Super Sancho set to squeeze out Rashford
They’ve only had a team since 2016 but play like the great old Yugoslavian sides. Kosovo are the…
GARETH SOUTHGATE will unleash jadon Sancho against Kosovo tonight, with Marcus Rashford expected to be dropped.
Borussia Dortmund forward Sancho will make his eighth international appearance against the Kosovans at St Mary’s — with Rashford the man likely to make way for the teenage sensation.
Manchester united forward Rashford started Saturday’s win over Bulgaria, winning one of Harry Kane’s two successful penalties.
But Sancho will have the opportunity to break the stranglehold Raheem Sterling, Kane and Rashford have had on
Areminder of how complicated it has always been for Kosovo will come when the national anthem sounds for england’s opponents in Southampton tonight.
There will be no words. The country’s ethnic Albanian majority and ethnic Serb minority are still in a state of such delicate coexistence that introducing one is deemed too provocative. There is only a tune and a blandly uncontroversial title: Europe.
The nation state has a population of 1.8million but thousands of its people were displaced during the brutal wars of the 1990s, when years of tension between the independence- seeking Kosovo Liberation Army and the Serbian security forces descended into open conflict.
There are reminders of that conflict everywhere. At the drenica club there is a memorial to the victims of the Prekaz attack which left scores dead. The route from there back to the capital Pristina, where a new national football stadium will open by the time england travel to the country in november, is lined with martyrs’ cemeteries.
Their number has never been agreed on, though casualties of the war are put at around 12,000, with a further 900,000 displaced. The bodies of many of the dead have never been found.
The role of Tony Blair’s British government in the nATO-led invasion which crushed Serbian military targets explains the extraordinary affection among Kosovans for the nation which their 120th-ranked side will face at St mary’s.
it was the high point of Blairite foreign policy and the former Prime minister became affectionately known in the liberated country as ‘Uncle Tony.’
The burning national pride of the Kosovan diaspora, forced to scatter across europe and beyond at that time, has given rise to a rainbow football nation.
The side’s coach, Bernard Challandes, ‘travelled the world, working like a bee’ to persuade players and their parents to be part of the national team, says Kosovan sports journalist Xhavit Kajtazi. ‘i think he succeeded.’
The recruitment drive saw the Kosovo Football Federation gather together more than 180 players of Kosovan origin who are making their way in Western leagues, especially in Switzerland, whose clubs are full of Kosovans.
For some of those carrying the torch, it was too late to make the switch but they have made their feelings known. Liverpool’s Xherdan Shaqiri, born in Kosovo before his family were forced to flee to Switzerland, displayed the stitched flag of Kosovo on the heel of his right boot before his Swiss side’s World Cup tie against Serbia last year.
Others have joined the band. Kosovo have attracted Lille’s former Serbia national youth team captain, Arton Zekaj, a 19-year-old midfielder of Kosovan origin who was born in Belgrade.
Two Sweden-born players — 22-year- old defender ibrahim dresevic of dutch club SC Heerenveen and 24-year- old winger Arber Zeneli, who plays for reims in France — are members of this nascent team, formed by players who, of necessity, were born or grew up abroad.
With players of higher status opting to wait and see before promising their allegiance, FiFA and UeFA recognition of Kosovo in may 2016 reaped a whirlwind.
Lazio midfielder Valon Berisha switched allegiance from norway. Zurich’s Benjamin Kololli joined. Werder Bremen’s milot rashica was taken from under the noses of neighbouring Albania.
The beginnings were modest. Kosovo’s first friendly — before they had official nation status from FiFA — was against Haiti over five years ago on a waterlogged pitch in mitrovica, a city then split between ethnic Albanians and Serbs. it finished goalless.
But while a maiden World Cup qualifying campaign yielded just one point, Kosovo flourished in Group d3 of the nations League, displaying a swashbuckling creative game which some have likened to the trademark style of the old Yugoslav sides. They finished five points clear of secondplaced Azerbaijan, meaning they have the back-up of a spot in next year’s play- offs for euro 2020 if they don’t qualify for the finals by finishing in the top two of their qualifying group with england.
These are no minnows. They arrive on the South Coast on the back of a 15-game unbeaten run, which includes a win in Bulgaria last time out which was a source of unbridled across the new country. The 2-1 win over the Czech republic on Saturday further underlines that england are up against one of the most exciting young teams on the continent.
They are undoubtedly damaged by the absence of rashica and Zeneli, their exciting wingers, who are both injured. Kololli and Hekuran Kryeziu will also be missing. But this extremely young side — one of the continent’s youngest — brings the in-form Fenerbahce striker Vedat muriqi and Bersant Celina, the former manchester City academy player who is now a firm part of Steve Cooper’s Swansea squad.
‘There’s an emotional attachment to coming to england and playing because of all that happened in the past and the significance of your country,’ says Kosovan observer Albin Veseli. ‘But above all this is about Kosovan pride in itself and showing what its football players can do.’