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!
SugarRey wrote: Tue Sep 22, 2026 12:10 am
When a player like that breaks out so young he's never going to accept. It is what it is.
True. When they break out it's too late. The goal should be to get them before they break out. Adri was in an Albanian camp months before he broke out and became a starter at Red Bulls NY so there was an opportunity there, no matter how small.
Problem with fshf is that they treat every talent equally. If they are 16 they force them to play for u17 even if their talent is greater than that. Other countries promote players like that, some even to the senior team.
We're in a bad spot with these diaspora players. If a team like Germany never calls them up even for a cap, they're not good enough to play for a Pot 2 team that wants to qualify for WC and Euros. But if they're good enough for a few caps, they would rather burn their international career just for those few caps, which is idiotic.
If they were full starters like Shaqiri or Xhaka, that makes more sense to me, than players like Gruda who will probably not even see 10 starts in their career with Germany. Guys like Broja and Bajrami are probably the best we can do, and these people have clear mental problems.
Gruda may just be good enough for this Germany side which is probably one of their poorer sides in the past 20-30 years. I don't think it's that foolish to think he can have a place for them.
Mehmeti was way too young to ever consider Albania over USA. Albania could have capped him earlier but Albania probably couldn't distinguish him over the random Italian and German youth diaspora then have in their ranks. It's only when he breaks out when they realize he's actual a legit talent.
And truthfully Albania right now doesn't have the talent to attract these guys anyways. Right now the talent in our team is weak and alot of disappointing players who never improved.
