Albanian national soccer team

This article is about the Albanian men's national soccer team. For the women's team, see the Albanian women's national football team ; for the men's team up to the age of 21, see the Albanian national football team (U-21 men) .

Albania
Shqipëria

Nickname (s)	Kuq e zinjtë (The Red-Blacks)
Association	Federata Shqiptare e Futbollit
confederacy	UEFA
Technical sponsor	Macron
Head coach	Edoardo Reja (since 2019)
captain	Elseid Hysaj
Record scorer	Erjon Bogdani (18)
Record player	Lorik Cana (92)
Home stadium	Air Albania Stadium , Tirana
FIFA code	ALB
FIFA rank	66th (1356 points) (as of July 16, 2020)
First jersey Second jersey Third jersey
Balance sheet
326 games 82 wins 67 draws 177 losses
statistics
First international match Albania 2-3 Yugoslavia ( Tirana , Albania ; October 7, 1946 )
Biggest wins Albania 5-0 Vietnam ( Norcia , Italy ; February 12, 2003 ) Albania 6-1 Cyprus ( Tirana , Albania ; August 12, 2009 )
Biggest defeat Albania 0:12 Hungary ( Tirana , Albania ; September 24, 1950 )
Successes in tournaments
European Championship
Participation in the finals	1 ( first : 2016 )
Best results	Preliminary round 2016
(As of January 5, 2020)

The Albanian national soccer team at the international match against Austria in Vienna on March 27, 2016

The Albanian national football team ( Albanian  Kombëtarja ) is the selection team of the Federata Shqiptare e Futbollit , the Football Association of Albania . It has been internationally active since 1930 . In qualifying for the European Championship 2016 , Albania qualified for a European Championship for the first time . The team has not yet been able to qualify for a World Cup finals. In 1946, Albania celebrated its only title win at the Balkan Cup .

The team is currently 65th in the official FIFA world rankings (October 2019). In August 2015, Albania achieved its best ranking to date with 22nd place, which was due to the 2-1 victory in the European Championship qualifier against Armenia , the subsequent 1-0 win in a friendly against France and the rating of the game against Serbia that was canceled .

Tournament participation

World Championship

Qualifying for the 1966 World Cup was the first qualifying round Albania took part in. The team failed but on Switzerland, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands. The only point in the group was a 1-1 home draw with Northern Ireland.

In 1970, Albania's participation was not accepted by FIFA. Since 1974 Albania has participated in all World Cup qualifications apart from the 1978 tournament.

Qualification for the 1974 World Cup was also not more successful for Albania; the only success was a 1-0 home win over Finland. Albania only achieved a respectable success in December 1984, when they defeated future World Cup participants Belgium 2-0 in World Cup qualification. They also drew 1-1 at home with Poland.

Albania was able to assert itself in the table for the first time in qualifying for the 2006 World Cup , when they reached fifth place out of 7 teams with 13 points in 12 games. In the case of winning points against Denmark and Turkey, around 20 points would have been enough to reach relegation place 2 in the group. The Albanians scored a valuable victory at the beginning of the qualification on September 4, 2004 with a 2-1 victory over the then European champions Greece: The Albanian national team had taken the lead 2-0 after just ten minutes.

In qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in a group with Iceland , Norway , Switzerland , Slovenia and Cyprus , Albania got off to a good start and was in second place in the table, but only got one point in the last four games. Also in qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in a very difficult group with Spain , Italy , Israel , Macedonia and Liechtenstein , the start was successful: after two rounds Albania was group first. The first game against Macedonia in Shkodra at the beginning of September 2016 had to be canceled due to heavy rain. The remaining 14 minutes were made up the next day, and the Albanians scored the winning goal.

year	host	Result	Victories	Unent.	Nied.	Gates
1966	England	Qualifying round	0	1	5	02:12
1970	Mexico	Registration refused by FIFA
1974	Germany	Qualifying round	1	0	5	03:13
1982	Spain	Qualifying round	1	0	7th	04:22
1986	Mexico	Qualifying round	1	2	3	06: 09
1990	Italy	Qualifying round	0	0	6th	03:15
1994	United States	Qualifying round	1	2	9	06:26
1998	France	Qualifying round	1	1	8th	07:20
2002	Japan and South Korea	Qualifying round	1	0	7th	05:14
2006	Germany	Qualifying round	4th	1	7th	11:20
2010	South Africa	Qualifying round	1	4th	5	06:13
2014	Brazil	Qualifying round	3	2	5	09:11
2018	Russia	Qualifying round	4th	1	5	10:13
As of October 9, 2017

European Championship

Kuq e zi - the followers of the black and red

The first participation in a major tournament was the qualification for the European Championship in 1964 . Albania were awarded progress in the qualifying round as Greece refused to play the game. In the following round of 16, Albania failed 1-0 and 0-4 to Denmark .

