Blendi Nallbani is a retired Albanian professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Nallbani was a member of the Albanian national team prior to his international retirement in 2002. Nicknamed Tata, he is the youngest player to play for the national team only aged 17 at Wembley. He also holds many records, such as most Albanian Superleague winner and the player with the most matches in Albanian Superleague.
Club career
After the fall of communism, he was able to move abroad to play in Romania, but then moved back to Albania for good. He initially played for Partizani Tirana and then, as soon as moving between clubs was allowed in Albania, he moved to his current team KF Tirana for a transfer fee of $1,000,000 where has won multiple Championships, Cups, and Supercups. That was the most expensive transfer in the Albanian Football History at that time and made front-page news of all major newspapers. In 2001 he returned to Partizani.
At only seventeen years old, Nallbani was the youngest ever player to play for the Albanian National Team. He conceded five goals to a strong English side in his premiere at Wembley Stadium. However, had it not been for his strong performance, Albania would have suffered an even greater defeat. After the game, the English media praised Nallbani's performance as one of the greatest performances and Peter Shilton was himself amazed by the performance of the young Albanian.
"He was 21 when he first pulled on an England jersey and that helped to produce a fascinating statistic when England met Albania in a World Cup qualifier at Wembley in 1989. Blendi Nallbani, the goalkeeper at the other end, was only 17 and hadn't been born when Shilts made his debut."
At 17 years old, Nallbani was also the youngest goalkeeper to play in an England match. After that famous English game and another one against Spain, Nallbani received offers from other famed European Clubs. However, due to the "communist Albania," he was not allowed to play for teams outside the country or his family would be persecuted and possibly jailed. In the year, 1990, he was selected in the Under-21 Best European Selection and was supposed to play a charity game against the Africa/Asia Under-21. However, he was not able to attend this game for the same reasons that he was not allowed to play for a European Club at that time. Nallbani earned a total of 18 caps, scoring no goals. His final international was an April 2002friendly match against Andorra.
Relations with the media
Nallbani is known in Albania as being a bubbly and extravagant person who likes to make jokes with the Albanian media. During the 2008–2009 season in a heated derby match against his former team, Partizani Tirana Nallbani was booked for handling the ball outside of his area, which angered the Partizani players and fans as they thought that the keeper deserved a sending off for the offence. After the match ended, Nallbani tried to explain in the changing rooms that he did not handle the ball outside his area saying
"I swear on my daughter, I didn't touch the ball with my hand."
Nallbani is the father of two children, both of them boys. The referee Elvis Peza had also not booked Nallbani for a foul in the 55th minute on Partizani's Brazilian striker Paulo Marcel Pereira Merabet. This prompted an investigation from the FSHF into Peza's performance during the match which received a lot of media coverage in Albania as Nallbani was involved in two key decisions during the match. Former player and now head of Refereeing in Albania Ilir Shulku quickly jumped to Peza's defence and put him off the hook.
Personal life
Nallbani is married and has two children, both of which are boys, Marvin and Dejvi. One of his children has followed in his father's footsteps as a footballer. His son born in 1992, Marvin Nallbani, is also a footballer and played for some time at KF Tirana with his father. Unlike his father he plays outfield, mostly in midfield and has been training with the Tirana senior squad since the age of 8. As of 2018, he is head of the omnisports club Studenti.
