Armando Broja (; born 10 September 2001) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a forward for

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

club

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

. Born in England, he plays for the Albania national team.

Club career

Early career

Broja was born in Slough, England, to Albanian parents from

Koplik Koplik (also known as Koplik i Poshtëm) is a town and former municipality in the northwestern tip of Albania. At the 2015 local government reform, it became a subdivision, and the seat of the municipality Malësi e Madhe. It was the seat of the ...

Malësi e Madhe District Malësi e Madhe District (), commonly known as Malësia, was one of the 36 districts of Albania, which were dissolved in July 2000 and replaced by 12 newly created counties. It had a population of 36,770 in 2001, and an area of . It is in the n ...

. He began his football career with Burnham Juniors, then had trials with

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

and Fulham, before signing with

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

and joining their under-8 selection.

Chelsea

After a two-year stint at Tottenham, Broja transferred to

and joined their

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

in 2009. With the under-18 side, he won the domestic treble of U18 Premier League, U18 Premier League Cup and FA Youth Cup in 2017–18. He also won the

Premier League 2 The Professional Development League is a system of youth football leagues that are managed, organised and controlled by the Premier League or by the Football League. It was introduced by the Football Association via the Elite Player Performanc ...

with the under-23s in 2019–20, scoring three goals in ten appearances. On 26 February 2020, Broja signed his first professional contract with the club after agreeing to a two-year deal. On 8 March, he made his professional debut in a 4–0

win against Everton after coming on as a substitute in the 86th minute in place of

Olivier Giroud Olivier Jonathan Giroud (born 30 September 1986) is a French professional footballer who plays as a striker for club AC Milan and the France national team. Regarded for his work-rate, strength, acrobatic strikes, shot power, consistent goal-s ...

2020–21 season: Loan at Vitesse

On 21 August 2020, Broja signed for Vitesse on a season-long loan. On 19 September, he scored his first ever league goal in a 2–0 win over Sparta Rotterdam. Broja finished his loan spell at Vitesse as their joint-top scorer in the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

for the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season, netting ten goals.

2021–22 season: Loan at Southampton

On 18 July 2021, Broja signed a new five-year contract with Chelsea. On 10 August 2021, he was loaned to fellow Premier League club

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

for the 2021–22 season. On his debut on 25 August, he scored two goals in an 8–0 win over

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

side Newport County in the second round of the EFL Cup. On 16 October, Broja scored his first league goal for The Saints in a 1–0 win against

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

, and became the first Albanian player to score in the Premier League.

2022–23 season

On 2 September 2022, Broja signed a new long-term contract until 2028 with Chelsea. He scored his first Chelsea goal in his sixth league appearance of the season, sealing a 3–0 home win against

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

on 8 October 2022.

International career

Broja was eligible to play for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

through his place of birth, and for

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

through his Albanian parents. In early 2019, he declined an invitation by the England under-21 team as his desire was to play only for Albania.

Under-19

Broja received his first international call-up from the Albania under-19 team by coach

Nevil Dede Nevil Thanas Dede (born 10 January 1975) is an Albanian professional football coach and former player. A centre-back, Dede spent most of his club career with his hometown club Tirana, winning a string of trophies, including 8 championships, be ...

for the first gathering of 2019 in February. He was then called up for a double friendly against

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It ...

the following month. Broja made his international debut in the first game played on 24 March, when he started the match and scored in the 60th minute for the final score of 1–1. He started again in the second game two days later, putting his side 1–0 up in the 10th minute, but North Macedonia overturned the score and won 2–1. In May 2019, he received a call-up for another double friendlies against

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

. Broja was named in the starting line-up in the first match, and also scored his side's third goal in a 3–1 away win. Two days later, Albania won 4–1 over Kosovo with Broja scoring twice. In November, Broja was invited to participate in the 2020 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification Group 4 where his side were shorted to play against

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

. He played the full 90 minutes in the first match versus Greece where his side got beated 5–1, and against Belgium where he managed to score a consolation goal in the second half as Albania lost 2–1. In the thid game against Iceland, he started the match and helped his side to score two goals in the first half, but received a

red card A red card is a type of penalty card that is shown in many sports after a rules infraction. Red card may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Red Card'' (album), 1976 release by Streetwalkers * Red card, suit (cards) of hearts or d ...

in the 65th minute as Iceland eventually overturned the game and won 4–2.

Under-21

On 9 June 2019, Broja made his debut with the Albanian under-21 side in the friendly match against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

after coming on as a substitute in the 46th minute in place of

Din Sula Din Sula (born 2 March 1998) is a footballer who plays as a forward for Belgian side Knokke, on loan from Virton. Born in Belgium, Sula represents Albania internationally. Career Sula played his first official match for OHL in June 2015 during ...

, and scored his side's two goals during a 2–1 home win.

Senior

In May 2019, Broja received a call-up from Albania for a training camp in

Durrës Durrës ( , ; sq-definite, Durrësi) is the second most populous city of the Republic of Albania and seat of Durrës County and Durrës Municipality. It is located on a flat plain along the Albanian Adriatic Sea Coast between the mouths of ...

, Albania from 21 to 26 May 2019. On 7 September 2020 he made his debut in a 1–0 home loss against Lithuania. On 5 September 2021, Broja scored his first senior goal in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

, helping his team to a 1–0 victory.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Albania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Broja goal.''

References

External links

*
Armando Broja
at

Albanian Football Association The Albanian Football Association ( sq, Federata Shqiptare e Futbollit; FSHF) is the governing body of football in Albania. The association is based in Tirana, Albania. It organises the national football leagues of the Albanian Superliga, the F ...

Armando Broja
at BeSoccer {{DEFAULTSORT:Broja, Armando 2001 births Living people Sportspeople from Slough Footballers from Berkshire Albanian footballers Association football forwards Albanian expatriate footballers Albania youth international footballers Albania under-21 international footballers Albania international footballers English footballers English expatriate footballers English people of Albanian descent Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Chelsea F.C. players SBV Vitesse players Southampton F.C. players Premier League players Eredivisie players Albanian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands English expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands