The Albania national football team (Albanian: Kombëtarja Shqiptare e Futbollit) is the men's football team that has represented Albania in international competition since 1946. It is controlled by the Albanian Football Association, the governing body for football in the country.
Albania was the winner of the 1946 Balkan Cup and the 2000 Malta Rothmans International Tournament, but had never participated in any major UEFA or FIFA tournament until 2016.
At Euro 2016, Albania made its first debut at a major men's football tournament. Albania scored their first ever goal in a major tournament and secured their first ever win in a European Championship, when they beat Romania on 19 June 2016.
After its completion in 2018, the National Arena (Albanian: Arena Kombëtare) will be the home ground of the national team. Albania's highest FIFA World Ranking was 22nd in August 2015.
Video Albania national football team
History
Although it never played any matches, the Albanian national football team existed before the Albanian Football Association was created in 1930. FSHF was founded on 6 June 1930, and in, Albania joined FIFA (during the congress 12 June - 16 June). Albania played its first international match against Yugoslavia in 1946 which ended in a 3-2 home defeat at Qemal Stafa Stadium. In 1946, Albania also participated for the first time in Balkan Cup in which Albania won by beating Romania 1-0 in the final. In 1954, Albania was one of the founding members of UEFA. Albania waited until 1962 to compete in a Euro Cup competition and the only time Albania was between the best 16 teams of the Continent, the reason being Albania got past the first leg as Greece, for political reasons forfeited the game. At the end of the tournament Albania ranked 9th in Europe.
Albania participated for the first time in a qualifying phrase of a World Cup in the qualifiers of the 1966 edition in England. The team was drawn in the Group 5 which finished in the last position with only one point from six matches. In the qualifiers of the UEFA Euro 1968 Albania had a draw 0-0 against West Germany that denied the Germans the participation to the UEFA Euro 1968 finals. In later years, Albania did not participate in the qualifiers of the World Cup 1970, UEFA Euro 1972, UEFA Euro 1976, World Cup 1978 and UEFA Euro 1980 for unknown political reasons. Again six years without playing any international match, Albania entered in the qualifiers of the World Cup 1982, and finished the group no longer last in the class, but "revenges" Finland allocating the Nordic country to get the "wooden spoon".
The qualifiers of the World Cup 1990 were probably the worst qualifier in Albania's history as there were 6 losses in as many games with no memorable matches. In the qualifiers of the World Cup 2002, Albania recorded a 2-0 win over Greece which was the only team that they beat during the qualifiers. Albania was able to make some impact in the qualifying of the UEFA Euro 2004 by beating 3-1 Russia at Loro Boriçi Stadium. This match was also the debut of the German coach Hans-Peter Briegel who led Albania to an undefeated run at home matches. Albania finished the group in the penultimate spot with only eight points. In the qualifiers of the World Cup 2006 Albania recorded some historical results. Two months after Greece beat Portugal to win the European Championship, Albania defeated Greece 2-1 in a match which Albania scored goals in the 2nd and 11th minutes.
In the qualifiers of the UEFA Euro 2008 Albania won two times in both matches against Luxembourg. Albania also drew 2-2 with Belarus and 0-0 away with Bulgaria. Albania's Euro campaign ended with a loss 6-1 away to Romania which resulted in the resignation of the coach Otto Bari? and his assistant. On December 2007, Arie Haan was named Albania's head coach by signing a two-year contract for the qualifiers of the World Cup 2010, where Albania made a very negative performance by winning only one match. Albania won only seven points from ten matches and Haan was replaced by Josip Ku?e in May 2009 following the end of the campaign. However, Ku?e couldn't lead Albania to the better results as the team ended the qualifiers of the UEFA Euro 2012 with only nine points from ten matches. With Ku?e in charge, Albania recorded its biggest win the history by defeating Cyprus 6-1 at home.
Josip Ku?e parted ways with Albania three and a half years after he started the job, and in December 2011, Italian coach Gianni de Biasi replaced him. Albania started the qualifiers and was, at one point, 2nd in group with six matches played, and four in hand, but failed to be successful in the last four, losing away in Slovenia and Iceland, as well as at home against Switzerland, and drawing in Cyprus. Albania started the qualifiers of the UEFA Euro 2016 with an emphatic 1-0 away win against Portugal, which was followed by a 1-1 draw against Denmark at the newly renovated stadium Elbasan Arena. After beating Armenia 3-0 in the last qualifying match, Albania made history by qualifying for the UEFA Euro 2016, its first ever appearance at a major men's football tournament.
Maps Albania national football team
Fixtures and results
2017
2018
Players
Current squad
The following players have been called up for the friendly match against Norway, on 26 March 2018.
All caps and goals as of 26 March 2018 after match against Norway.
