Macedonian U21 national team successfully started the qualifications for the 2021 EURO in Slovenia and Hungary by demolishing the Faroe Islands with 7:1, which is the highest victory of any of our U21 national teams since gaining independence.
photo by Talents Hunter: two of the most recent refusals
With this victory our guys showed that they are capable to repeat the success of the generation of footballers born in 1994 and younger, led by Blagoja Milevski as well, who took part at the 2017 EURO in Poland. That generation was the first national team in the history of Macedonian football who succeed in participating in a major football competition.
The matches against Montenegro and Kazakhstan in October will be a key indicator for the real quality of this team. With two wins at these matches the doors of the European Championship will be wide open. Another positive moment is the fact that the best player of this generation is Elif Elmas who is a member of our senior national team, so he can also be included if there is need for that.
What’s not well known to the public is that the presence of a few more players of Macedonian descent in this generation could make it even more competitive with the best European national teams, but unfortunately at the moment they are giving preference to their home countries. According to Zoran Zafirov, secretary of our U21 national team, during 2019 the invitation to wear the Macedonian jersey was rejected by the Swedes Besard Šabović (Dalkurd) and Marko Johansson (GAIS), the Swiss born Amel Rustemoski (Grasshoppers) and Valon Hamdiu (Winterthur), Slovenian Daniel Pavlev (Chievo) and Australian James Delianov (Western United). These players are continuing the trend of many of their predecessors who decided to refuse the invitation to represent Macedonia although few years later their decision proved to be wrong because most of them had a small number of appearances for their home countries or did not receive a call at all.
We hope that coach Blagoja Milevski and his team will have successful qualifications and will prove that Macedonia have enough quality footballers who can make a success without the help of those who do not want to play for it.
A list of players that refused an invitation to play for Macedonia (1992 – 2019):
player / current club / country of club / national team he opted for
Admir Mehmedi – Wolfsburg /
Adrian Bajrami – Benfica /
Aleksandar Ignjovski – Holstein Kiel /
Aleksandar Kovačević – 1860 München /
Alexander Kačaniklić – Hammarby /
Amel Rustemoski – Grasshoppers /
Benjamin Kantarovski – Newcastle Jets /
Besard Šabović – Dalkurd /
Christopher Naumoff – retired /
Daniel Pavlev – Chievo /
Dejan Kulushevski – Parma /
Dejan Trajkovski – Puscás Akadémia /
Deniz Hümmet – Elfsborg /
Eldis Bajrami – No club/
Emir Murati – Rende /
Emre Mor – Galatasaray /
Erdal Rakip – Malmö /
Eros Grezda – Rangers /
Erten Ersu – Fenerbahçe /
Florent Sopi – Malmö /
Haris Hajradinović – Kasimpaşa /
Igor Taševski – retired /
James Delianov – Western United /
Lindon Selahi – Twente /
Luka Marković – Torino /
Lumturim Selmani – Rothrist /
Marko Johansson – GAIS /
Marko Pavlovski – Varzim /
Muamet Asanovski – Prespa Birlik /
Naser Aliji – Honvéd /
Orhan Mustafi – Hakoah Zürich /
Pajtim Kasami – Sion /
Qendrim Rizvani – Thun /
Riza Durmiši – Lazio /
Serdar Aziz – Fenerbahçe /
Shkodran Mustafi – Arsenal /
Steve Kuzmanovski – St. George Saints /
Valon Ahmedi – No club/
Valon Hamdiu – Winterthur /
Veljko Paunović – retired /
Zia Šakirovski – Rosengård /
A list of players that played for Macedonia then choose to play for another country (1992 – 2019):
Adrian Hajdari – Rapid /
Arbin Zejnulai – Shkendija /
Besir Demiri – Žilina /
Dejan Stojanović – St. Gallen /
Isnik Alimi – Imolese /
Jasir Asani – Partizani /
Musa Mevmedoski – Klagenfurt /
Nikola Sekulov – Juventus /
Omar Imeri – Shkendija /
Shefit Shefiti – Shkendija /
Stefan Despotovski – Crvena zvezda /
Tauljant Sulejmanov – Neuchâtel Xamax /
Valon Ethemi – Kukësi /