Manager John Toshack announced a squad of 22 players for the upcoming friendly matches against Portugal and Angola in late May.

John Toshack has decided to add some youth in the squad with six players being promoted from the U21 national team.  Mirko Ivanovski, Ilcho Naumoski and Aleksandar Todorovski were dropped by Toshack, while Tome Pachovski and Aleksandar Lazevski were kept out with injuries.  The selections by Toshack once again raised questions, especially concerning players who play very little for their club teams.

As a reward for his good form and Vardar’s title, Filip Ivanovski was the only domestic player included on the squad, while Mirko Ivanovski, playing for the Arka reserves, and Ilcho Naumoski from Mattersburg were dropped.  Baze Ilijoski did not get a call up despite his fine form in Romania, but Samir Fazli, who has played exactly 1 minute for the Heerenveen first team this season, and Ferhan Hasani, who wasn’t even included on any matchday squad for Wolfsburg, were summoned.  Their selections were perplexing, as was the decisions to call up Vladimir Dimitrovski and Stefan Spirovski, two players who play very little for their club teams.  Yani Urdinov, who impressed Toshack with his play against Northern Ireland U21, and Stefan Spirovski, who just like Yani, will serve a yellow cards suspension in the next U21 qualifier against Faroe Islands, so both players will have the chance to prove themselves against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal and then Angola.  Stefan Ristovski and Flamur Tahiri are the other two players promoted from the U21 team to the senior squad, but Toshack stated that those players will be kept fresh for the U21 qualifier against Denmark on 5 June.

Here is the full squad:

Goalkeepers
Edin Nuredinoski – Ethnikos Achnas, Cyprus
Martin Bogatinov – Karpaty, Ukraine

Defenders
Daniel Georgievski – Šibenik, Croatia
Stefan Ristovski – Frosinone, Italy
Nikolche Noveski – Mainz 05, Germany
Vanche Shikov – Volyn, Ukraine
Daniel Mojsov – Vojvodina, Serbia
Boban Grncharov – Lierse, Belgium
Vladimir Dimitrovski – Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic
Goran Popov – Dynamo Kyiv, Ukraine
Yahi Urdinov – Ekranas, Lithuania

Midfielders
Muhamed Demiri – Thun, Switzerland
Nikola Gligorov – Alki, Cyprus
Stefan Spirovski – Borac Čačak, Serbia
Flamur Tahiri – Teuta, Albania
Mario Gjurovski – Muangthong United, Thailand
Agim Ibraimi – Maribor, Slovenia

Attackers
Goran Pandev – Napoli, Italy
Ivan Trichkovski – APOEL, Cyprus
Ferhan Hasani – Wolfsburg, Germany
Filip Ivanovski – Vardar
Samir Fazli – Heerenveen, Netherlands

Macedonia will play against Portugal on the 26th of May and then face Angola three days later.