In the qualifying round for the European Championship in 1968 , Albania met Yugoslavia and Germany , with the first three games all being clearly lost and a point win only in the last game. The 0-0 in Tirana in December 1967, from a German point of view the disgrace of Tirana , ultimately prevented Germany from qualifying for the European Championship in 1968 , because Yugoslavia had got along better in the neighboring Balkan country and had won.

In qualifying for the European Championship in 1972 they played against Germany, Poland and Turkey, with the 1-1 win against Poland and the 3-0 win against Turkey at least twice. Nevertheless, Albania ended up in the last place in the group.

In qualifying for the Euro 2016 , qualification for a final tournament was achieved for the first time. Albania faced Portugal , Denmark , Serbia and Armenia . In addition, EM host France was assigned to the group, but only competed in friendly matches against the group opponents. The game against Serbia on October 14, 2014 in Belgrade made headlines around the world as it had to be canceled after a drone with a Greater Albanian flag appeared over the field (Albanian fans were not allowed to play). As a result, Albanian and Serbian players fought over the flag, fans stormed the field and beat Albanian players, who then fled into the dressing room in the hail of objects thrown on the field and refused to resume the game. For this reason, UEFA decided to attribute a forfait win to Serbia, deducting three points and fines on both associations. On July 10, 2015, the judgment of UEFA was revised by the international sports court CAS and Albania was awarded the Forfait victory, as UEFA could not prove that the Albanian players had been clearly requested by the referee to restart the game. All other judgments on this game have been upheld by the International Sports Court. In the further course of the qualification the Albanians secured second place in Group I and thus booked the ticket for the Euro 2016. In France they finished third in Group A and were eliminated after three preliminary round games with one win and two losses.

year	host	Result	Victories	Unent.	Nied.	Gates
1964	Spain	Preliminary round , round of 16	1	0	1	01: 04
1968	Italy	Qualifying round	0	1	3	00:12
1972	Belgium	Qualifying round	1	1	4th	05: 09
1984	France	Qualifying round	0	2	6th	04:14
1988	Germany	Qualifying round	0	0	6th	02:17
1992	Sweden	Qualifying round	1	0	7th	02:21
1996	England	Qualifying round	2	2	7th	10:16
2000	Belgium and the Netherlands	Qualifying round	1	4th	5	08:14
2004	Portugal	Qualifying round	2	2	4th	11:15
2008	Austria and Switzerland	Qualifying round	2	5	5	12:18
2012	Poland and Ukraine	Qualifying round	2	3	5	7:14
2016	France	Preliminary round	4 1	2 0	2 2	10: 5 01: 3
2021	Europe	Qualifying round	4th	1	5	16:14

Balkan Cup

At the Balkan Cup Albania took only 1946, 1947 and 1948 in part. The very inexperienced team won the tournament the first time it participated - one of the Albanian team's greatest successes to date. In the following events, Albania took fifth place twice, which was the last in 1947 and the third from last in 1948.

year	Result	Victory.	Unent.	Nied.	Gates	Points
1946	1st place, winner	2	0	1	6: 04	4: 2
1947	5th place, last	0	0	4th	2:13	0: 8
1948 (not finished)	5th place	1	2	0	1: 00	4: 2

player

Current squad

The following players are currently in the squad. (As of August 2020 )

