Albanian National Team [General topic]

[Princ]

Albania is going to have a world class defence. Nothing naive about it.

You do not see anything naive about a 17 year old born and raised in a different country, who is being advised to make a permanent decision (getting captied by a parasite nation) that will bear impact on the rest of his career?

[Dallku]

Albania is going to have a world class defence. Nothing naive about it.

You do not see anything naive about a 17 year old born and raised in a different country, who is being advised to make a permanent decision (getting captied by a parasite nation) that will bear impact on the rest of his career?

Now there are more loopholes to switch than there used to be. I believe you can still switch if you're under 21 even if you're capped and also you must have a certain number of caps.

Even Kumbulla could switch to Italy. (next month when they approve it)

This is the quickest source I found. I'm sure there are more https://soccer.nbcsports.com/2020/08/19 ... onal-team/


"The new wording would let players switch eligibility if they played a maximum of three times for the first national team — including tournament qualifying games — before they turned 21, and at least three years earlier.

The new rule will take effect next month if 211 national federations approve it at the Sept. 18 congress that FIFA is hosting online from Zurich."

[Dallku]

So about Cepele.. this sums up how powerful Raiola if he's really his agent.

This is a publicity callup. He gets called up to a senior team when he's 17 and he could still switch if he's good enough for Italy.

[Simboli i Diellit]

Now there are more loopholes to switch than there used to be. I believe you can still switch if you're under 21 even if you're capped and also you must have a certain number of caps.

Even Kumbulla could switch to Italy. (next month when they approve it)

This is the quickest source I found. I'm sure there are more https://soccer.nbcsports.com/2020/08/19 ... onal-team/


"The new wording would let players switch eligibility if they played a maximum of three times for the first national team — including tournament qualifying games — before they turned 21, and at least three years earlier.

The new rule will take effect next month if 211 national federations approve it at the Sept. 18 congress that FIFA is hosting online from Zurich."

Obviously FIFA must manage the China case of becoming Brazil B otherwise international football as we know it would be dead.

[Aurora Bulkualis]

Hopefully they don't approve that.

[Aurora Bulkualis]

If none of these spaghettis flake, and Cepele is as good as they hope... Imagine that defence. Strakosha, Kumbulla, Cepele, Djimsiti, Hysaj. World class defence right there. We'd run over random teams like Norway, Hungary, Austria that were around our level.

[Dallku]

They will eventually make it like FIBA where anyone can switch at any age. It's bad for Albania but it's good for countries like Qatar, China, etc who FIFA wants to make stronger. It all makes sense.

[artan]

If none of these spaghettis flake, and Cepele is as good as they hope... Imagine that defence. Strakosha, Kumbulla, Cepele, Djimsiti, Hysaj. World class defence right there. We'd run over random teams like Norway, Hungary, Austria that were around our level.

Spoiler alert, we won't. A team like Austria still has 2x the talent we have. Norway has Haaland and Odegaard who are worth more than our entire team combined most likely.

[Princ]

Austria has one of the best midfields in the world.. Laimer is one of the most underrated players of the Bundesliga and we all know how good Sabitzer is. The older Baumgartlinger is still kicking it too and they’ve got some other solid young guys who can step in as well. They’re a world class team and would be heavily favoured over Albania in my opinion

[Aurora Bulkualis]

Who is gonna score against that defence... Alaba? You guys are underestimating just how close to a world class defence we are.

We can approach what Serbia was in 2010 with Vidic, Ivanovic and Kolarov, but they never had a keeper the caliber of Strakosha.