Liban Abdi

Liban Abdi Ali (Arabic لبان عبدي; born October 5, 1988 in Burao ) is a Somali footballer with a Norwegian passport, who plays for Turkish first division club Çaykur Rizespor since summer 2012.

Career

Liban Abdi was born in Somalia, but emigrated with his family pretty early to Oslo, Norway from. There played for the youth teams Vålerenga and Skeid before he immigrated and came into the youth academy of Sheffield United in 2007 at the age of 14 years with his family to England. Abdi was the first Somali football player who signed a professional contract with Sheffield United, which was initially designed for six months. After being awarded to the lower division clubs Newport Pagnell Town and Buckingham Town, he signed in 2008 a new two -year contract with the Blades. He was then loaned for two seasons at the Hungarian club Ferencvaros Budapest. In Budapest, he gained playing experience in both the professional team, as well as the amateurs.

As Abdi in July 2010 returned to Sheffield, his contract was canceled, so he hired back at Ferencvaros. Already in his second league game, he scored as a substitute in the 2-1 win against Kecskeméti TE his first goal of the season. In the following two seasons, he met for the first team in 29 games twice in the amateurs Abdi scored in 14 games seven goals. In summer 2012, he joined the Portuguese first division club SC Olhanense. His league debut, he played on August 17, 2012 in a 2-1 home win over GD Estoril Praia, he got a total of 83 minutes to use. In the games against FC Porto, SC Braga, Nacional Funchal, SC Beira -Mar, he met for the first nine days of game four times.

Abdi has the opportunity to play either for the Somali national football team or the Norwegian national football team. So far, he joined the youth team in no appearance, but would like to play in the event of a case for Norway. But coach Egil Olsen have never considered him an international match and said in announcing the squad for the World Cup qualifier against Cyprus in October 2012, the Abdi was not good enough for the national team.

In July 2013 Abdi completed a trial with Bundesliga Neuaufsteiger Eintracht Braunschweig. Currently is still deciding whether to under broad him a contract offer.

For the second half of the season 2013/14 Abdi joined in the Turkish Süper Lig on Çaykur Rizespor.