Odise Roshi

Childhood and early career

Roshi was born in Fier, Albania. Growing up in Fier, Roshi joined city based club Apolonia Fier. During his youth career, he had try outs with the youth team of Paris Saint-Germain but failed to secure a contract with them. Roshi made his way through the ranks of Apolonia and broke into the senior team at the age of sixteen.

Apolonia Fier

Roshi made five appearances for Apolonia in the 2006–07 season. He showed promise despite Apolonia being relegated to the Albanian First Division. Getting regular time in the first division, Roshi was crucial in helping his club gain a spot in the top two positions of the table, hence promoting the team to the Albanian Superliga.

Roshi's season in the Superliga showcased his talent, earning him call ups to the youth levels of the national team. He helped Apolonia maintain a mid-table position.

Flamurtari Vlore

In the winter transfer period, Roshi moved to Flamurtari Vlore. With Flamutari, Roshi helped the club win the Albanian Cup. During the qualification rounds of the UEFA Europa League, Flamurtari were matched up against Scottish side Motherwell. Roshi played well in both legs and scored a goal in the away leg despite Flamurtari being eliminated. Roshi made thirty three appearances and scored nineteen times for Flamurtari Vlore.

Koln

At the end of the 2010–11 season, There was speculation surrounding Roshi that Belgian club Anderlecht, as well as German club 1. FC Koln, were interested in signing the Albanian. On 19 May 2011, Roshi moved to Koln on a free transfer. Cologne director Volker Finke stated that Roshi is a "highly talented" player with a promising future as an attacking midfielder.

Roshi has so far made twenty appearances for Koln, most of them coming off the bench as a substitute. On 5 February 2012, Roshi scored his first goal in an official match for Koln 99 seconds after coming on in the 72nd minute to give Cologne a 1–0 victory over Kaiserslautern. Koln ended its three-game losing streak and this was Koln's first victory over Kaiserslautern in over 22 years. Roshi also assisted a goal against Nuremberg two weeks later.

FSV Frankfurt

On 6 August 2012, it was announced that the 21-year-old winger was transferred on a one-year loan to FSV Frankfurt, meeting there fellow Albanian compatriot and national player Edmond Kapllani, who had joined the club a month earlier. Uwe Stover, the sports director of FSV Frankfurt, stated that Roshi has demonstrated his qualities in the previous season in the Bundesliga for Koln and that he is convinced that Roshi's addition will bring in the offensive play of FSV Frankfurt.

Roshi has played well so far for Frankfurt and has assisted a goal against FC Erzgebirge Aue in the third game of the season. On 21 September, Roshi scored his first goal for Frankfurt against FC St.Pauli. He scored from outside the far corner of the box. On 27 April 2013, he scored the first goal in 2013, the second for Frankfurt against Dynamo Dresden, as Frankfurt won the match 3–1.

On 4 April 2014, in absence of his compatriot team-mate Edmond Kapllani due to an injury, Roshi played in the forward line and scored a goal in the 61st minute in a match against Aalen, but anyway wasn't enough as match finished in the loss 2–1. After that goal scored, Roshi was included in the Bundesliga 2 team of the week.

After had suffered from some muscular problems this season, on 8 February 2015 Roshi returned scoring in the game of the 20th week against 1. FC Nurnberg. He played in the starting line up as a striker among Mohamed Amine Aoudia and scored the opening goal for the 2–1 victory. Roshi scored again for the second time in a row in the next fixture against Red Bull Leipzig on 15 February 2015 to give his team another victory in a row with the 0–1 result.

HNK Rijeka

After Roshi had been refused to extend his contract with FSV Frankfurt, on 6 June 2015 he signed as a Free agent for 3 years with Croatian First League side HNK Rijeka, which also gained the right to play in the UEFA Europa League for the next season, after the club has finished the 2014–15 season as runners-up. Roshi left behind an injury and was returned to Rijeka for the league 2nd game week against Slaven Belupo Koprivnica on 19 July 2015 where Roshi started from the bench and was an unused substitute for the entire match. Roshi had his debut for Rijeka in the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League away fixture against Aberdeen on 23 July 2015. He scored his first goal for the club in their 4–1 home win against Zagreb on 4 October 2015.

