Bledar Kola

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

Bledar Kola

Personal information
Date of birth	(1972-08-01) 1 August 1972 (age 53)
Place of birth	Mirditë, Albania
Height	1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s)	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 (caretaker)
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

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.

Playing career

Club

Kola spent most of his career playing for various clubs in the Greek Super League, including Panathinaikos, Apollon Smyrnis, Panargiakos and AEK Athens.^[1] In January 2003, Kola was sacked by Kallithea after failing a doping test.^[2]

International

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.^[3] His final international was a March 2001 FIFA World Cup qualification against England in Tirana.^[4]

National team statistics

Albania national team
Year	Apps	Goals
1990	1	0
1991	1	0
1992	1	0
1993	0	0
1994	4	0
1995	3	0
1996	4	0
1997	5	2
1998	7	2
1999	6	1
2000	5	0
2001	2	1
Total	39	6

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
1	2 April 1997	Nuevo Estadio de Los Cármenes, Granada, Spain	Germany	1–0	2–3	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
2	2 April 1997	Nuevo Estadio de Los Cármenes, Granada, Spain	Germany	2–3	2–3	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
3	10 February 1999	Ta' Qali National Stadium, Ta' Qali, Malta	Latvia	1–1	2–2	Friendly
4	10 February 1999	Ta' Qali National Stadium, Ta' Qali, Malta	Latvia	2–1	2–2	Friendly
5	9 October 1999	Qemal Stafa Stadium, Tirana, Albania	Georgia	2–0	2–1	UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
6	24 March 2001	BayArena, Leverkusen, Germany	Germany	1–1	1–2	2002 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.^[5] He also coached Panargiakos and from 2014 was the assistant of Marinos Ouzounidis at Panionios, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens, respectively, until 2019.^[6]

Honours

AEK Athens

• Greek Cup: 2001–02