The MacedonianFootball.com award for “Best Young Player” of the 2015/16 season goes to Shkendija’s Besir Demiri.
As we have done every year, this 2015/16 season is no exception. Our website decided to announce its picks for best young player, best player overall and the best team of the season. First up will be again the best young player award.
For this category, there was an age limit as players had to be born on January 1, 1994 or later to be considered. Furthermore, another requirement for this award was that each nominee had to start at least half of his team’s league games. That comes out to 16 games or more, since the league season consisted of 32/33 rounds (32 for the promotion play-off teams and 33 for the relegation play-off teams).
These 15 players were considered (in alphabetical order): Angelche Timovski (Sileks), Antonio Kalanoski (Mladost), Besar Iseni (Shkupi), Besir Demiri (Shkupi/Shkendija), Demir Imeri (Turnovo/Renova), Egzon Bejtulai (Shkendija), Gjorgji Stoilov (Turnovo), Kristijan Ivanov (Turnovo), Marjan Radeski (Shkendija), Mevlan Adili (Shkupi), Mevlan Murati (Shkupi), Nemanja Ivanov (Sileks), Stefan Kocev (Bregalnica), Visar Musliu (Renova) and Vlatko Stojanovski (Metalurg).
Eventually, our choice for the best young player of the 2015/16 season went to Besir Demiri, the allrounder from Shkendija. He played in 29 games (26 starts), scored one goal and assisted three times. Demiri is an athletic and dynamic footballer who works hard on the pitch, no matter if he is fielded in defensive midfield, at left-back or on the left wing. He was also one of the best players in Macedonia’s U21 national team where he mostly played at left back. Lastly, against France and Ukraine, Demiri was maybe the most important tactical tool as he was fielded on the left wing to make Blagoja Milevski’s team more compact against the strong opponents. Recently, Besir was called up for Macedonia’s senior national team and made his debut in the win against Azerbaijan.
Our choices for the best overall player and the best team of the season will be announced in the upcoming days.