Albania's not producing decent footballers anymore?!

With memories of the golden years (80's) of the albanian football still fresh on her mind, Albania is now attempting to recreate its strong football legacy. As young players start making their names abroad, the future is looking bright for Albanian football!

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RedFootballs
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It's more bad managers and a worrying lack of good coaches. Could fall down to scouting too tbh.
vata10
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Plako wrote:
vata10 wrote:Albania's football infrastructure is better than it has ever been. The level of the Superliga is higher than ever in the last 25 years
That's not necessarily true. Two of the best and biggest club grounds and academies in Albania, Dinamo and Partizani, were destroyed by the government. Dinamo (15 times champion) will never recover and Partizani is slowly coming out of the abyss under a new ownership but it will take time.

Not sure how Vllaznia and Flamurtari are faring now but they will not replicate the production of talent they achieved in the 1980's. Massive emigration does not help either as these large cities have lost he majority of their population.

Shkodra historically has been the most football mad city in Albania and they have done very poorly in the last 25 years so football has lost its luster/appeal. Now you have the emergence of cities like Korca and Kukesi that do not have much of a football history and they are relying on mercenaries not their academies for players as their owners' intention is to make money not develop footballers. I don't think Kukesi ever payed in the first division until 2010. Skenderbeu is similar in that they were playing second division until 2009 but they did play several seasons in the first division prior to 2009.




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Well I stand corrected on not mentioning Dinamo, but I thought it melted in kf Tirana, no? And it's good Partizani came back strong.

Imo, both Partizani and Tirana should be able to bring lots of talented footballers up, with the population the capital and its region has, so should Vllaznia in the north and Flamurtari in the south.

The weird thing here is that Vllaznia isn't developing players of Vajushi's and Salihi's level anymore, forget the 80s.

While the level of the superliga is better there aren't emerging local talented footballers in it.
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Plako
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vata10 wrote: Well I stand corrected on not mentioning Dinamo, but I thought it melted in kf Tirana, no? And it's good Partizani came back strong.

Imo, both Partizani and Tirana should be able to bring lots of talented footballers up, with the population the capital and its region has, so should Vllaznia in the north and Flamurtari in the south.

The weird thing here is that Vllaznia isn't developing players of Vajushi's and Salihi's level anymore, forget the 80s.

While the level of the superliga is better there aren't emerging local talented footballers in it.
Superliga was dominated by the 3 Tirana clubs during communism with Partizani and Dinamo especially dominant in the immediate years post-WWII. Partizani was affiliated with the Ministry of Defense and Dinamo with Ministry of Interior and the rivalry was pretty fierce. Dinamo, while a great club, suffered from its affiliation with the Ministry of Interior and the secret service so while they had a dedicated following they were not able grow their fanbase. I literally know of only 3-4 people from my time in Tirana that supported Dinamo, while scores that supported Tirana or Partizani.

Dinamo is sad to say but it is doomed as a club and may never come back. I can see Kamza (a village that has been incorporated into the city now) become the third biggest team in Tirana before Dinamo makes a comeback. Partizani was on the same path to destruction as Dinamo but it was saved by its loyal following I'd say.

After the communists were ousted, the successive governments led by Berisha set on a path to dismantle everything that the communists had built and unfortunately Partizania and Dinamo suffered immensely.

While there has always been favoritism in Albanian football, I don't think I have seen favoritism of the magnitude you see now with Skenderbeu and the competition suffers. People have been turned off from local football with the blatant match fixing so naturally the football will suffer. I may be biased but the results speak for themselves.



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Simboli i Diellit
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Vllaznia passed from having two teams at youth level for each U17 and U19 at having only one . Still quite successfull. They have created a Vllaznia 2 playing in third league also. But how can you find talents and produce very good pro footballers from a pool of max 40 players aged from 15 to 19 years old?

The example i'll show now will sound like i'm acting high-and-mighty ...

For a town like Lezhe with 1/4 th of that of Shkodra we do have 3 teams at U17 , 3 teams at U19 . Porto, Brians and Beselidhja.