No.	Surname	birthday	Games	Gates	society	debut	Last use
goalkeeper
1	Etrit Berisha	10 Mar 1989	56	0	SPAL Ferrara	May 27, 2012	17th Nov 2019
12	Alban Hoxha	Nov 23, 1987	3	0	FK Partizani Tirana	Nov 16, 2015	Nov 12, 2016
23	Thomas Strakosha	19 Mar 1995	10	0	Lazio Rome	24 Mar 2017	Oct 14, 2019
Defense
4th	Elseid Hysaj	0Feb. 2, 1994	50	1	SSC Naples	0Feb 6, 2013	17th Nov 2019
5	Frédéric Veseli	Nov 20, 1992	22nd	0	FC Empoli	Nov 16, 2015	17th Nov 2019
34	Ardian Ismajli	Sep 30 1996	8th	0	Hajduk Split	Nov 17, 2018	Nov 14, 2019
2	Hysen Memolla	03rd July 1992	3	0	Diósgyőri VTK	05th Sep 2017	03rd June 2018
3	Castriot Dermaku	Jan 15, 1992	4th	1	Parma Calcio	Oct 10, 2018	17th Nov 2019
20th	Marash Kumbulla	0Feb 8, 2000	1	0	Hellas Verona	Oct 14, 2019	Oct 14, 2019
18th	Enea Mihaj	0July 5, 1998	2	0	PAOK Thessaloniki (soccer)	Sep 10 2018	Oct 10, 2018
6th	Berat Djimsiti	19 Feb 1993	25th	1	Atalanta Bergamo	04th Sep 2015	17th Nov 2019
midfield
14th	Lorenc Trashi	May 19, 1992	1	1	Al Qadsia Kuwait	Oct 14, 2019	17th Nov 2019
22nd	Amir Abrashi	27 Mar 1990	32	1	Sc freiburg	14 Aug 2013	Oct 14, 2019
6th	Kristi Qose	June 10, 1995	2	0	MFK OKD Karviná	0June 8, 2014	17th Nov 2019
21st	Odise Roshi	May 22, 1991	53	5	Achmat Grozny	0Oct 7, 2011	17th Nov 2019
9	Ledian Memushaj	0Dec. 7, 1986	37	1	Delfino Pescara 1936	Nov 17, 2010	17th Nov 2019
8th	Klaus Gjasula	Dec 14, 1989	2	0	Hamburger SV	0Sep 7 2019	17th Nov 2019
14th	Taulant Xhaka	28 Mar 1991	30th	1	FC Basel	0Sep 7 2014	0Sep 7 2019
35	Keidi Bare	Aug 28, 1997	3	1	Málaga CF	26th Mar 2018	17th Nov 2019
6th	Emanuele Ndoj	Nov 20, 1996	5	1	Brescia Calcio	29 May 2018	Nov 14, 2019
3	Ermir Lenjani	0Aug 5, 1989	31	3	FC Sion	Nov 15, 2013	17th Nov 2019
11	Lindon Selahi	Feb. 26, 1999	1	0	FC Twente Enschede	Oct 14, 2019	Oct 14, 2019
-	Qazim Laçi	Jan. 19, 1996	0	0	AC Ajaccio	-	-
Storm
7th	Myrto Uzuni	May 31, 1995	8th	0	Ferencváros Budapest	Oct 10, 2018	0Sep 7 2019
9	Bekim Balaj	Jan. 11, 1991	34	6th	SK Sturm Graz	Nov 14, 2012	17th Nov 2019
10	Rey Manaj	Feb. 24, 1997	9	1	FC Barcelona B	Nov 16, 2015	17th Nov 2019
11	Taulant Seferi	Nov 15, 1996	1	0	Neuchâtel Xamax	Nov 14, 2019	Nov 14, 2019
-	Armando Broja	Sep 10 2001	0	0	Chelsea FC U23 and Academy	-	-

Record players and goal scorers

As of December 23, 2018

Record player Games player Period Gates 88 Lorik Cana 2003-2016 0 79 Altin Lala 1994-2012 3 77 Klodian Duro 2001–2012 6th 75 Ervin Skela 2001–2012 13 74 Erjon Bogdani 1996-2013 18th 73 Ansi Agolli since 2005 3 73 Photo Strakosha 1990-2005 0 71 Andi Lila since 2007 0 68 Igloo Tare 1997-2007 10 67 Alban Bushi 1999-2007 14th 67 Altin Haxhi 1995-2010 4th 64 Poor Dallku 2005-2013 1 63 Altin Rraklli 1992-2005 11

Record shooters Gates player Period Games 18th Erjon Bogdani 1996-2013 74 14th Alban Bushi 1995-2007 67 13 Ervin Skela 2000-2012 75 12 Armando Sadiku since 2012 37 11 Hamdi Salihi 2006-2015 50 10 Altin Rraklli 1992-2005 63 10 Sokol Kushta 1987-1996 31 10 Igloo Tare 1997-2007 68 8th Adrian Aliaj 2002-2006 29 7th Bekim Balaj since 2010 34 6th Loro Boriçi 1946-1957 24 6th Klodian Duro 2001-2011 77 6th Edmond Kapllani 2004-2014 41 6th Bledar Kola 1990-2001 39 6th Qamil Teliti 1946-1952 13

