Artim Šakiri

Artim Šakiri (Артим Шаќири, Artim Shaqiri; born 23 September 1973) is a Macedonian football manager and a former midfielder from North Macedonia. He is considered to be one of the best players in the history of the Macedonian national team. While managing Kukësi in 2014, Šakiri was ranked as the best manager of the Kategoria Superiore and the second best manager of Albanian origin in the world.

Biography
Šakiri was born to an Albanian family in Livada (Ливада), a village near Struga. In his youth, he played football for his village squad (FK Dinamo Livada).

Club career
In 1997, he moved from Vardar to Swedish side Halmstads BK, a team that won the Swedish premier league Allsvenskan the same year. He played alongside developing star Freddie Ljungberg.

In 2003, he moved from Bulgarian club CSKA Sofia to West Bromwich Albion in England. He made his debut in a 4–1 defeat away at local rivals Walsall. In his first home league match for Albion, Šakiri scored a spectacular long-range goal, helping his team to a 4–1 win over Burnley. It was, however, his only goal for the club. He made 30 appearances during 2003–04, but the next season he only played three games and left the club. He was set to move to Burnley, but the move fell through as his work permit wasn't renewed. Instead, Šakiri went to AaB in Denmark. He was released by AaB in 2006. In Autumn 2006, Šakiri signed for Finnish club FC Inter. He made five Veikkausliiga appearances and scored three times, but his contract was not renewed. In 2007, he signed for FC Vaduz. At the beginning of the season 2008 he has signed for Azerbaijani side Qarabağ FK.

International career
Šakiri made his debut for Macedonia in a May 1996 friendly match against Bulgaria, coming on as a second-half substitute for Sašo Miloševski, and has been capped 73 times, scoring 15 goals. He has been captain of the team for many of those years. In 2002, during UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying, he scored a goal directly from a corner kick against England.

His final international was a November 2006 European Championship qualification match against Russia.

Coaching career
He was hired as a manager of Swiss Challenge League club FC Schaffhausen on 1 September 2021. He was not able to obtain the Swiss work permit in a prompt manner, and on 17 September the club hired a different manager.

Honours
FK Vardar
 * First League: 1994–95
 * Macedonian Cup: 1994–95, 1998–99

Halmstad
 * Allsvenskan: 1997

CSKA Sofia
 * A Group: 2002–03

Qarabağ
 * Azerbaijan Cup: 2008–09