The last time Gjanni Alioski kicked a ball in a competitive club game, his former employers Leeds United would suffer defeat to Southampton just one day later.
And, no, we are not talking about last summer’s play-off final heartbreak at Wembley.
We are not even talking about Leeds United’s 2-1 home defeat to The Saints on the final day of the 2023/24 Championship season.
We are talking about the time Southampton beat Daniel Farke’s side 3-1 at St Mary’s, all the way back in August 2023.
To put that into perspective, it is 17 months since Adam Armstrong and Will Smallbone put Russell Martin’s team 3-0 up after 35 minutes on the South Coast. It is also 17 months since Gjanni Alioski – the very definition of a ‘cult hero’ – last featured in league action.
One of the most popular footballers in Leeds’ recent history – the madcap Macedonian transformed into a rampaging left-back with the number ten on his shirt by Marcelo Bielsa – things really haven’t gone to plan for Alioski since he departed Elland Road back in 2021.
Alioski accepted a money-spinning, bank balance-swelling switch to Saudi Arabia with Al-Ahli. But three-and-a-half years on, the 2020 Championship winner has featured a grand total of 34 times in the Middle East.
Leeds United hero Gjanni Alioski could make return to football at last
Alioski was forced out to Fenerbahce on loan after Al-Ahli filled the available European spots in their squad with a host of other, more high-profile additions. additions.
He was then released when his contract expired last July. Flash forward to January, meanwhile, and the all-action 32-year-old remains without a club.
But, according to Macedonian publication Bota Sot, a window of opportunity may just be creaking open at last.
Alioski, they write, could now make a dramatic return to Al-Ahli. An agreement has reportedly been reached, albeit one that will only permit the veteran to play in the Asian Champions League.
In truth, Alioski has been more than a little hard done by in Saudi Arabia. When he arrived back in 2021, he could not have imagined that, soon after, he would be losing his place to the likes of Riyad Mahrez and Allan Saint-Maximin.
Al-Ahli have also used up their European spots signing such luminaries as Liverpool icon Roberto Firmino, former Barcelona midfielder Franck Kessie, and Serie A imports Merih Demiral and Roger Ibanez. Ivan Toney, Gabri Veiga and Edouard Mendy also call the King Abdullah Sports City home these days.
Not quite the Lewis Grabbans and Modou Barrows Alioski previously found himself sharing a dressing room with.
Patrick Bamford remembers Alioski fondly at Elland Road
Alioski, like so many of Marcelo Bielsa’s promotion-winning heroes, cemented his place in Leeds United folklore during those glorious, champagne-soaked days under the enigmatic Argentine.
And, like Kalvin Phillips, like Jack Harrison, things would only go downhill for him once Bielsa rode off into the sunset.
“Do you remember we had a left full-back called Alioski. [He was] absolutely bonkers,” Patrick Bamford recalls with great fondness. “You would love him on your team but, if he was against you, you would hate it.
“Honestly, he was hilarious in the changing room and a really good guy.”
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