Rey Manaj

Early career

Manaj was born in Lushnjë, Albania in 1997, and moved to Italy with his parents when he was 3 years old, where he began his football youth career at the age of 11 with Piacenza. Principally he had two trials at two major academies at Italy Milan and Atalanta but didn't managed to pass at either one. When he was 11 years old in 2008 he managed to enter at Piacenza academies where he achieved a few trophies and individual ratings. In 2012 this academy managed by Leonardo Garilli family was declared bankrupt in 2012 and Manaj moved to U.S. Cremonese managed by Gigi Simoni. In 2013, Cremonese loaned him to Sampdoria youths which was managed at the time by Pedone. During a training game against the first team, as soon as Manaj saw that the goalkeeper Júnior da Costa went wide, he tried to catch him by surprise with a shot from the middle of the field. The shot finished wide, but close to the goal. Pedone told Manaj "If you do this the next time I will replace you!" A few weeks later, when Genovese team faced Siena primavera, Manaj made the same effort, but this time the ball ended straight into the net. Recalling what happened in training match against the first team Sampdoria, Manaj addressed the technician Pedone saying: "Coach, so is this good?" He managed to play some games with the "Primavera" (U-19) of coach Enrico Chiesa. Sampdoria could have purchased Manaj definitively as it was part of the loan deal with right clauses for purchase of €300,000 fee…

Youth

Under-19

Manaj received his first international call-up in the Albania under-19 team by the coach Altin Lala to participate in the qualifiers of 2015 UEFA European Under-19 Championship. He made his debut in the opening match against Denmark on 12 November 2014, playing as a starter in a 1–0 loss where he substituted off in the 60th minute for Esad Morina. In the next match against Portugal he remained on the bench for the entire game but however he managed to play as a starter in the closing match against Wales U19 on 17 November 2014 and substituted off for Fabian Lokaj in the 62nd minute where the match finished in the 2–1 loss. Albania U19 were eliminated from competition losing all 3 matches with total of goals collected 2–7, where all two goals were scored by Esad Morina of FC Schalke 04 youth.

Under-21

Manaj was called up for the first time to the under-21 squad by the coach Skënder Gega for the opening 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying match against Liechtenstein on 28 March 2015. He made his debut for the Albania under-21 side against Liechtenstein U21 coming on as a substitute at half-time in place of Jurgen Vatnikaj and managed also to score in his debut, in the 52nd minute of the match to sign the Albania U21s' 0–2 away victory. Manaj was called up by a new appointed coach, Redi Jupi, for the next qualifying matches against Israel and Portugal on 3 and 8 September 2015. He played as a starter on 3 September…

Club

As of match played 11 May 2025

International

As of match played 11 October 2025

Albania score listed first, score column indicates score after each Manaj's goal.