Albania U17

Roshi capped 3 times for Albania under-17 in the 2008 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualifying under the coach Shpetim Duro, mading his debut on 27 October 2007 in the 3–0 loss against Netherlands. Albania U17 got eliminated from the qualifying round, collecting only 1 draw and 2 losses with 1 goal scored and 10 conceded.

Albania U21

Roshi was called up for the first time at the Albania national under-21 football team by the coach Artan Bushati for the match of the 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification on 5 September 2009 against Azerbaijan U-21. He made it his debut against Azerbaijan U21 coming on as a substitute at the half time in place of Hair Zeqiri and Albania U21 won the match 1–0 with an Own goal scored by Eshgin Guliyev in the 63rd minute. Following his good performance in those 45 minutes of play, in the next match four days later against Austria U21, Roshi played as a starter and managed to score his first goal for Albania U21 in the 41st minute of the match. Anyway, its goal wasn't any enough as Austria U21 won the match 3–1 after they had scored all 3 goals in the first 13 minutes of the match. In the next 6 qualifying matches Roshi played in 4 of them but all as a starter and completed the full 90-minutes where he managed to scored 2 other goals. Albania U21 finished in the 4th place out of 5 teams, collecting 1 win, 1 draw and 6 losses with 11 goals scored and 20 conceded.

Roshi was called up again and under the same coach Artan Bushati he played in the two opening matches of the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification against Poland U21 in a 0–3 loss on 2 September 2011 and in a 4–3 victory against Moldova U21 on 6 September, both for the full 90-minutes.

Albania senior team

Following his good performances at Albania U21 in two qualifying tournaments, Roshi received his first call up from the Albania national team coach Josip Kuze for the closing matches of the UEFA Euro 2012 qualification against France on 7 October 2011 and Romania on 11 October 2011.

UEFA Euro 2012 qualification

He made it his first major debut against France on 7 October 2011, by playing in the starting line up and played the full 90-minutes, as the match finished in the 3–0 loss. Then against Romania after 4 days, Roshi played once more in the starting line up but got substituted off in the 77th minute for Gjergji Muzaka and the match finished in the 1–1 draw.

During the period after the end of the tournament, Roshi played in several friendly matches of Albania, in November 2011 against Azerbaijan and Macedonia, in February 2012 against Georgia and in August 2012 against Moldova before the start of the next another qualification campaign of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

2014 FIFA World Cup qualification

For the start of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification Roshi was called up by a new coach of Albania national team, Gianni De Biasi, to participate in the two opening matches against Cyprus and Switzerland on 7 and 11 September 2012. On these two occasions the new coach Gianni De Biasi, in difference from the previous coach Josip Kuze, he left Roshi on the bench where rather he preferred Emiljano Vila instead for the Right-Midfielder position, where in the match against Switzerland he replaced exactly Emiljano Vila for Roshi in the second-half. Roshi scored his first goal for Albania national team on 16 October 2012 in the 4th qualifications match against Slovenia, where he was included in the starting line up and scored in the 36th minute the only goal of the match to give his national team the 1–0 victory.

UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying

Roshi provided the assist for the 0–1 victory's goal scored by Bekim Balaj for Albania on 7 September 2014, against Portugal in their opening UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying match. Roshi swung in a cross from the right which was behind Bekim Balaj, but on the turn he managed to get his foot to the ball and his right-footed volley found the bottom corner from 15 yards.

Club

International

International goals

Nickname

Roshi earned the nickname Raketa (Rocket) due to his fast pace on the football pitch. Raketa is Albanian for Rocket. In his physical test at Koln, Roshi ran 30 metres in 3.7 seconds and 100 metres in 10.9 seconds, achieving the highest score in his team.

Honours