Lorik Cana

Lorik Cana (born on 27 July 1983 in Pristina) is an Albanian footballer. A midfielder, 1.86m tall and weighing 86kg, he plays for the Albania national football team and for Olympique de Marseille of France, where he is the team captain, at the club level. He holds Albanian, French[citation needed] and Swiss citizenship. [edit] Early life Born in Yugoslavia, Cana left as a young child to escape the war. He ended up moving to Switzerland . His father, Agim Cana, is a former player and current manager of FK Vllaznia, also he was once a very famous Yugoslav footballer who was part of the so-called "Golden Generation" of KF Prishtina during the 1980s. His father's experiences in football inspired Lorik to take up the sport as well. As a young boy he joined the Lausanne Sports in Switzerland. He then worked up the ranks of the Swiss team and very quickly became an instant hit despite only being a youth team player. He played at Lausanne Sports until the year 2000 when he was spotted and signed by the French giants, Paris Saint-Germain . [edit] Career After joining Paris Saint-Germain he spent three years working up the ranks of the French club, while doing so he attracted big interest from big clubs like Arsenal FC, but his visa wouldn't allow him to go to the trials at the North London club. Lorik finally broke into the first team of Paris Saint-Germain in 2003 and quickly became one of their main players. During the 2003-2004 season he played 32 games, scored one goal, won the Coupe de France, and finished second in the French Division 1 league, proving to be one the most successful seasons of his career so far. This success was repeated the next season when he also played 32 games for the Paris team and scored one goal. However, at the beginning of the 2005-2006 season the coach of Paris Saint-Germain changed and Lorik was not part of the new manager's plans at the club. This then prompted Cana to move to the south of France and join the most successful club in French history, Olympique de Marseille. Since joining Olympique de Marseille he has cemented his place in the starting eleven, and scored the winning goal in the first match between his new club (Olympique de Marseille) and his former club (Paris Saint-Germain). He has been the team captain of his club since the departure of the former captain Habib Beye to Newcastle United during the summer transfer window of 2007. Lorik has hardly missed a game since joining the Marseille based club. However Arsenal FC have recently been reported to be tabling a nine million Euro transfer.