Lorik Cana

Lorik Cana

Personal information
Full name	Lorik Agim Cana
Date of birth	(1983-07-27) 27 July 1983 (age 28)
Place of birth	Pristina, SFR Yugoslavia
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position	Defensive midfielder, Central Midfielder, Defender
Club information
Current club	Lazio
Number	27
Youth career
1997–2000	Dardania Lausanne
2000–2002	Paris Saint-Germain
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2002–2005	Paris Saint-Germain	69	(2)
2005–2009	Marseille	122	(8)
2009–2010	Sunderland	31	(0)
2010–2011	Galatasaray	24	(1)
2011–	Lazio	14	(2)
National team‡
2004–	Albania	47	(1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18 January 2010. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 25 October 2010

Lorik Cana (IPA:ˈlorik ˈtsana) (born 27 July 1983) is an Kosovar-Albanian footballer, who plays for Lazio as a defensive midfielder and the Albania national football team. He is the captain for Albania at international level.

Club career

Early career

His father's experiences in football inspired Cana to take up the sport as well. In 1997, he joined the local team Dardania Lausanne an amateur football club founded by the Albanian community in Lausanne, coached by his father.^[1] He played at Dardania until the year 2000, when he was spotted and signed by the French club, Paris Saint-Germain.

Paris Saint-Germain

He was invited to Arsenal at the age of 16 for trial, but failed to attend because he was denied a British visa.^[2] At Paris Saint-Germain he spent three years working through the ranks of the French club. Cana finally made the first team in 2003 and quickly became a main player. During the 2003–04 season, he played 32 games and scored one goal, as the team won the Coupe de France and finished second in the French Ligue 1, proving to be one of the most successful seasons of his career so far. This was repeated the next season when he also played 32 games for the Paris team and scored one goal. In his senior debut for Paris Saint-Germain, he was awarded man of the match.^{[citation needed]}

Marseille

However, at the beginning of the 2005–06 season, there was a change of coach at Paris Saint-Germain and Cana fell out of favour. This prompted him to move to the south of France to join the most successful club in French history, Marseille. Since joining Marseille, he cemented his place in the starting eleven, and scored the winning goal in the first match between his new club (Olympique de Marseille) and his former club (Paris Saint-Germain). He also became team captain after the departure of the former captain Habib Beye to Newcastle United during the summer of 2007. Cana left the club for Premier League side Sunderland in August 2009. By playing for Marseille, he had achieved his childhood dream. However, during his four years in Southern France, he failed to win a single trophy. The season following his departure, l'OM became French Ligue 1 champions and won the Coupe de la Ligue.

Sunderland

Cana joined Sunderland on a four-year contract for a fee of around £5 million on 24 July 2009.^[3] He was soon handed the team's captaincy by manager Steve Bruce,^[4] although Bruce later stated a captain had yet to be appointed.^[5] On 15 August, Cana made his league debut for Sunderland and contributed with an impressive performance in a 1–0 win over Bolton Wanderers. He was appointed as Sunderland's captain for the 2009–10 season on 3 September.^[6] He became the first Albanian to play in the Premier League.^[7]

Galatasaray

Cana joined Galatasaray on 8 July 2010, for a fee of €4.5 million.^[8] Cana signed a 4-year contract worth €2 million a season plus bonus based on appearances.

Lazio

On July 3, 2011, Cana signed for Italian Serie A club Lazio, becoming the club's fifth signing of the summer, following the arrivals of Miroslav Klose, Djibril Cissé, Senad Lulić and Abdoulay Konko. He was used in a exchange for 50% registration rights of the goalkeeper Fernando Muslera going to Galatasaray, which Lazio both tagged them for a peppercorn fee in the financial accounts. Galatasaray paid an additional €6.75 million to Montevideo Wanderers to acquire another 50% registration rights of Muslera, made 50% rights of Muslera that Lazio sold and the full rights of Cana that Lazio acquired also worth around €6.75 million at that time. He scored his first goal for Lazio on 10 December 2011 against Lecce, a 3-2 win, after coming on as a substitute for Giuseppe Biava.^[9] After sustaining many niggling injuries throughout the season, on 31 January 2012, Lazio confirmed that Cana would miss 6 weeks due to a back injury sustained in training. After returning from injury Cana started to quickly recover his form. With Lazio constantly being haunted with injuries and suspensions Cana took his chance in the midfield. This resulted in his best performance in the 2011/2012 season where he scored a 25 yard screamer against Atalanta thus keeping Lazio's Champions League hopes alive. ^[10]

International career

Cana was eligible to play for either Switzerland, Albania or France, as he has all three passports.^{[citation needed]} Cana has been involved with the Albania national football team since early 2003, after receiving a call-up from the Albanian Football Association. He accepted the invitation and made his international debut on 11 June, at the age of just 19. On 12 September 2007, he was sent off by referee Mike Riley in the 87th minute of Albania's home game against the Netherlands, after an altercation with Wesley Sneijder and Ruud van Nistelrooy. His team conceded a late goal to lose 0–1 shortly after the dismissal. As of 21 July 2010 he has made 53 appearances and scored 1 goal for Albania. He was one of the key players in Albania's formidable 1–0 home win against Belarus for the Uefa Euro 2012 Group Qualifications by hitting the crossbar in a 40 meters free kick and by being an undefeatable wall in defense.

Personal life

Lorik is the son of retired footballer Agim Cana.^[11] His father's career brought the family to Kosovo, but because of war in the region, Lorik and his family were forced to flee to Lausanne, where they stayed for nine years.^[7] He is a UNO-ambassador against poverty.^[11][12] In an interview Cana has stated that archeology is one of his biggest interests and that he plans to work in the Albanology field after his footballing career after pursuing a University degree in History.^[11]

Career statistics

As of 26 October 2010^[13][14][15]

Club

International

Honours

Club

PSG

• Coupe de France: 2004

Olympique de Marseille

• Coupe de France Runner-up: 2006, 2007

Individual

• Albanian Footballer of the Year (3): 2004, 2005, 2006
• Albanian Fan's Footballer of the Year (1): 2009

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lorik Cana

• Lorik Cana on Playerhistory.com
• Profile at Galatasaray.org
• Statistics at TFF.org (Turkish)
• Profile at Transfermarkt.de (German)
• Lorik Cana – FIFA competition record
• Lorik Cana at National-Football-Teams.com
• Lorik Cana career stats at Soccerbase
• Lorik Cana French league stats at LFP.fr (French)
• Lorik Cana OM.net (French)
• Lorik Cana's Yahoo Profile