Enea Mihaj (born 5 July 1998) 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 le ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

club Famalicão. Born in Greece, he plays for the Albania national team.

Early life

He later moved with his family to

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

, Greece, and then to

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

, where he discovered his interest for football. At the age of 13, he was admitted to the Olympic Arena Academy where he stood out with his talent and caught the eye of

Panetolikos Panetolikos Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Παναιτωλικός), or with its full name Panetolikós Yimnastikós Filekpedeftikós Síllogos ( el, Παναιτωλικός Γυμναστικός Φιλεκπαιδευτικός Σύλλογος'' ...

, who signed him to their academy. At the age of 16, he moved to

Aetolia-Acarnania Aetolia-Acarnania ( el, Αιτωλοακαρνανία, ''Aitoloakarnanía'', ) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the geographic region of Central Greece and the administrative region of West Greece. A combination of the histor ...

Club career

Panetolikos

Mihaj first suited up for Panetolikos on 14 December 2016 in a 2016–17 Greek Cup match against

Kallithea Kallithea (Greek: Καλλιθέα, meaning "beautiful view") is a district of Athens and a municipality in south Athens regional unit. It is the eighth largest municipality in Greece (96,118 inhabitants, 2021 census) and the fourth biggest i ...

where he was an unused substitute. After two league matches as an unused substitute, he made his professional debut on 11 January 2017 in a cup match against PAOK, coming on as a substitute in the 87th minute in place of

Giorgos Mygas Georgios Mygas ( el, Γεώργιος Μύγας; born 7 April 1994) is a Greek professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Super League club Volos. Career Mygas began his career with the youth club of Panetolikos. He made his first-te ...

PAOK

On 21 June 2019, Mihaj signed with PAOK. On 12 July 2020, he scored his first goal for PAOK in a 1–0 away victory against

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number ...

in the 90th minute.

Famalicão

On 15 August 2022, Mihaj signed a three-year contract with

club Famalicão.

International career

Youth

Mihaj received his first call-up to the Albania under-19 team by coach

Arjan Bellaj Arjan Bellaj (born 1 February 1971) is an Albanian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Club career Bellaj played for PAS Giannina, Kalamata F.C., Apollon Athens F.C., Ethnikos Piraeus F.C. and Panionios F.C. in the Greek ...

for the Roma Caput Mundi tournament in February and March 2016. He received his first call-up at the under-21 level by coach

Redi Jupi Redi Jupi (born 31 May 1974) is an Albanian retired footballer. He played in the central midfield for KS Dinamo Tirana and has 19 caps for the Albania national team since his debut in 1995. Jupi is currently the manager of Albania U21 for the ...

for the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 4 match against

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

on 10 October 2016. He made his debut in the 4–0 defeat, coming on as a substitute at half-time in place of

Kostandin Kariqi Kostandin Kariqi (born 30 October 1996) is a Greek professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Super League 2 club Proodeftiki. He has also represented Albania at youth international levels. Club career Early career Kariqi started hi ...

. He was called up again to Albania's under-21 side for two

friendly matches An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

against

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...

on 25 and 27 March 2017.

Senior

Mihaj received his first senior call-up to Albania senior team by coach

Christian Panucci Christian Panucci (; born 12 April 1973) is an Italian former association football, footballer and Manager (association football), manager. In his playing career he played as a Defender (association football), defender. A versatile footballer, he ...

for the

2018–19 UEFA Nations League C The 2018–19 UEFA Nations League C was the third division of the 2018–19 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the inaugural season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEF ...

debut against

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

on 7 and 10 September 2018. He made his international debut in the 2–0 away loss to Scotland, entering in the last minutes of the match. Mihaj was named in the squad by the new manager

Sylvinho Sylvio Mendes Campos Júnior (born 12 April 1974), commonly known as Sylvinho (sometimes alternatively spelled Silvinho), is a Brazilian football manager and former player, currently managing Albania. Formerly a left back, he began his career ...

for the opening

UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament is an upcoming Association football, football competition that will be played from March 2023 to March 2024 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams that will join the automatically qualified ...

game against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

in March 2023, filling in for the injured

Ardian Ismajli Ardian Ismajli (born 30 September 1996) is a professional association football, footballer who plays as a Defender (association football), centre-back for club Empoli F.C., Empoli. Born in Kosovo, he plays for the Albania national football team, ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Club

;PAOK *

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup ( el, Κύπελλο Ελλάδος Ποδοσφαίρου), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Kypello Elladas is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second most im ...

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 ...

; Runner-Up : 2021–22

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mihaj, Enea 1998 births Living people Sportspeople from Rhodes Greek people of Albanian descent Albanian emigrants to Greece Greek men's footballers Albanian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Men's association football central defenders Super League Greece players Primeira Liga players Panetolikos F.C. players PAOK FC players F.C. Famalicão players Albania men's youth international footballers Albania men's under-21 international footballers Albania men's international footballers Albanian expatriate men's footballers Greek expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Albanian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Greek expatriate sportspeople in Portugal