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How come Kosovo for a country of 1.8M have so many good players

6 of the Switz team @ Euro 2016 were Kosovon & Albania had around 7 as well 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3359484/Euro-2016-s-confusing-draw-Switzerland-vs-Albania-brothers-face-players-taking-country-birth.html

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/sep/05/kosovo-fifa-clearance-finland-world-cup-qualifier

Lot of them are blocked now for playing for Kosovo because they plaeyd in the Euro's after Kosovo got recognised 

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Great result for them, and certainly have progressed through friendlies and knocked up some impressive scalps.

Always wonder what it'll be like through time if the 'Albanian' identity will dilute and a Kosovan one will come more to the front. If I recall the Kosovan FA are trying to encourage - and maybe UEFA/FIFA- the fans not to wave the red and black of Albania, but the blue and yellow of Kosovo. Barney, can maybe give more information.

For many Albanians and Kosovars, it's probably like the "good Scot, great Brits" in Scotland - Scotland the wee team and only for fitba, rugby : but British most importantly. Regional and national identities. 

There has to be a few concerns that Kosovo will end up an Albania B team, and it'll be very interesting through time if a genuine superstar comes out of Pristina (or more probable, Switzerland) and if he opts for Albania or Kosovo.

Fair dues to them though, a cracking point, and a group with no great teams ; but a lot of good ones - they may well cause a few surprise results.

 

Edited by weekevie04
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In due course Kosovo will become the Albanian A team.

There's a lot of ethnic Albanians who view Kosovo as the Motherland. 

I think Shkodran Mustafi was either born in Kosovo or his parents were IIRC. Adnand Janusaj is/was also eligible for them although being born in Belgium.

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23 hours ago, euan2020 said:

How come Kosovo for a country of 1.8M have so many good players

About a third of their population have emigrated so they've a bit more that 1.8m to pick from.

Plus 70% of Kosovans are under 35 compared to about 40% of Scots, so I'm guessing from that they have a disproportionately large number of footballers compared to other countries...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emigration_from_Kosovo

 

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Interesting how many who opposed our independence nevertheless supported Kosovo's along with independence for all ex Soviet states....usual rank hypocrisy we have come to expect.

..btw .famous Kosovan...Rita Ora....

 

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Was reading yesterday that FIFA have finally (after months of uncertainty) mapped out how players can switch from the country they are playing for just now to Kosovo, and looks like a lot of players have missed the boat (though most of the big name players have hinted/said they had no interest in switching) as FIFA have said that any players that have played a competitive match for their country after Kosovo got accepted into FIFA are unable to switch now as they are tied down to that country (so looks like they have gone from having a potential dream team of top Swiss and Albanian players, to having to scrape around Switzerland, Scandinavia and Albania for youth players who have not been tied down yet).

So this has basically scrapped their plans of attracting players they hoped to get, as most of them played in Euro 2016, but apparently Adnan Januzaj is still one of the few eligible top players they can still attract. 

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17 hours ago, weekevie04 said:

Another interesting aspect of this will be if we ever see a Kosovan-Serb represent them? Probably not for the foreseeable future, but I believe Milos Krasic is from Pristina - although he may well have retired? 

VERY unlikely, as they do not consider themselves "Kosovan-Serbs", just Serbs (ie, you would not call yourself a "Renfrewshire-Scot" when describing yourself..... as the Serbs consider Kosovo their land and its the site of one of their bloodiest battles when they had a fight to the death with the Ottoman Turks.... basically they consider it like their Bannockburn, but got beat)

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On 06/09/2016 at 11:24 PM, buckielugger said:

Interesting how many who opposed our independence nevertheless supported Kosovo's along with independence for all ex Soviet states....usual rank hypocrisy we have come to expect.

..btw .famous Kosovan...Rita Ora....

 

False comparison.

Kosovans were perfectly content being part of Yugoslavia, its only when Serbia attempted to usurp other parts of Yugoslavia as part of their own greater Serbian empire that they fought for independence.

Same as if England decided at any point to try and absorb Scotland in to itself we'd all be backing the scottish equivalent of the KLA.

Edited by mcnish
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10 hours ago, mcnish said:

False comparison.

Kosovans were perfectly content being part of Yugoslavia, its only when Serbia attempted to usurp other parts of Yugoslavia as part of their own greater Serbian empire that they fought for independence.

Same as if England decided at any point to try and absorb Scotland in to itself we'd all be backing the scottish equivalent of the KLA.

Not strictly true. In the 1950's Tito had aspirations to rule the whole Balkans, not just Yugoslavia, and had his eye on Albania, Bulgaria and Greece (he was actually all set to take control of Bulgaria and integrate it into a large Yugoslavia.... but then Stalin stepped in as he felt Tito was getting to big for his boots)..... as a result Yugoslavia was shunned by the Soviet Union and their sphere of influence, so Yugoslavia prospered while other nations just plodded along..... as a result Tito turned his eye of Albania, but rather than just take it, he opened the door to Albanians to come and live in Yugoslavia with the promise of jobs and homes in hope that it would cause a revolution in Albania at the time (he even had Albanian schools set up and Kosovo was given unofficial "republic" status, but still part of Socialist Republic of Serbia.... pretty much the same as Finland in the 1800's when it was part of Russia, but allowed to look after itself).

It all went t*t's up when Yugoslavia, as the Albanian population had went through the roof.

6 hours ago, DoonTheSlope said:

What's the connection with Kosovo and Switzerland? Albania I can understand with it being close geographically and all the stuff that goes with the former Yugoslav country's 

Refugee's fleeing Serbia and Bosnia in the 90's because of the war.

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