Hysen Zmijani

Hysen Zmijani (born 29 April 1963) is an Albanian retired professional footballer who played as a right-back.

Club career Zmijani has been regarded by many football pundits in Albania as Vllaznia Shkodër's greatest right-back in history. He was born in Shkodër into a family of athletes; his uncle Sadetin Zmijani was the captain of Vllaznia in 60', while his other uncle was a boxer and his son was a cycler. and helped the club to win the championship in a team which boasted fellow international players Ferid Rragami, Fatbardh Jera, Hysen Dedja, Luan Vukatana and Astrit Hafizi. In 1985, Zmijani was the winner of questionary "10 best athletes in Albania" made by newspaper Sporti Popullor.

First Albanian abroad after communism Later in his career, Zmijani played professionally in France, Saudi Arabia and Germany for Gazélec Ajaccio, Al Nassr and FC St. Pauli. He was the first Albanian player who officially signed a contract with a foreign club after the fall of communism. The team repeated the success in the next season, this time winning in the final versus Al-Nassr.

International career Zmijani was a part of Albania under-21 squad in their historic era in which they managed to qualify in an UEFA European Under-21 Championship for the first time in history. He appeared in 18 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches.

Personal life Zmijani's idol and greatest inspiration was former Argentine footballer Diego Maradona. Albanian Cup: 1987