home loss.

That lead him to request a loan to another Swiss Super League side in order to play more to be ready to represent Albania in the UEFA Euro 2016 in France.

[51][2] Sadiku made his debut for the club on 6 February scoring a brace and providing two assists in a 5–2 away win against fellow relegation strugglers Lugano, one of his former sides.

[67] The transfer fee was undisclosed, but it was reported that Legia paid €1.5 million for his services, making Sadiku the most expensive purchase of Polish football.

"[67] Sadiku made his first appearance for Legia on 15 July in the opening Ekstraklasa matchday against Gornik Zabrze, playing in the second half and scoring his team's only goal in a 3–1 away defeat.

[70] Eleven days later, Sadiku made his UEFA Champions League debut by scoring a tap-in in a 3–1 away defeat to Astana in the first leg of third qualifying round.

[74] After several weeks sidelined due to knee injury,[75] Sadiku made his debut for the club on 26 February by starting in the 0–2 loss to Real Betis.

After having an unsuccessful season in Turkey, Sadiku decided to venture to South America where he made history as the first Albanian to play in Bolivia, when he signed for Club Bolívar, a major giant in Bolivian football, in 23 January.

[88] Two months later, he made history when he appeared in the 2021 Copa Libertadores, the first Albanian to debut in the most prestigious club competition in South America, in a 5–0 thumping of Uruguay's Montevideo Wanderers.

[92] He made his debut in the Durand Cup, playing the full first half in the Kolkata Derby against East Bengal FC which eventually ended in a 1–0 loss.

He scored the deciding goal for the club against A-League Men side Brisbane Roar in their 1–0 win at a group stage match of the 2024 Bandodkar Trophy.

[95] Sadiku was called up at the Albania national under-19 football team by coach Ramadan Shehu for a double friendly match against Cyprus U19 on 20 & 21 October 2009.

In the 2nd round match against Moldova U21 on 7 September 2011 he scored two goals as a half-time substitute to help Albania to win 4–3 after coming from behind and to earn their first points of the campaign.

Young forwards such as Sadiku was among Edgar Çani and Bekim Balaj provided competition for the established and mature internationals which were Erjon Bogdani and Hamdi Salihi.

[105] Sadiku was not called regularly during the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying campaign; even when he was part of the squad, he was seen as the third choice by manager De Biasi, ranked behind Cikalleshi and Balaj.

He made his first appearance in Group I on 4 September 2015 versus Denmark, replacing Lenjani at 64th minute as Albania took a goalless draw at Telia Parken.

[110] He made his first ever UEFA European Championship appearance on 11 June 2016 in the opening Group A match against Switzerland as Albania conceded early and lost 0–1.

[113] For the qualifiers of 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification, Sadiku's Albania was placed in Group G along with Spain, Italy, Israel, Macedonia and Liechtenstein.

[117] Later that month, Sadiku suffered an injury while playing for Zürich which kept him sidelined for the next two qualifying match against Liechtenstein and Spain in October, which ended respectively with a 2–0 win and 0–2 defeat.

[123] On 14 March 2019, Sadiku received an invitation for the opening UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying matches against Turkey and Andorra,[124] returning in the national team after one year.

[126] Three days later, new caretaker manager Ervin Bulku decided to start Sadiku in the second game against minnows Andorra; the striker scored in the 21st minute with the open net after benefiting from the wrong clearance of opposition goalkeeper Josep Gómes, paving way to a 3–0 win at Estadi Nacional.

[132] Sadiku has cited his role model and favourite footballer the Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimović, and is also fan of Italian club Internazionale.