Kuqo started his career in Tirana playing for
KB Tirana during the 1994-95 season in the Albanian Basketball League at the age of 14. He was one of the youngest professional players of the league at the time. At the age of 15, Kuqo moved away from Albania to Istanbul, Turkey where he signed a long term deal with
Fenerbahçe. After having spent 4 years with the team from Istanbul, Ermal moved to the United States to continue his studies and play in college. He played
college basketball at
Fort Scott Community College in
Fort Scott, Kansas and
Seminole State College in
Seminole, Oklahoma, United States for a then young
Chris Beard (basketball) who is now one of the most respected
NCAA college coaches in the United States. As he was immediately eligible to play in the
NCAA Ermal signed a National Letter of Intent to play at the
University of Tulsa after his successful season at
Fort Scott, Kansas to play for the legendary coach
Bill Self. But Bill Self left the
University of Tulsa a couple of weeks after Ermal had signed his NLI and the University hired coach
Buzz Peterson. Ermal did not see himself fit in coach Peterson's system and immediately asked to be released from his commitment, a wish that the school did not grant. This forced Kuqo to go back to
NJCAA and he transferred to
Seminole State College and reunite with
Chris Beard (basketball). Both coaches have repeatedly spoken highly of Kuqo throughout the years After his sophomore season at Seminole State College, Kuqo signed a Letter of Intent with
Texas Tech University in the
NCAA to play for the legendary
Bobby Knight, but because of his previous European pro career, he got ruled ineligible. After that he decided to come back to Europe and continue his career with the famous Dalmatian team
KK Split (ex-Jugoplastika). After a frustrating season with the
Žuti he finally had his breakout season with the Slovenian club
KK Pivovarna Laško, averaging almost 13 ppg and 7 rpg in the
Adriatic League. In the summer of 2003 Ermal signed a two-year contract with the Turkish powerhouse Efes Pilsen, coached by
Oktay Mahmuti, where he had an immediate impact both in the
EuroLeague as well as in the
Basketball Super League (;
BSL), establishing himself as one of the premier players of the team, winning back to back championships in 2004 and 2005. At the end of 2007-08 season Kuqo signed a two-year deal with
Pamesa Valencia. He had a very up and down and inconsistent season, especially after
Neven Spahija took over from
Fotios Katsikaris in mid November. Most of the time coach Spahija preferred
Kosta Perović and
Matt Nielsen playing together and was considering Kuqo to be a surplus to requirements. In late January he suffered a calf injury that put a stop to his playing time for at least a month, and that took Ermal out of the rotation. Even though he started the pre-season preparation with Valencia the next year, Kuqo and the team decided to part ways in early September and Kuqo after that signed a contract to come back to Efes Pilsen. After two frustrating seasons, his old coach
Oktay Mahmuti offered Kuqo a contract to play for
Galatasaray Spor Kulubu, offer which Ermal immediately accepted. He had a chance to show his best self playing for Galatasaray in 2010–11 season where together with
Preston Shumpert they led the team in scoring at 11 ppg and took their team to their first playoffs final since 1990 where they lost to a powerful
Fenerbahçe team 4-2. At the end of that season Ermal was selected as a unanimous All Turkish League selection and Turkish League Center of the year by the prestigious basketball website Eurobasket.com. In June 2011, Ermal agreed to a two-year contract to play again for his former team
Efes Pilsen. On July 12, 2013 Ermal signed a contract to play for
Dimitrios Itoudis at Banvit BK, now
Teksüt Bandırma. He was the team's co-captain and stayed with the team for one year. During the season Banvit won the regular season and was the number 1 seed for the playoffs, but later lost to the eventual champions, Galatasaray in the semifinals. In the summer of 2014, Kuqo signed with
Darüşşafaka & Doğuş for the 2014–15 season, once again reuniting with his former coach
Oktay Mahmuti and serving as the team's captain. In June 2015, he signed with
Türk Telekom for the 2015–16 season. On August 27, 2016 he announced his retirement from basketball via his
Twitter account. ==National team career==