Boshko Gjurovski has announced the squad for the upcoming friendly match against Latvia on 5 March.

Among the notables, Goran Popov has been reinstated in the squad once again along with others such as Besart Ibraimi, Mario Gjurovski, Muarem Muarem and Aleksandar Todorovski, while Krste Velkoski and Kire Ristevski, if they play in the Latvia friendly, would be making their debut for Macedonia. The friendly against Latvia on 5 March will also serve as the debut for new manager Boshko Gjurovski.

Here are the 22 players called up:

Tome Pachovski – Mechelen
Kristijan Naumovski – Dinamo

Daniel Georgievski – Steaua
Aleksandar Todorovski – Sturm
Boban Grncharov – Tavriya
Vanche Shikov – Volyn
Daniel Mojsov – Brann
Goran Popov – West Bromwich Albion
Kire Ristevski – Slavia

Muhamed Demiri – St. Gallen
Ostoja Stjepanovikj – Wisła 
Stefan Spirovski – Beroe
Ferhan Hasani – Brøndby
Ivan Trichkovski – Waasland-Beveren
Agim Ibraimi – Cagliari
Mario Gjurovski – Muangthong United
Muarem Muarem – Qarabağ 

Mirko Ivanovski – Astra
Jovan Kostovski – Leuven
Dejan Blazhevski – Xəzər
Besart Ibraimi – Enosi Neon Paralimniou
Krste Velkoski – Sarajevo 

This game will be the first encounter without Goran Pandev who has officially retired from the national team. Meanwhile, Nikolche Noveski has not made a final decision regarding his national team status, but requested to be given a rest in this friendly.

“Most of the players were also called up during the past World Cup qualifications. The U21 team has an important qualifier against Portugal, so we decided to allow some of the young players to be called up by the U21 squad since that match is of bigger importance at the moment. My goal is to tell the players of my ideas and about what kind of football we should play. We will see the potential of the team and set the goals. The match is a friendly but that does not mean that the result is not important. We should always strive for good results and a better rating. At this moment, I believe the called up players are ready for the challenge. I believe in the team and I know that if we play at the desired level, aggressively and with a lot of energy, we can win. We are openly looking for support from the fans. We need the fans and we will try to play good football for them. The match with Latvia is the first for me as national team coach and it might be too ambitious to say we are going to give our best this early, but we are sportsmen and we can’t think any differently. Our goal is to make our football life easier and to make the fans eagerly await each of our next matches” noted Boshko Gjurovski for FFM’s website.