Trainer since 1957

• Loro Boriçi (1957–1963)
• Zyber Konçi (1963-1965)
• Loro Boriçi (1965–1972)
• Myslym Alla (1972–1973)
• Ilia Shuke (1973)
• Zyber Konçi (1963-1965)
• Loro Boriçi (1976)
• Zyber Konçi (1980)
• Loro Boriçi (1981)
• Shyqyri Rreli (1982–1985)
• Agron Sulaj (1985-1987)
• Shyqyri Rreli (1988-1989)
• Bejkush Birçe (1990)
• Agron Sulaj (1990)
• Bejkush Birçe (1991-1994)
• Neptun Bajko (1994-1996)
• Astrit Hafizi (1997-1999)
• Medin Zhega (2000-2001)
• Sulejman Demollari (2001-2002)
• Giuseppe Dossena (2002)
• Hans-Peter Briegel (2003-2006)
• Otto Barić (2006-2007)
• Slavko Kovačić (2007)
• Arie Haan (2008-2009)
• Josip Kuže (2009-2011)
• Džemal Mustedanagić (2011 interim)
• Gianni De Biasi (2012-2017)
• Christian Panucci (2017-2019)
• Ervin Bulku and Sulejman Mema (2019 interim)
• Edoardo Reja (since 2019)

International matches

→ Main article : List of the international matches of the Albanian national football team

International matches against German-speaking national soccer teams

Germany

So far, the two countries have only met in European and World Cup qualifiers. Albania has not yet been able to win an international match against Germany; the only draw is responsible for the only non-qualification in Germany for a major tournament and therefore went down in football history as a disgrace for Tirana .

It is noteworthy that between 1983 and 2001 the German national team was able to win all games played during this period by only one goal difference. Due to unrest in Albania , the international match was moved from Tirana to Granada in Spain in 1997.

Luxembourg

The Albanian Football Association was punished for the use of an ineligible player in the friendly match between Luxembourg and Albania on March 29, 2016. The game was rated with a forfait defeat - with a result of 3-0 for Luxembourg - and the Albanian Association fined CHF 7,500. The reason was Ergys Kaçe , who had not served the automatic suspension for a game after two yellow cards in the previous friendly between Austria and Albania on March 26, 2016.

See also

• Albanian national football team (U-17 juniors)
• Albanian national football team (U-21 men)

literature

• Alexander DI Graham: A statistical history of football in Albania. Glendale 1999 ISBN 1-903943-00-0
• Dave Twydell: Albania Football Club: A Lighthearted But Factual Account of Football in Albania; D Twydell 1989; ISBN 0-9513321-1-2

Web links

Commons : Albanian national soccer team  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official homepage of the Albanian Football Association "Federata Shqiptare e Futbollit"
• Association fan page

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The FIFA / Coca-Cola World Ranking. In: fifa.com. July 16, 2020, accessed July 21, 2020 . 
2. ↑ FIFA World Ranking. August 6, 2015, accessed August 6, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Renditja e FIFA-s, Shqipëria në vendin e 22-të. (No longer available online.) In: Top Channel . August 6, 2015, archived from the original on August 7, 2015 ; Retrieved on August 6, 2015 (Albanian): “Renditja e FIFA-s për ekipet kombëtare të futbollit për muajin gusht ka zyrtarizuar Shqipërinë në vendin e 22-të, klasifikimi më i mirë në historinë e kuqezinjve. […] Në fakt është një rezultat historik, ku padyshim ka ndikuar edhe vendimi i Gjykatës së Arbitrazhit Sportiv të Lozanës (CAS), e cila i akordoi fitoren në tavolinë Shqipërisë pas ndërprerjes Bezë në pas ndërprerjes Bezë në pasë njes me. " 
4. ↑ Albania beat Macedonia after 15hr delay. In: BBC. September 6, 2016, accessed October 7, 2016 . 
5. ↑ fifa.com: History of the FIFA World Cup Preliminary Competition (by year) (PDF; 325 kB), p. 19
6. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from July 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
7. ↑ Who is next ? In: fussball-em-total.de. FUSSBALL-EM-total, accessed on June 28, 2016 . 
8. ↑ Jan Heier: Memories of the greatest success in football: Albania wins the Balkan Cup in 1946. In: ARD Studio Vienna. June 11, 2016, accessed July 1, 2016 . 
9. ^ Albania - Record International Players on rsssf.com
10. ↑ PLAYERS, played for Albania national team on eu-football.info
11. ↑ In the rsssf list he is only listed with 4 goals, eu-football.info names 6 goals
12. ↑ Albania sanctioned for fielding ineligible player in friendly. In: FIFA. August 25, 2016, accessed October 7, 2016 .