Macedonian manager John Toshack announced a squad of 24 players for the upcoming friendly against Albania on 15 November in Prilep.

There are several players returning to the Macedonian squad.  Edin Nuredinoski is back on the squad after being left out for the past couple of months.  He is joined at the goalkeeping position by Martin Bogatinov and Tome Pacovski.  On defense, Aleksandar Todorovski and Vladimir Dimitrovski are back on the senior national team.  Todorovski is finally back after last playing for Macedonia on 9 February 2011 in the friendly against Cameroon.  Defensive midfielders Filip Despotovski and Nikola Gligorov return to the national team after also being left out since the appointment of John Toshack.  Meanwhile, in attack, Bajram Fetai and Ilco Naumoski will get their first opportunity to play under John Toshack by being included in the 24 player squad.

From the list, Goran Popov will definitely withdraw from the squad because of a knee injury.  Popov will be around the team to get further examined by the medical team of the national team for another opinion.  The selection of Ferhan Hasani makes no sense.  Ferhan recently missed several games for Shkendija because of an injury but why did Toshack not allow Hasani to be on the U21 team.  Qualifiers should be given priority over friendlies.  The Macedonian U21 national team has two important qualifiers in November and Hasani is one of the more important players on the team but he was not called up for those games and instead is on the senior team of Macedonia for a friendly.

From the attackers on the list, Stevica Ristić is once again not on the team.  Did the six game suspension play a part in Ristić being left out?  There was no explanation on FFM’s website.

Here is the complete squad:

Goalkeepers
Martin Bogatinov – Karpaty, Ukraine
Tome Pacovski – Beerschot, Belgium
Edin Nuredinoski – Ethnikos Achnas, Cyprus

Defenders
Aleksandar Todorovski – Polonia Warszawa, Poland
Daniel Georgievski – Šibenik, Croatia
Vlade Lazarevski – Amiens, France
Nikolce Noveski – Mainz, Germany
Vance Sikov – Volyn, Ukraine
Daniel Mojsov – Vojvodina, Serbia
Vladimir Dimitrovski – Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic
Goran Popov – Dynamo Kyiv, Ukraine
Aleksandar Lazevski – Partizan, Serbia

Midfielders
Velice Sumulikoski – Sibir, Russia
Muhamed Demiri – Thun, Switzerland
Mario Gjurovski – Metalurh Donetsk, Ukraine
Filip Despotovski – Rabotnicki
Nikola Gligorov – Alki, Cyprus
Agim Ibraimi – Maribor, Slovenia

Attackers
Goran Pandev – Napoli, Italy
Ivan Trickovski – APOEL, Cyprus
Ilco Naumoski – Mattersburg, Austria
Ferhan Hasani – Shkendija
Mirko Ivanovski – Arka, Poland
Bajram Fetai – Lyngby, Denmark

The meeting is scheduled for 9 November in Skopje.  The next day, the national team will arrive in Ohrid to conduct five trainings over the span of five days.  On 14 November, the team goes to Prilep where the friendly against Albania will take place the next day at 13:00 CET.