U19 championships in Albania , superlige and kat e pare:
http://www.panorama.com.al/sport/renditje-u-19/

U17 championships in superlige and kategori e pare:
http://www.panorama.com.al/sport/renditje-u-17/

Some might say that quantity doesn't make quality and we can argue on that but still having more academies and more clubs gives the oportunity to those kids of having play time and develop.
Vllaznia died when Walter Fusha retired . They are in costant crisis , you can only survive in superliga if you're run by the mayor. No finances , no backups for the youth. Walter Fusha got poor kids registered in youth clubs for free .

Youth levels need good trained coaches with some brain and some teaching abilities . Tirana having 1/3 of the population will produce most of the players althrough Partizani's best player . Jurgen Bardhi was raised up in Iliria Fushekruje youth clubs ;) If Shkodra had the facilities they have in Tirane and a real president that invests money they would rape the league and would produce many decent nt players. They have a good stadium that they can't use :D
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Not sure how these new academies are run but I believe Shkodra had a football school called Mjeshtria Sportive which was run a bit like La Masia. Basically students go there to play football (twice a day training sessions 6 days a week) but also take other subjects. Those are the types of school that produce the real talents. I don't think the school exists anymore but I might be wrong.

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Simboli i Diellit
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Only two schools of "Mjeshteri sportive" have survived in all Albania. One is in Durres and the other one in Tirane. They are called : " Shkolla e Mesme Kombëtare e Futbollit "Loro Borici“, Tiranë dhe Shkolla e Mesme Kombëtare Sportive “Benardina Qerraxhia”, Durrës. Last players they have produced are Ansi Agolli and Emiliano Vila :D
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Plako
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Simboli i Diellit wrote:Last players they have produced are Ansi Agolli and Emiliano Vila :D
Enough said then :)


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Salihi makes 150k euros/year in Superliga. That's so fucking insane, I don't even know where to start.

When the AVERAGE wage is like 300/400 bucks (so 50% of the country if not more makes less than this) a month, why aren't the academies flooded with people
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vata10
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Plako wrote:
Superliga was dominated by the 3 Tirana clubs during communism with Partizani and Dinamo especially dominant in the immediate years post-WWII. Partizani was affiliated with the Ministry of Defense and Dinamo with Ministry of Interior and the rivalry was pretty fierce. Dinamo, while a great club, suffered from its affiliation with the Ministry of Interior and the secret service so while they had a dedicated following they were not able grow their fanbase. I literally know of only 3-4 people from my time in Tirana that supported Dinamo, while scores that supported Tirana or Partizani.

Dinamo is sad to say but it is doomed as a club and may never come back. I can see Kamza (a village that has been incorporated into the city now) become the third biggest team in Tirana before Dinamo makes a comeback. Partizani was on the same path to destruction as Dinamo but it was saved by its loyal following I'd say.

After the communists were ousted, the successive governments led by Berisha set on a path to dismantle everything that the communists had built and unfortunately Partizania and Dinamo suffered immensely.

While there has always been favoritism in Albanian football, I don't think I have seen favoritism of the magnitude you see now with Skenderbeu and the competition suffers. People have been turned off from local football with the blatant match fixing so naturally the football will suffer. I may be biased but the results speak for themselves.



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Lol, I remember Dinamo in superliga, they used to land all these foreigners probably with the method 'buy one take three :rrokullisem:

With Dinamo and Partizani dropping to the lower divisions, you'd think Tirana would've benefited the most, but Skenderbeu popped up and tbh, I liked their way of doing things until they got punished for match-fixing.

There's no denying though that the level of the league seems better and more competitive. The infrastructure has improved too, atleast in superliga and with the NT making it first tournament all these are good indicators that should be followed with better talents being developed. Albania might very well be in a talent drought, I think even the big countries go through it.
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Aurora Bulkualis wrote:Salihi makes 150k euros/year in Superliga. That's so fucking insane, I don't even know where to start.

When the AVERAGE wage is like 300/400 bucks (so 50% of the country if not more makes less than this) a month, why aren't the academies flooded with people
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