It was when Javier and I got chatting about Argentinean footballers playing in the Albanian premier league, and his desire for me to do a write up about them that we got chatting about the progress of Albanian football or the lack of it.
As a national of Albania, I get frustrated with how easily we let players of our origin and with our blood leave and not only play in other leagues (that can’t be helped as money talks), but also go on an play international football representing other countries.
We have at the moment 2 stars who could be wearing our colours, but instead represent our next rivals, Switzerland.
The most remarkable are Valon Behrami, Granit Xhaka, and one to watch for the future Xherdan Shaqiri, who recently signed for Bayern Munich.
It is impossible not to imagine how different our national could fare if players of that quality would represent us….
Anyway back to the task in hand, we have two young Argentinean players on our premier league.
Lucas Malacarne and Alfredo Sosa. The former a defender and the latter a striker.
Lucas played in the youth system of River Plate, even captaining the under 17 side of the club.
He is strong, versatile, adaptable and although he misses a few things about Argentina, he is convinced he made the right decision coming over here and develop his game further.
Sosa, formerly of Estudiantes de La Plata is a prolific striker, who is getting better game by game.
He has a sense of goal, and knows where to be inside the box to generate and put away opportunities that come his way.
Like these 2, there are other Argentineans playing in Albania’s lower divisions.
They all enjoy what they do, they love the country and its people, but unlike the above mentioned players of Albanian descend, they have not even considered abandoning their national feelings.
Even though they know they have nearly no chance to ever make it into the National Team, Argentina remains their country, and will not commit to any other nation.