National team coach Igor Angelovski summoned 26 players for the upcoming three qualifying matches for reaching Qatar 2022.
photo by FFM: coach Igor Angelovski
Probably for the first since he is in charge, Angelovski called up a larger number of players, 26. He brought back in the squad players such as Marjan Radeski and Ferhan Hasani, decided to give a new chance to Daniel Avramovski, while included deb keeper Risto Jankov. Still, the call for Hasani is a huge surprise having in mind that in 2021 he has played a total of 9 minutes for his club in the weak Albanian league.
Despite the expectations, he did not include Colombian-born Sebastián Herrera Cardona who after playing for 5 years in Macedonia gained the right to represent our country, according to the FIFA rules. Also, he again did not summon Ljupcho Dioriev, the best player of the domestic league.
“The list is compiled of players that are part of the national team for a while now. It can be seen that 99% of the summoned players are those who were there before, played the Nations League and the EURO qualifiers and managed to bring Macedonia its historic achievement with gaining place at the European championship for the first time in its history, something that we waited for since our independence. As a person and as a coach, I would never take away the right to someone to be part of the national team, if that person deserves it with his behavior towards the national shirt and with the results made under long period of hard work.” – said Angelovski for FFM.
The national team will gather on Monday the 22nd in Skopje where will held few training sessions before heading to Bucharest for the opening match.
Stole Dimitrievski – Rayo Vallecano
Damjan Shishkovski – Doxa
Martin Bogatinov – Ethnikos
Risto Jankov – Rabotnichki
Stefan Ristovski – Dinamo
Visar Musliu – Fehérvár
Egzon Bejtulai – Shkendija
Kire Ristevski – Ujpest
Darko Velkovski – Rijeka
Ezgjan Alioski – Leeds United
Gjoko Zajkov – Charleroi
Enis Bardhi – Levante
Arian Ademi – Dinamo
Boban Nikolov – Lecce
Stefan Spirovski – AEK
Elif Elmas – Napoli
Tihomir Kostadinov – Ružomberok
Daniel Avramovski – Kayserispor
Marjan Radeski – Akademija Pandev
Ferhan Hasani – Partizani
Goran Pandev – Genoa
Ivan Trichkovski – AEK
Ilija Nestorovski – Udinese
Aleksandar Trajkovski – Mallorca
Krste Velkoski – Sarajevo
Vlatko Stojanovski – Chambly
Macedonia will open the qualifiers with a road match in Bucharest against Romania on Thursday the 25th at 20.45 CET. Three days later, on Sunday the 28th will host Liechtenstein at the National Arena Toshe Proeski in Skopje at 20.45 CET, while on the 31th will visit Germany at the MSV-Arena in Duisburg with a kick-of at 20.45 CET.