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: Mon Sep 28, 2026 10:48 pm
It helps for them that they don't have to fight with another nation for those talents like Albania does with Kosovo.
Not true at all. It's even worse for them because they have to fight multiple countries. They have to compete with Serbia and Croatia for their talents. Plus the western countries they grew up at. The Croat and Serb NTs are filled with players who were even born in Bosnia (Petar Sucic for example). Yes their muslims are more loyal to them but that's only 50% of the country so they need Herzegovina and Republika Srpska people to represent them too.
It's true Albania has lost the Kosovar diaspora but I don't think that's a big deal. The biggest problem Albania has right now is that its own diaspora is choosing to play for their western countries and not producing anything domestically.
Raketa wrote: Tue Sep 29, 2026 3:23 pm
You know the biggest misconception..
When fans say come play for “atdhe”, you will be treated like a king!
Yeah come get the treatment Amir Rrahmani, Arber Zeneli and many others got!
Come fill the federation pockets as both their salaries and egos go thru the roof!
The diaspora countries is where you’re actually treated like a King!
You can parlay even 1 or 2 caps with the NT into a wildly successful post NT career as well!
What diaspora country treats them like kings? Even Granit Xhaka who's a borderline world class player and has given so much to Switzerland is mistreated. They are trying to bury him because he was smart enough not to take the covid vaccine.
When Granit is treated like this you can imagine the rest who are nowhere near his level. Mesut Ozil said it best:
"I am German when we win, but I am an immigrant when we lose."