Ardian Kozniku

Ardian Kozniku (born 27 October 1967) is a Kosovan-Croatian professional football coach and former player who most recently was the assistant manager of Al Faisaly.

Club
He started his career at Vëllaznimi from Gjakova and was later picked up by Prishtina. He moved to Croatian side Hajduk Split in 1990 and played there until 1994, scoring 90 goals in 169 games in all competitions for them. He then went on to play for French clubs Cannes, Le Havre and Bastia, as well as Cypriot side APOEL, before making his comeback to Croatia in the summer of 1998, signing with Croatia Zagreb. After two and a half seasons at the club, he made a move to Austrian side Kärnten in the winter break of the 2000–01 season and left the club after only six months for Croatian side Hrvatski Dragovoljac, where he finished his career in 2002.

With Hajduk Split, he was the top goalscorer of the opening season of the Prva HNL in 1992, scoring 12 goals. He scored a total of 45 goals in the league.

International
He was an occasional member of the Croatia national team in the 1990s, making seven international caps and scoring two goals. He made his international debut in a friendly match against Slovakia in April 1994 and also made three appearances in Croatia's qualifying campaign for the UEFA Euro 1996, scoring one goal. He was a member of Croatia's bronze medal-winning squad at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, but was left an unused substitute in all of the team's seven matches at the tournament. His last match for Croatia was a friendly against Australia in early June 1998, during the team's preparations for the upcoming World Cup, where he also netted one goal in his team's 7–0 victory.

He also played for Kosovo in unofficial friendly matches against Albania on 14 February 1993 and again on 7 September 2002 against Albania.

Managerial career
In September 2014 Kozniku became a coach of Shkëndija. In May 2021, he assisted Ante Miše to the Kuwaiti league title with Al-Arabi. He later assisted Miše at Saudi Arabian side Al Faisaly FC.

Diving Federation
Kozniku has served two years as the president of the Croatian Diving Federation. His daughter Diana (born 1995 ), a diver, placed 11th in 1 m springboard at the 2010 European Aquatics Championships.

International goals

 * Scores and results list Croatia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kozniku goal.

Honours

 * Hajduk Split
 * Croatian First League: 1992, 1993–94
 * Croatian Cup: 1993
 * Croatian Super Cup: 1992, 1993
 * Yugoslav Cup: 1991


 * Cannes
 * Coupe Gambardella: 1995


 * Croatia Zagreb
 * Croatian First League: 1998–99, 1999–00


 * Kärnten
 * Austrian Cup: 2000–01
 * Austrian Super Cup: 2001


 * Orders
 * Ribbon of an Order of the Croatian Wattle.png Order of the Croatian Interlace - 1998