Ezgjan Alioski

Ezgjan Alioski (born 12 February 1992) is a Macedonian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Championship club Leeds United and the North Macedonia national team. He is commonly known as 'Gjanni'.[2]

A versatile player, left-footed he predominantly plays on the right wing, and can also play as striker, attacking midfielder, left wing-back or as a left back.

Early career
Alioski began his club career as a left back in the second team of BSC Young Boys where from 2010 to 2013 he scored four goals in 57 matches. In January 2013 he went to FC Schaffhausen on loan, later converting to a permanent transfer, scoring four goals in 77 matches.

Lugano
He joined FC Lugano on loan in January 2016 and made his debut on 13 February in a 2–1 loss against FC Thun. Despite signing him as a left back, then Lugano manager Zdeněk Zeman converted Alioski into an attacking right winger and striker towards the end of the 2015–16 season.[2] He scored his first goal for the club on 11 May 2016 in a 4–0 win against FC Zürich.

In June 2016, his move was made permanent. New manager Andrea Manzo continued to play Alioski in the attacking roles once the season started. He scored his first goal of the campaign in his second game on 30 July 2016, in a 2–1 win against BSC Young Boys. He scored seven goals in his first 10 games at the club. On 19 April 2017, Alioski scored a hat-trick for Lugano in a 4–2 victory against FC Sion.

He continued to impress during his first season and helped guide Lugano to a third-place finish in the Swiss Super League. He scored 16 goals in 34 games for FC Lugano and was the third top goalscorer in the league in the 2016–17 season behind Seydou Doumbia (20) and Guillaume Hoarau (18).[3] He was also the third highest in the division in terms of his assists, after making 14 in his 34 games, behind Yoric Ravet (17) and Matteo Tosetti (15).[4]

2017–18 season
Alioski joined English Championship club Leeds United on 13 July 2017.[5] On 6 August 2017, he made his debut in a 3–2 victory against Bolton Wanderers and created the assist for teammate Chris Wood's goal.[6] After gaining another assist, he received the man of the match award against Sunderland in a 2–0 win on 19 August.[7] On 26 August, Alioski received the man of the match award and scored his first goal for Leeds in a 2–0 victory against Nottingham Forest.[8] On 15 September, Alioski won the Championship Goal of the Month Award for August for his goal against Nottingham.[9] In November 2017, Alioski scored in all of Leeds United's four games, and was awarded with the club's award for Player of the Month.[10]

On 16 April 2018, Alioski was nominated as one of four players for Leeds United's Player of The Year award.[11] On 21 April, Alioski scored the winner with his seventh goal of the season in a 2–1 victory for Leeds in the Yorkshire derby against Barnsley.[12] He ended the season with seven goals and five assists.[13]

On 5 May, Alioski won the Goal of the Season award for his strike against Nottingham Forest at Leeds' annual award ceremony.[14]

2018–19 season
He scored his first goal of the 2018–19 season with a goal on 11 August in a 4–1 win over Derby County.[15][16]

Alioski started the season for Leeds as a winger playing on the right or left side, but after an injury to regular left back Barry Douglas in 2019, Alioski was praised for his form playing at left back, with his form keeping a returning Douglas out of the side.[17] He continued to thrive in this wing-back position throughout 2019, making marauding runs up the left flank and scoring against Stoke, Bolton and West Brom to bring his Championship tally for 2018/19 to seven, until, on 22 April, in Leeds' 2–0 defeat at Brentford, Alioski was substituted after 12 minutes with a torn meniscus and missed the remainder of the season, including playoffs.[18]

During the 2018–19 Leeds United F.C. season, Alioski played 47 games in all competitions, scoring 7 goals, after Leeds finished the regular season in third place after dropping out of the automatic promotion places with 3 games left after a defeat to 10 man Wigan Athletic on 19 April,[19] Leeds qualified for the playoffs versus sixth-placed Derby County, with Alioski's season already ended by injury, Leeds won the 1st leg of the playoffs in a 1–0 win at Pride Park, to bring into a 1–0 aggregate lead into the home leg at Elland Road, but Leeds lost 2–4 in the 2nd leg in an encounter with Leeds down to 10 men after the red card of Gaetano Berardi,[20] the loss saw Derby progress 4–3 on aggregate to the final against Aston Villa.[21]

2019–20 season
On 24 August, Alioski scored his first goal of the 2019/20 season in a 3-0 win over Stoke City,[22]