Recent call-ups
The following players have been called up within the last 12 months.
- INJ = Not part of the current squad due to injury.
Previous squads
- European Championship
- UEFA Euro 2016 squad
Individual all-time records
Below are two lists of the top 10 players with the most caps and goals for Albania.
- As of 13 November 2017.
Appearances records
Top goalscorers
Captains
List of captaincy periods of the various captains throughout the years.
Managerial history
Current coaching staff
Current coaching staff:
List of coaches
This is a chronological list of the managers who have guided Albania since 1946.
Honours
- Winners of VIII Balkan Cup (Tirana, October 1946)
- Winners of Rothmans Football International Tournament: 2000 (VIII) (Valletta, 4 February -- 10 February 2000)
Stadiums
In November 2013, Qemal Stafa Stadium was shut down by FIFA for not fulfilling international standards. Due to Albania being undeveloped and having very poor infrastructure, not a single stadium in Albania fulfills FIFA standards for international competitions. As a result, the Albanian government is upgrading Ruzhdi Bizhuta stadium of Elbasan named Elbasan Arena in time for the Euro 2016 qualifiers beginning in September 2014, and Loro Boriçi Stadium in Shkodër in time for the October 2015 Euro Qualifier against Serbia.
National Arena
National Arena (Albanian: Arena Kombëtare) is an under-construction all-seater football stadium in Tirana, the capital of Albania. This planned stadium will be the new home of Albania national football team and it will serve as a venue for major football club cup finals and other sports and non-sports related activities.
The stadium was designed with a capacity of 22,500 spectators, making it the first-highest capacity stadium for football in Albania. Ever since an initial stadium proposal in 2010, Albanian Football Association has had two additional stadium proposals that failed to be built. The stadium is planned to be completed by June 2018, Albania national football team began playing in September of the same year. The stadium will be built on the same site of Qemal Stafa, demolished in June 2016.
The old Qemal Stafa was closed for demolition in June 2016, and the site will be redeveloped with a new larger-capacity National Arena. The final design of the new stadium was done by Marco Cassamonti of Archea Associati, and the construction is scheduled to be finished in 2018. It is expected to cost around EUR60 million
Supporters
Tifozat Kuq e Zi (English: Red and Black Fans, also known as the Albania National Football Team Supporters Club) is a non-profit football supporters' association for the Albania national football team and various national team sportive activities. It was founded on 25 December 2003. In cooperation with FSHF, it organises trips for football fans to visit games, and develops and sells merchandise to support itself and fund sporting related projects.
Tifozat Kuq e Zi stands firm in the political view that Albanians should share only one national team and have continuous aspirations to join in one state (Një Komb, Një Kombëtare), i.e. unification of Albania, Kosovo, etc. In this sense, TKZ is joined by different supporters' associations throughout Albanian-speaking regions mainly in Kosovo (Shqiponjat of Peja, Kuqezinjet e Jakoves of Gjakova, Plisat of Pristina, Torcida of Mitrovica, etc.), Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Ballistët of Tetovo, Ilirët of Kumanovo, Shvercerat of Skopje, etc.) and in Albania itself (Ultras Guerrils of Partizani Tirana, Tirona Fanatics of KF Tirana, Vllaznit Ultras of Vllaznia Shkodër, Ujqërit e Deborës (English: Snow Wolves) Skënderbeu Korçë, Shqiponjat of KF Besa Pejë and many other different Albanian fans).
The ongoing dispute between the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports and the Football Association of Albania has been seen as a political intrusion by FIFA and UEFA, which led to the banning of Albania from international sportive activities. FSHF president Armand Duka is highly unwanted by the TKZ who have numerously asked for his resignation believing he is responsible for internal corruption in the Albanian Football Association.
The TKZ have been praised by many different football players and managers, whom were not just Albanian. Switzerland's former coach, Ottmar Hitzfeld was astonished by how many Albanian fans turned up and how enthusiastic they were in 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA) between Switzerland and Albania where the Swiss won 2-0 thanks to goals from Gökhan Inler and Kosovo-born Xherdan Shaqiri. He didn't believe that there was 12,000 Albanian fans in the stands which was more than how many Swiss fans turned up for the game. He stated Albanian fans are fantastic and the most passionate fans I have ever seen. During that campaign, TKZ attended all games Albania played apart from a match against Cyprus in Nicosia and were also large in numbers in the away games to Slovenia where they lost 1-0 and Norway where they won 1-0 thanks to a stunning goal by Hamdi Salihi.
Media coverage
Albania's qualifying matches and friendlies are currently televised by RTSH and SuperSport Albania, a trademark of Digitalb.
Kit history
The Albanian kit has been mostly red and black with few changes throughout the years.
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