Besart Ibraimi

Kičevo produced a striker who spent much of his twenties chasing a breakthrough abroad. Besart Ibraimi came through Vllaznimi and Napredok before Renova gave him his first real platform, and a short stint at Schalke 04 in 2010 briefly put him on a bigger stage. He collected a German runners-up medal there, though appearances were limited, and the following years took him further afield still, to Sevastopol and Tavriya in Ukraine, then Metalurh Zaporizhzhia on loan and a spell in Cyprus with Enosis Paralimni and Ermis.

It was at Shkëndija Tetovo, where he arrived in 2015, that Ibraimi turned into one of the most productive forwards Macedonian football has seen. Across six years there he scored more than a hundred goals in well over 160 appearances, topped the league's scoring charts in three separate seasons, and helped the club to back-to-back championships in 2017/18 and 2018/19, having already collected two runners-up medals along the way. By 2021 he had gone past Blaže Ilijoski's record to become the competition's all-time leading scorer.

A move to Xanthi in Greece followed, then two seasons at Struga where he again finished among the league's top scorers before returning to Shkëndija as a free agent in 2024, wearing the number 7 shirt. He was named Macedonia's best player in 2009 and won a bronze medal with Renova the same season. For the national team he made his debut against Scotland in September 2009 and has earned around fifteen caps, without finding the net at that level.