General · EdgepediaOctober 21, 20265 min read

Egnatia

KF Egnatia (Albanian: Klubi i Futbollit Egnatia) is an Albanian professional football club based in Rrogozhinë that plays in the Kategoria Superiore, the top tier of Albanian football. The club has won three consecutive Albanian championships, in 2023–24, 2024–25, and 2025–26, and in August 2026 became the first Albanian club to reach the league stage of a UEFA club competition since Skënderbeu in the 2017–18 Europa League.¹

Key fact	Detail
Origins	First recorded match in 1934, a 7–1 friendly defeat to Besa Kavajë; formal founding of KF Rrogozhina on 15 September 1964²
Honors	Kategoria Superiore 2023–24, 2024–25, 2025–26; Albanian Cup 2022–23 and 2023–24; Albanian Super Cup 2024; Kategoria e Parë 2002–03 and 2020–21³
Home ground	Arena Egnatia, Rrogozhinë, about 6,000 seats, inaugurated April 2025 after a rebuild with more than 2 million euros of support from the Albanian Football Association⁴^•⁵
European milestone 2026	Beat Shamrock Rovers 6–4 on aggregate to reach the Europa League play-off, lost to Lillestrøm 2–1 on aggregate, and entered the Conference League league phase, drawing Midtjylland 1–1 on 15 October 2026⁶
Head coach	Nevil Dede, whose 2025–26 championship was his first league title as a head coach⁷
Squad 2026/27	27 players, average age 25.6, combined market value about €6.58 million, 14 foreign players⁸

Early history and name

Football in Rrogozhinë developed as a local pastime in the years around the First World War, and the town benefited from the early footballing tradition of neighboring Kavajë. The first recorded match took place in 1934, a friendly against Besa Kavajë that Rrogozhinë lost 7–1; five of Besa's goals were scored by Mustafa Cara, an agronomy student in Bari, Italy, who also played in the Italian Serie B for Fidelis Andria.² The club's formal founding as KF Rrogozhina is dated 15 September 1964.²

Climb through the divisions

Egnatia won the second-tier Kategoria e Parë in 2002–03 and again in 2020–21, and the third-tier Kategoria e Dytë in 2016–17.³ The corporate entity Klub Futboll Egnatia was registered as a joint-stock company on 21 August 2020, with Agim Demrozi as administrator.⁹

Championships and cups

First trophies. Egnatia won its first major trophy, the Albanian Cup, in 2022–23, and retained it in 2023–24, the season in which the club also secured its first league championship.³ In December 2024 the club won the Albanian Super Cup for the first time, defeating Kukësi at the Arena Kombëtare.¹⁰

Three consecutive titles. The 2024–25 championship was decided in the "Final 4" play-off stage, where Egnatia beat Vllaznia 4–0 in the final at the Air Albania Stadium after finishing the regular season first.¹¹ The 2025–26 title followed the same format: Egnatia defeated Dinamo City 2–0 in the final match at Elbasan Arena, with Alessandro Albanese scoring both goals, and finished the Final Four level on 37 points with AF Elbasani, taking the championship on superior head-to-head goal difference.¹ This was the first league title for head coach Nevil Dede, who had recently taken charge and guided the team through three Final Four wins against direct title rivals.⁷ Dinamo City beat Egnatia 3–1 in the December 2025 Super Cup final.¹²

Arena Egnatia

The club's home ground was rebuilt from the ground up and inaugurated in April 2025 before a league match against AF Elbasani. The Albanian Football Association contributed more than 2 million euros to the new stand, lighting, roofing and seating, perimeter LED boards, and an electronic scoreboard, and the stadium was scheduled to host three matches of the UEFA U-17 European Championship held in Albania in May and June 2025.⁴ The ground holds about 6,000 spectators.⁵ The club's president is Agim Demrozi.⁴

European campaigns

Egnatia's first continental appearances came in the 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League first qualifying round against Ararat-Armenia; in Champions League qualifying, the club suffered first-round exits in 2024–25 and 2025–26, the latter against Breiðablik of Iceland, whom Egnatia beat 1–0 at home but lost to 5–0 away in July 2025, exiting 5–1 on aggregate.¹³^•⁵^•¹⁶^•¹⁷^•¹⁸ In the 2026–27 Champions League qualifying, Egnatia eliminated Petrocub (6–1 in the second leg after a 1–1 draw) and drew both legs with NK Celje, losing the tie on penalties, before dropping into the Europa League.¹⁴

The 2026 breakthrough. On 13 August 2026 Egnatia beat Shamrock Rovers 5–1 at home, 6–4 on aggregate, to reach the Europa League play-off round and guarantee Albania a team in the league stage of a European club competition for the first time since Skënderbeu in the 2017–18 Europa League.⁶ Lillestrøm won the play-off 2–1 on aggregate after a 0–0 first leg in Rrogozhinë, sending Egnatia into the Conference League league phase, where the club drew 1–1 with Midtjylland on 15 October 2026.⁶

Squad

The 2026–27 first-team squad of 27 players has an average age of 25.6 and a combined market value of about €6.58 million, with 14 foreign players.⁸ The squad includes goalkeeper Mario Dajsinani, defenders Arbenit Xhemajli and Guillem Jaime, midfielders Fernando Medeiros, Altin Kryeziu, Ibrahim Diabate, and Karim Loukili, and forwards Alessandro Albanese, Ildi Gruda, Soumaila Bakayoko, and Jurguens Montenegro.¹⁵ In UEFA club competitions, Xhemajli leads the club's appearance record with 8 matches, and Gruda is the top Champions League goalscorer with 2 goals.¹³

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Sports, games, and recreation › Association football › Football people and teams › Teams and sporting organizations › Football clubs of continental Europe and Israel › Balkan, Greek, and Turkish clubs

Initially written Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 25, 2026

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