In the week in which Leeds United secured their return to the Premier League, former Elland Road cult hero Gianni Alioski could make a happy return of his own.
Unfortunately for the madcap Macedonian, he was a little ahead of the curve when it came to swapping European football for Saudi Arabia.
Ezgjan ‘Gianni’ Alioski left Leeds for Al-Ahli before it was cool.
And, in the blinking of an eye, the Saudi Pro League outfit went from Alioski, Modou Barrow and Lewis Grabban to Roberto Firmino, Kalidou Koulibaly, Riyad Mahrez, Allan Saint-Maximin and Ivan Toney.
As a result – tossed aside like a spoilt child surrounded by shiny new toys – Alioski went from 30 appearances in his first season post-Leeds United to four in his second.
Flash forward to 2024/25 and, while the Elland Road fan favourite is back in cup action at Al-Ahli, it is now a staggering 20 months since he last featured in league action.
The international stage – Alioski recently went head-to-head with Dan James for Wales – has been less of a break from the rigours of club football and more a respite from a footballer in obvious need of a change of scenery.
Gaetano Berardi talks up Switzerland return for former Leeds United ace Gianni Alioski
On a more positive note, as Leeds secure their Premier League return in a 6-0 battering of Stoke City, FC Lugano appear ready to throw down an escape rope and rescue a player who came to epitomise the ferocity, the energy and the likability of Marcelo Bielsa’s beloved Whites outfit like no other.
Alioski joined Leeds after scoring a career-best 16 goals for Swiss outfit Lugano in the 2016/17 season.
Eight years on, the winger-turned-left-back could make an emotional homecoming to the familiar striped seats of the Cornaredo Stadium.
Alioski’s agent, Dino Lamberti, confirms to Contropiede that a fresh start in the Swiss Super League may not be his client’s preferred choice. But options are not something Alioski is overloaded with right now.
In conversation with Corriere del Ticino, meanwhile, another of Bielsa’s 2020 Championship-winning squad is giving his full backing to a move which would bring a long-overdue end to Alioski’s near-two-year wait for league football.
“I am convinced that, in Switzerland, he could still make a difference,” says Gaetano Berardi, the one-time Swiss international who represented Leeds from 2014 to 2021.
“He needs a project in which he feels a protagonist and, in these conditions, he is able to enhance his qualities. He’s someone who knows how to impose himself but he’s also very good at making himself liked. I’m convinced that a guy like that would be a help to any locker room.
“The basis of the [Bielsa’s] requests were commitment and Alioski used to play – both in training and in matches – with great energy. He respected Bielsa’s ideas, who appreciated him.”
Alioski tipped to make a big impact back at FC Lugano
As another veteran wideman in former Liverpool ace Xherdan Shaqiri inspires FC Basel to a first league title since 2017, Alioski could also prove to be a driving force for a Lugano side sitting fifth in the table.
“Alioski is good at reading the dynamics of the group,” Berardi adds, the 33-year-old an influential presence in the dressing room as well as on the turf. “I find it very difficult to have problems with him. As far as I remember, I don’t think he ever said a word out of place.
“Now, moreover, he is no longer the young man who arrived in England. His experience could help him further.
“He surprised me [at Leeds], because I didn’t know him personally and it was a wonderful discovery. In those years.”
Alioski, who had a loan spell at Turkish giants Fenerbahce in the 2022/23 season, will see his contract at Al-Ahli expire in the middle of the summer.
“The return to [Lugano] is an option that we are considering and he doesn’t intend to rule it out a priority,” Lamberti explains. “We are in contact with the club, but so far a decision has not been made.
“Alioski intends to carefully evaluate every possibility.”
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