FC Drita
Also written as Drita, KF Drita.
The club
Klubi Futbollistik Drita, in English Football Club Drita, were founded in 1947 in Gjilan, in eastern Kosovo. Drita means light in Albanian. The club's home is the Gjilan City Stadium; the club article gives its capacity as 9,000 in the infobox and 10,000 in the body text, and the two figures were not reconciled from the sources read here. The ground has been under renovation since 2017 and does not meet UEFA requirements, so Drita play their home European ties at the Fadil Vokrri Stadium in Pristina. They play in blue and are nicknamed Intelektualët, the Intellectuals.
The club's early history is political. Drita were founded by Gjilan citizens as an exclusively Albanian club in a city that already had the multi-ethnic Crvena zvezda Gnjilane, and the regime abolished them in 1952. They continued in the Kosovo Province League and were declared champions of it in 1962-63. From 1990 until the end of the Kosovo War the club split in two.
Recent seasons
Drita are the reigning double champions of Kosovo. They won the Superleague in 2019-20 under Ardian Nuhiu, finished runners-up in 2020-21 two points behind Prishtina and again in 2021-22, and also lost the 2021-22 Kosovar Cup final to Llapi. Zekirija Ramadani took over on 30 November 2023 and won the title on 4 May 2025. Drita then won the 2025-26 Superleague as well, finishing on 66 points from 36 matches with 20 wins, 6 draws and 10 defeats, 50 goals scored and 35 conceded, ahead of Malisheva and Ballkani.
The 2026-27 Kosovo Superleague had not begun as of 12 August 2026 and no results were recorded.
Honours and landmarks
Five Kosovo Superleague titles: 2002-03, 2017-18, 2019-20, 2024-25 and 2025-26. One Kosovar Cup, 2000-01. Two Kosovar Supercups, 2017-18 and 2025-26. One Kosovo Province League, 1962-63.
Drita went the whole 2017-18 season without a league defeat, a run of 29 unbeaten league matches and 31 in all competitions, extending to 30 unbeaten Superleague games across two seasons. Artan Latifi holds the appearance record with 241 matches and Xhevdet Shabani the scoring record with 63 goals.
Notable scorelines
Drita's biggest European win is 4-1 away at Lincoln Red Imps on 29 June 2018. Their biggest European defeat is 0-3 at home to Malmö on 10 July 2018; a second 0-3 stands against them from 2020, awarded to Linfield when the tie could not be played. The club's record domestic win and defeat were not confirmed from the sources read here.
The result the club rates highest is the 1-0 win at Shelbourne in Dublin on 6 November 2025, Drita's first ever victory in the final stage of a European competition.
European record
Drita first entered Europe in the 2018-19 Champions League preliminary round. On 26 June 2018 they beat Santa Coloma 2-0 after extra time at the Victoria Stadium in Gibraltar, the first Champions League win by a Kosovar club, then beat Lincoln Red Imps 4-1, also after extra time, three days later before Malmö eliminated them.
In 2020-21 they beat Inter Club d'Escaldes in the Champions League preliminary semi-final but were not allowed to play the final against Linfield three days later; the Northern Irish club were awarded a 3-0 win after Drita players tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. In 2021-22 they beat Dečić of Montenegro and then held Feyenoord to a 0-0 draw in Pristina before losing the return 3-2, Guus Til scoring in added time. In 2022-23 they beat Inter Turku and lost to Royal Antwerp.
The 2025-26 season was the club's best. Drita became the first Kosovar club to reach the Champions League second qualifying round, beating Differdange 03 4-2 on aggregate, and then beat Differdange again in the Conference League play-off round to reach a European league phase for the first time. They took 8 points from the Conference League league phase, beating Shelbourne away on 6 November 2025 and Shkëndija, and drawing with KuPS and Omonia, and reached the knockout phase play-offs, where Celje beat them 6-4 on aggregate on 26 February 2026.
Their overall UEFA record to 18 December 2025 was 45 matches, 19 wins, 6 draws and 20 defeats, 44 goals scored and 56 conceded.
Quotes
No directly quoted material was confirmed from the sources read here. The club's own news page carried no current items when read, and the Koha Ditore report of Zekirija Ramadani's departure returned an access error.
Right now (2026/27)
The manager's position is unsettled and the sources disagree. Zekirija Ramadani, who won two league titles at the club, left on 31 July 2026 after the Champions League exit and the Conference League second-round win. The 2026-27 Kosovo Superleague article records the vacancy as 4 August 2026 and lists Visar Sermaxhaj, previously the assistant, as caretaker from 5 August. The club's own article lists Ardian Nuhiu, who managed Drita from 2019 to 2022 and won the 2019-20 title, as head coach from 2026. Which of the two is in charge on 12 August 2026 was not established from the sources read here. Rron Broja is captain.
Drita entered the 2026-27 Champions League as Kosovan champions and went out in the first qualifying round to Kauno Žalgiris, 4-3 on aggregate: 1-1 in Kaunas on 7 July 2026, Blerim Krasniqi equalising on 82 minutes, then a 3-2 home defeat in Pristina on 14 July, Igball Jashari and Arb Manaj scoring against a Vykintas Slivka double and a Benchaib penalty in the fourth minute of added time.
They transferred to the Conference League and beat Floriana in the second qualifying round, 3-2 on aggregate. Liridon Balaj scored in the fourth minute of added time for a 1-1 draw in Ta' Qali on 21 July, and Drita won the return 2-1 after extra time on 28 July through Jorgo Pëllumbi on 88 and a Kauan Alexandre own goal in the first minute of extra time.
The tie they are in right now is the Conference League third qualifying round, Champions Path, against Tre Fiori of San Marino. Drita won the first leg 4-1 at the San Marino Stadium in Serravalle on 6 August 2026 in front of 258 spectators, Raddy Ovouka scoring on 61, Blerim Krasniqi on 62 and Besnik Krasniqi on 82 and from the penalty spot in stoppage time, with Matteo Prandelli replying on 56. The second leg is at the Fadil Vokrri Stadium in Pristina on 13 August 2026, refereed by Don Robertson of Scotland. The winner goes into a Champions Path play-off tie against the winner of Inter Club d'Escaldes against Flora, on 20 and 27 August.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Drita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Football_Superleague_of_Kosovo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Football_Superleague_of_Kosovo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Champions_League_qualifying https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying_(first_and_second_round_matches) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying_(third_and_play-off_round_matches) https://www.uefa.com/uefaconferenceleague/match/2049145 https://www.uefa.com/uefaconferenceleague/match/2049175 https://dritafc.com/news/
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.