Ledian Memushaj

Ledian Memushaj (born 7 December 1986) is an Albanian professional footballer who plays for Italian club Pescara and the Albanian national team.

Early career

Memushaj started his career as a 17-year-old in Italy for Sarzanese. The club finished second in Eccellenza Liguria in 2006 and promoted to Serie D. In summer 2008, he moved to fellow Serie D side Valle d'Aosta and on 10 September 2009 signed by Paganese of Prima Divisione after a trail and solved the bureaucratic issue.

Chievo and Portogruaro (loan)

On 21 June 2010, he was signed by Serie A side Chievo Verona on free transfer. He was loaned out to Portogruaro on 29 January 2011.

Lecce

He left Carpi and continued again in Italy cause on 27 July 2012, he moved to Serie B side Lecce on a three-year contract. However, before he even kicked a ball for his new club, they were relegated to the Lega Pro Prima Divisione after their subsequent expulsion from the Serie B for their part in the Calcio Scommesse scandal.

Memushaj scored his first goal for Lecce on 3 September 2012 in a 3–2 victory against Cremonese. He scored the 3rd goal of the match for his team in the 31st minute with a kick from out 20-metters. On 23 September 2012, Memushaj scored the third goal in the 1–3 away victory of Lecce against Treviso and with this victory Lecce got ranked in the top of the 2012–13 Lega Pro Prima Divisione League table.

Loan to Carpi

On 27 July 2013 Carpi announced to have signed Memushaj on loan from Lecce for the 2013–14 season of the Serie B. This transfer happened a few after Carpi signed the fellow Albania national team player, Edgar Çani and also it was the second time for Memushaj to sign for Carpi.

He scored his first goal for Carpi after loan on 28 September 2013 in the 0–1 away victory against Reggina in the last moments in the 90'+3 minute. On 26 October 2013 Memushaj scored a goal from the penalty spot in the start of the second-half, to give his team the 1–1 equalizer against Latina. On 21 December 2013 Memushaj scored from the penalty spot in the 72nd minute, to give his team the minimal 1–0 victory against Palermo. This victory made opponent Palermo to descending from first place in the possession of Empoli. Memushaj seems to have taken his team on his side arm and each week is crucial to the game and his goals. On 26 December 2013 he scored a goal for the next day in the Italian Serie B opening the way for victory Capri in the away match against Virtus Lanciano, when they were found at a disadvantage in the 8th minute, but not delivered and immediately found with Memushaj the equalizer in the 22nd minute, an goal which successed by his team-mates which later recorded two other times, achieving an important victory in the away from home, approaching more and more to the play-off zone to send in Serie A, being only three points away. He started the 2014's year with a goal to continue his excellent form like the first half of the season. He scored in the 20th minute of the first half for the temporary advantage of Capri in the match played at home against Ternana on 25 January 2014, but Capri failed to provide a positive result as the match were being overthrown by Ternana. It was his fifth goal this season and despite this loss, Memushaj team weres only three points away from the play-off zone to promote in Serie A.

On 6 May 2014 Memushaj got injured by torn right knee ligament in match against Pescara and after resonance in Italy, it was decided that he will be operated and was predicted to stay 6 months away from the field of play.

In the 2013–14 season Memushaj played in total 33 Serie B matches in where he scored 8 goals and also in a single match for the 2013–14 Coppa Italia.

Return to Lecce

Carpi didn't accept the request of Lecce to buy Memushaj for a fee of 400.000 € and he returned to Lecce.

Pescara

On 1 September 2014 Memushaj signed for the Serie B club Pescara an 1-year contract.

Due to the injury suffered in May 2014 at Carpi, he missed out first 7 matches of the 2014–15 Serie B.

He made it his debut on 12 October 2014 by coming on as a substitute of the 87th minute for Gabriel Appelt Pires in the 8th match week between Crotone and Pescara, which finished in the 1–4 win for his team Pescara. He was an unused substitute for the next week match on 17 October 2014 against Vicenza (1–1), but a week after in the match against his previous team Carpi, Memushaj played as a starter and the match finished as a bad loss with the 0–5 result. A week later Memushaj scored his first goal for Pescara in a 1–1 draw against Bari. On 27 December 2015 Memushaj scored the winning goal in the game against U.S. Latina Calcio, but was subsequently sent off the pitch after having kicked a microphone on the sidelines in connection with his goal celebration.

1 call-up & appearance for each year from 2010–2013

Memushaj received his first call-up from Albania national football team's coach Josip Kuže for friendly-match against Macedonia on 17 November 2010and made it first debut by coming on as a substitute in the 63rd minute in place of Klodian Duro.

Uner the coach Josip Kuže Memushaj played another match also in a row, against Slovenia on 9 February 2011, finished in the 1–2 loss, where he came in as a substitute in the 81st minute in place of Hamdi Salihi.

Then after a long time without any call-up, he received it by a new coach of Albania Gianni De Biasi, for the friendly match against Moldova on 15 August 2012. In this match which finished in a goalless draw, Memushaj was included in the starting line-up and got substituted off in the start of the second half for Odise Roshi.

Again he didn't called up for a year, until friendly match against Belarus, played on 15 November 2013 and finished in a goalless draw, where he came in as a substitute in the 71st minute in place of Valdet Rama.

2014

Memushaj received another call up for second match in a row of Albania, at this time a friendly against Malta on 5 March 2014. Memushaj played 12 minutes in the match, coming on as a substitute in place of Ergys Kaçe in the 78th minute, as the match finished in the 2–0 victory with goals scored by Migjen Basha in the 26th minute and Alban Meha in 53rd minute.

The coach Gianni de Biasi started considering him an important player for national team and declared that he will include him in the lists of called-ups for the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, which starts in September. But bad luck Memushaj missed out the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying 3 matches in September and October, due to the injury that suffered at Carpi during the month May, an injury which lasted longer for 6 months. In this way he failed to be called up for the first time for an competititve match.

Soon as he returned from the long injury, Memushaj called up for the Friendly matches against France and Italy on 14 & 18 November 2014. Against France he played a full 90-minutes match, which finished in the 1–1 draw. Then against Italy he played another full 90-minutes match and in the 38th minute, the Albanian striker Sokol Cikalleshi kicked the post and then the ball returned to Memushaj which kicked from outside the box but the ball passed close to the post.

Euro 2016

On 21 May 2016, Memushaj was named in Albania's preliminary 27-man squad for UEFA Euro 2016, and in Albania's final 23-man UEFA Euro 2016 squad on 31 May.

Memushaj was an unused substitute against Switzerland in the opening match in 0–1 loss and then he played the full 90-minutes matches against hosts of France where they lost 2–0 and against Romania in an Albania's historical 1–0 win where Memushaj himself assisted the winning goal scored by Armando Sadiku. Albania finished the group in the third position with three points and with a goal difference –2, and was ranked last in the third-placed teams, which eventually eliminated them.

He and his family migrated to Italy in 1997 due to civil war in Albania.

Club

As of 18 July 2016

International

As of 15 June 2016