Ardian Bardhi didn’t walk into the locker room to give a speech. He walked in with a bag full of banknotes and emptied it right there, onto the floor, in front of the entire squad.
Dinamo City had lost the first leg, but came back with a resounding 4-0 win over Latvia’s Auda at the Elbasan Arena, which sent them through to the Conference League.
Bardhi celebrated in his own way: around 90.000 euros handed out by hand among players who bent down to pick up wads of cash while singing and hugging him.
And as if that weren’t enough, he has already promised another bonus: 500.000 euros if the team manages to eliminate Cyprus’s Pafos and make it into the league phase of the tournament. In Albania, football is paid for in cash, and up front.