Bledar Kola

Bledar Kola (born 1 August 1972) is an Albanian retired football player and later manager.

Early life
Kola comes from Mirditë, but grew up in the city of Lezhë. He was an exemplary student. He started his career at Besëlidhja Lezhë, and then moved to Partizani Tirana. Later he moved to Greece where his playing career took off.

Club
Kola spent most of his career playing for various clubs in the Greek Super League, including Panathinaikos, Apollon Smyrnis, Panargiakos and AEK Athens. In January 2003, Kola was sacked by Kallithea after failing a doping test.

International
He made his debut for Albania in a December 1990 European Championship qualification match away against Spain and earned a total of 39 caps, scoring 6 goals. His final international was a March 2001 FIFA World Cup qualification against England in Tirana.

International goals

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

Managerial career
Kola took temporary charge at AEK Athens in August 2010 and was named full-time manager of Apollon Smyrnis in July 2012. He also coached Panargiakos and from 2014 was the assistant of Marinos Ouzounidis at Panionios, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens, respectively, until 2019.

Honours

 * AEK Athens
 * Greek Cup: 2001–02