Elis Bakaj

Elis Bakaj is an Albanian football player, born on 25 June 1987 in Tirana, Albania.

His professional career took off when Elis finished the youth academy of Partizani and signed a professional contract with the club in 2002. A year later the forward was sent on loan to another Albanian club FC Nacionali where he managed to gain necessary experience. This allowed him to perform for Partizani with increasing efficiency which made his manager find a regular place for the footballer in the starting eleven. Overall, Bakaj made a total of 23 goals in 136 appearances during a seven-year spell at Partizani, excluding his season-long stint at Nacionali.

In 2009 Elis Bakaj moved to Dynamo Tirana. Throughout two seasons he was an undisputed starter and a key striker of the side. In the end he netted 28 goals in 56 games for Dynamo.

In 2011 the footballer moved to Romania where he joined Dynamo Bucuresti. He spent only a part of that season with the club from Bucharest appearing 27 times and scoring 5 goals as in the summer 2012 Bakaj switched to Chornomorets from the Ukrainian Premier League. In March 2014 Bakaj left Ukraine due to political unrest and joined a home club Kukesi.

From 2005 to 2007 Bakaj played 11 games and scored 2 times as a part of the national youth team of Albania. Elis Bakaj has been called up by the senior national squad of his motherland since 2008.