TIRANA, May 3 – Albania’s top scorer of this season, striker Sindri Guri, is heading for a move to the Belgian top league next season after a wonderful campaign with Kukes, the Superliga reigning champions.
The 24-year striker is the target of Gent and if the transfer is completed, he would become the second Albanian player to move to the Belgian championship for this year after Luftetari striker Kristal Abazaj was confirmed to join Belgian giants Anderlecht for next season.
Guri converted a wonderful free kick last weekend as his Kukes beat leaders Skenderbeu 1-0 in an away victory that counts much for their second place target which could take them to the Champions League qualifying campaign if Skenderbeu fail to overturn UEFA’s 10-year ban over match fixing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Scouts from Belgium and Austria were reportedly watching the Albanian Superliga talent from the stadium in the encounter with Skenderbeu.
“It is true that there is great interest in me by foreign teams, however I have already made my choice. I believe that I will play in Belgium next season. My desire is to try a new adventure in the Belgian championship,” Guri has told local reporters.
The north-eastern based club with not much history in the top flight of Albanian football made history last year as they claimed their first-ever Superliga title in a season which saw the relegation of Tirana, the 24-times record Superliga champions.
Kukes also put an end to the six-year domination of Skenderbeu, the only Albanian club to have made it to the UEFA Europa League group stage, with two appearances in the 2015 and 2017 seasons, but now facing the threat of a 10-year ban over match-fixing.
Kukesi’s Austrian coach Peter Pacult has been confirmed for another season as the northeastern Albania-based club are expected to replace Skenderbeu in the Champions League qualifying campaign if the ban on the club that has dominated Albanian football is upheld.
Last April, 21-year-old Luftetari striker Kristal Abazaj signed a three-year contract with Anderlecht for a reported €750,000 fee, in one of the most expensive transfers from the Albanian championship and the most expensive for an Albanian player.
Both Abazaj and Guri, two Albania-grown products, are considered promising talents that could serve the national side and coach Christian Panucci much for the country’s Euro 2020 bid after Albania’s Euro 2016 debut under former coach Gianni De Biasi.
Back in 2015 soon after their debut Europa League group stage, Skenderbeu’s Nigerian striker Peter Olayinka was acquired by Belgian side Gent for a record €1.1 million fee in the Albanian championship but failed to impress. The 22-year-old now plays on loan at Zulte Waregem in the Belgian First Division A.
