Independent Kosovo, The end of the Albanian National Team?

February 18th, 2008 | by: Eros | Comments(7)

So we all know that yesterday, February 17, Kosovo declared independence. Now what most of you dont know, is that a lot of players from the current Albanian national team are Albanians from Kosovo, or as we call them Kosovars. Since Kosovo declared independance then all these players will go and play for their new country, and the Albanian national team will get destroyed, because these players aren’t average players, they are pretty damn good! One of them is Olympique Marseille’s captain Lorik Cana. He is being chased around by Europes biggest clubs, to name a few, Arsenal, Roma, etc. There are other players like Burnley’s Besart Berisha, who scored a fantastic goal when Albania B played against England B.

It’s not just the Albanian national team who will loose players, Switzerland may loose Valon Behrami, who currently plays for Lazio and is regarded as a future star, but the country that will be hit the hardest will be Albania.

Now I’m not saying that we are a great football nation, but we were improving greatly, thanks mainly to players like Cana, Beqaj, Dallku etc.

There are currently 6 Albanians from Kosovo in the national team, this is the list:

GK Arjan Beqaj, age 32, 30 caps, plays for Anorthosis Famagusta(Cyprus)
DF Armend Dallku, age 24, 21 caps, Vorskla Poltava(Ukraine)
DF Blerim Rrustemi, age 25, 4 caps, AC Horsens(Danmark)
DF/MF Debatik Curri, age 24, 11 caps, 1 goal, Vorskla Poltava(Ukraine)
MF Lorik Cana, age 24, 25 caps, 1 goal, Olympique Marseille(France)
FW Besart Berisha, age 22, 7 caps, 2 goals, Burnley FC(England)

Just look at the ages of these guys, besides Arjan Beqaj, everyone else is 22, 24 or 25. These guys are young, and all of them have a bright future. It would be a tragedy if this guys dont play for the Albanian national team anymore. Now dont get me wrong, I dont wanna sound like the independence of Kosova is a bad thing, its not, by far its one of the best things that could have happened, im just saying that it might also spell the end to a decent national team. Once again, only time will tell, lets see what is going to happen!

ps. Happy Independence Day Kosova!