Dren Hodja

Dren Hodja (Albanian: Dren Hoxha; born 27 March 1994), is an Albanian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for German club Kickers Offenbach and the Albania national under-21 football team.

Early life & Youth career

Hodja was in born in Offenbach am Main, Germany from Kosovo Albanians parents from Kosovo, which migrate in Germany due to Kosovo War in 1992. His father also was a footballer who played as a Forward. He started his youth career at hometown club Kickers Offenbach in 2002.

Following the bankruptcy of Kickers Offenbach he decided to sign with FC Schalke 04 in 2013.

Club career

He started playing with FC Schalke 04 II where he debutted on 28 July 2013 against Rot-Weiß Oberhausen as substitute in the 73rd minute for Olivier Caillas. He scored his first goal for Schalke 04 II on 30 November 2013 in the opening moments of the match which finished as 2–4 loss.

He concluded the first season with 23 appearances, 16 as a starter and 2 goals scored.

On 19 July 2014, Hodja played a friendly match with Schalke 04 first team and scored a goal in a 3–1 win over Hansa Rostock.

Hodja started with goal in another season with Schalke 04 II the 2014–15 where he played 8 matches and in October 2014 he suffered an injury which kept him out of play until the end of the season.

VfR Aalen

On 7 July 2015 Hodja signed with a 1-year contract with fellow German club VfR Aalen in 3. Liga. He made it his first professional debut for VfR Aalen on 5 December 2015 against SV Werder Bremen II coming on as a substitute in the 84th minute in place of Fabian Menig in a 1–1 draw.

Kickers Offenach

On 29 January 2016 Hodja signed a contract with Kickers Offenbach, the club where he started playing football at the age of 8.

International career

Following his goal with the first team of Schalke 04 in a friendly against Hansa Rostock he declared in an interview for Albanian media that he wants to play for Albania in international level.

Hodja was called up for the friendly match against Romania U21 on 8 October 2014, but among two other players which played in Germany, Valmir Sulejmani & Leart Paqarada withdrew because of a possible counter-attack by Germany.

Hodja was called up to participate in the international tournament in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on 12-18 November 2014 he would have been unable to join the U-21 national team due to an injury.

Career statistics

Club

As of 27 November 2016