Alban Tafaj

Alban Tafaj (born 3 December 1971) is an Albanian former professional football manager and retired player. He played for both Albanian city rivals Partizani Tirana and Tirana.

Alban Tafaj
Personal information
Full name Alban Tafaj
Date of birth (1971-12-03) 3 December 1971
Place of birth Tirana, Albania
Playing position(s) Defender
Youth career
0000–1992 Partizani Tirana
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1992–1997 Partizani Tirana 96 (3)
1997–2006 Tirana 182 (14)
Total 278 (17)
Teams managed
2009 Tirana (caretaker)
2009–2010 Tirana (caretaker)
2012 Tirana (caretaker)
2012–2013 Tirana (caretaker)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Playing career

Born in Tirana, Albania, Tafaj played for hometown clubs Partizani Tirana and Tirana. He played at Partizani for five years, and at Tirana for nine. He won the Albanian Superliga six times as a player, one of them being with Partizani and the others with Tirana.[1] Tafaj also won the cup and Supercup trophies with the two clubs. He retired in 2006 at the age of 35.

Managerial career

Following his retirement from professional football, Tafaj was offered a job in the back room staff at Tirana. He became the club's technical director but has also had to fill in as a caretaker manager when the club would changed managers through the season. He guided Tirana to their 24th Albanian Superliga in 2009 after former manager Agustin Kola left the club after narrowly losing out on the Albanian Cup trophy to Flamurtari in March of that year. Tafaj finished the season and kept Tirana at the top of the table to win the championship.[2] Once again he became the caretaker manager after Croatian manager Ilija Lončarević left the club in October 2009 after a series of poor results.[1] He stayed on that position until January 2009.

In October 2012, then still technical director of the club, Tafaj replaced Artur Lekbello as caretaker of Tirana for the fourth time, staying there until February 2013. He had already been caretaker earlier that year after Julián Rubio left the club for Flamurtari in September 2012.[3]

Honours

Player

Partizani Tirana[4]

Tirana[4]

Manager

Tirana[4]

  • Albanian Superliga: 2008–09
gollark: Because that is, broadly speaking, the point of autofill?
gollark: I only need the 2FA code.
gollark: Oh hey, it autofilled the password!
gollark: Irrelevant.
gollark: Sort of, but that doesn't require the password.

References
  1. Alban Tafaj: Ja Tirana ime! - Telegraf (in Albanian)
  2. "Festa bardh e blu e titullit zgjat deri në mëngjes" (in Turkish). TRT. 24 May 2009.
  3. Lekbello jep dorëheqjen, Alban Tafaj trajner i Tiranës… - Panorama (in Albanian)
  4. Albania - Championship Winning Teams - RSSSF
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.