Ervin Bulku

Ervin Bulku (, born 3 March 1981) is an Albanian former professional footballer and current caretaker manager of the Albania national team.

He was the second son of the family after Sokol Bulku also a former KF Tirana's footballer with whom he played there between 1998–2004 and the later is current manager of KF Tirana under 19s Squad.

Bulku started his career as a youngster in the KF Tirana youth teams.

At the age of 18 he was put into the first team by coach Sulejman Mema and was given a chance to compete with the likes of Sokol Prenga and Ardian Mema for a spot there.

In his first season with the club in professional football he managed to feature in 13 games during the season.

During the 1999–2000 season with Tirana, Bulku found it easier to make an impact in the first team with the club's new manager Shkëlqim Muça having faith in the promising youngster after fellow midfielders Eldorado Merkoçi, Devis Mukaj, Klodian Duro and Sokol Prenga all leaving the club.

These departures meant that Bulku would feature more frequently in the first team and he did so making an impressive 21 appearances in his second season in which he won his first trophy of his career, the Albanian Superliga title.

After a very good season he tried to repeat it for the 2000–2001 season, but this did not happen as both injury and some mediocre displays meant that Bulku spent most of the season on the side lines.

He did however manage to win the Albanian Supercup at the start of the season but his side Tirana narrowly lost the race for the title to Vllaznia Shkodër.

During the next few seasons of his career Bulku managed to make a name for himself in the squad and in the league, he was receiving a lot of attention from the media and the fans because he was destined for a successful career.

He began to feature in almost every game when fit and became a key member in the squad and a key figure in all the trophy winning sides that the club produced over the next few years.

In the 2001–02 season he was a regular member of the team in the 2001–02 Albanian Cup scoring two goals throughout the route to the final where Tirana won the trophy beating Dinamo Tirana 1–0.

Bulku was also a key player in Tirana's European games and featured against teams such as Dinamo Tbilisi, Ferencváros, CSKA Sofia and Kayserispor.

He also played in 6 Albanian Supercup finals during his time with Tirana, winning 5 of them, including the famous 6–0 win over city rivals Dinamo Tirana in which Bulku managed to score in.

In his final season with Tirana, Bulku was once again a key member in the team that won the league, the cup and the supercup.

He played 30 games and scored one goal in the league, played in the 2–0 supercup win over KS Elbasani and he also played in 1–0 win over Vllaznia in the final of the Albanian Cup.

He was a utility player and played in many positions such as central midfielder, defensive midfielder, right midfielder and even right back for the Albania national team between 2002 and 2015 and in the club level with Tirana where he started and ended his career after playing for various club outside such as Kryvbas in Ukraine, Hajduk Split in Croatia, AZAL Baku in Azerbaijan and Sepahan in Iran.

Bulku was born in Tirana, Albania.

In the 2007 Summer transfer window, Bulku signed with Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih in the Ukrainian Premier League.

He played among fellow Albanian internationals Dorian Bylykbashi, Isli Hidi and also Ansi Agolli who eventually joined the club two years later.

He made his debut on 28 July 2007 in the matchday 3 against Karpaty Lviv playing the full 90-minutes in a 3–0 loss.

During the 2007–08 route he was often as a starter under coach Oleh Taran forming partnerships in the midfield with fellow Albanian Dorian Bylykbashi, Ruslan Kostyshyn and Anatoliy Oprya.

In his second season 2008–09 under same coach Taran, Bulku was more often in the starting line up.

He started the season on 19 July 2008, playing full 90-minutes against Metalurh Zaporizhya and provided the assist for the 1–0 winning goal.

Bulku finished the 2008–09 season with a total of 25 appearances, where he was 21 times as a starter as Kryvbas ended up a bit better than last season collecting 32 points to secure the 12th place.

Bulku scored his first goal for Kryvbas on 22 March 2009 in the matchday 21 against Kharkiv, giving his team the 0–1 victory.

This was followed by another one in the next game week as Bulku scored the opening goal in the 7th minute against Zorya Luhansk on 4 April 2009 as the match eventually finished in the 2–1 victory.

Bulku was part of the team for the first half of the 2009–10 season.

He retained his starting place playing 13 out 14 games as a starter but Kryvbas suffered a worst progress taking only two wins and 1 draw and conceding 14 losses.

Following the end of the first-half campaign, he interrupted his contract with Kryvbas.

After 6 months as a free agent, in August 2010 he signed for Croatian side Hajduk Split in the Prva HNL.

He made his debut with the team on 16 September 2010 in a match valid for 2010–11 UEFA Europa League group stage against AEK Athens, where Bulku played in the starting line up and substituted off after 81 minutes for Dinko Trebotić, as the match finished in the 3–1 loss.

He made it his league debut on 19 September 2010 against Rijeka, where the match finished in the 0–1 away victory and Bulku played 83 minutes, as he got substituted off for Mirko Oremuš in the 83rd minute.

He played second match in the UEFA Europa League 2010–11 group stage on 30 September 2010, in the 1–0 victory over Anderlecht.

Bulku played the full 90 minutes on 4 November 2010 in the 2–3 home defeat against Zenit St. Petersburg in the UEFA Europa League 2010–11 group stage.

At the club he was important part of the starting line up in the league matches, as he played in total of 15 matches where 12 as a starter, where he got substituted off 6 times, and only 3 as a substitute.

In the UEFA Europa League he made in total 4 appearances.

In the end of the 2010–11 season, Hajduk finished as runners-up.

At the end of June 2011 Bulku signed with AZAL of the Azerbaijan Premier League.

He made 14 league appearances in the starting line up and 5 as a substitute to help his side to collect 30 points enough to end in the 13th place to avoid the relegation.