Albania national football team

The Albanian national football team is the country's representative team in official competitions. It is organized by the Albanian Football Federation, which belongs to UEFA. Although it is one of its founding members, it has not had great successes, with the exception of its qualification for Euro 2016. It has never managed to qualify for the final phase of the World Cup or the Olympic Games.

In addition to the senior football team, Albania also has Under-21, Under-19, Under-17 and Under-15 teams. One of the most successful has been the U-21: in the final phase of the 1984 U-21 Euro Cup, they reached the quarterfinals, where they were eliminated 2-0 against Italy. That team became the only Albanian team at any level to qualify for a competitive tournament at the time.

Most of the Albanian national team's matches were played at the Qemal Stafa stadium, built around the 1930s as a multi-purpose stadium and demolished in 2016. It later mainly used the Elbasan Arena and the Loro Boriçi Stadium in Shkodra. Since November 17, 2019, the Arena Kombëtare or National Stadium of Albania is the official stadium of the national team.

History

Although the national Federation was founded in 1930 and two years later it was already a member of FIFA, Albania had to wait 16 years to play its first international match. It was in 1946 against Yugoslavia. Albania was invited to play in the 1934 World Cup, 1938 World Cup and 1950 World Cup but due to economic and logistical difficulties it was unable to participate.

In the spring of 1963, Albania played the qualifiers for the Olympic Games for the first time and in the autumn of that same year it played the qualifiers for the European Championship. In 1964 it took part for the first time in the qualifying phase of the Football World Cup.

In December 2007 the Albanian Football Federation announced that the Dutchman Arie Haan would replace the Croatian Otto Baric as coach.

In the qualifiers for the 2014 Soccer World Cup, they finished in fifth place in Group E with 10 points without the possibility of accessing a playoff to qualify for the tournament.

In 2014, their qualification for the Euro 2016 began with the help of the Italian Gianni De Biasi, who built the team thanks to the Internet since he formed a team with players of Albanian and Kosovar descent born abroad. It was in group I along with Armenia, Denmark, Portugal and Serbia.

On October 11, 2015, the Albanian national team made history by qualifying for the first time for the 2016 European Championship that was held in France, after beating the Armenian national team 0-3. The Albanians defeated Portugal 1-0 in the qualifying phase, a team that would later become champions of the tournament.

In the tournament he played in Group A alongside the teams of Romania, Switzerland and the host France. On June 11, 2016 he played his first match in a Euro final phase at the Stade Bollaert in Lens against the national team of Switzerland, against which they lost 0-1. On June 15, 2016 at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille they fell again, this time against the host team of Euro 2016, France, 0-2. Finally on the 19th June 2016 in Lyon he achieved his first victory in a European Championship against the Romanian team. It was a historic night for Albanian football, since Armando Sadiku scored the first Albanian goal in a European Championship, which also meant his first victory in this competition. Despite this, it was eliminated in the group stage.

Latest matches and upcoming matches

Date	City	Local	Outcome	Visitor	Competition
19-11-2022	Tirana	AlbaniaALB	5:0	ARMArmenia	Friendly Party
27-03-2023	Warsaw	PolandPOL	0:2	ALBAlbania	Euro Cup 2024
17-06-2023	Tirana	AlbaniaALB	2:0	MDAMoldova	Euro Cup 2024
20-06-2023	Tórshavn	Faroe IslandsFRO	1:3	ALBAlbania	Euro Cup 2024
07-09-2023	Prague	Czech RepublicCZE	1:1	ALBAlbania	Euro Cup 2024
10-09-2023	Tirana	AlbaniaALB	2:0	POLPoland	Euro Cup 2024
12-10-2023	Tirana	AlbaniaALB	-:	CZECzech Republic	Euro Cup 2024
17-10-2023	Tirana	AlbaniaALB	-:	BULBulgaria	Friendly Party
17-11-2023	Chisináu	MoldovaMDA	-:	ALBAlbania	Euro Cup 2024
20-11-2023	Tirana	AlbaniaALB	-:	Faroe IslandsFaroe Islands	Euro Cup 2024

Statistics

Soccer World Cup

World Cup Soccer
Year	Round	J	G	E	P	GF	GC
1930	There was no selection
1934
1938
1950	No.
1954
1958
1962
1966	He didn't qualify.
1970	No.
1974	He didn't qualify.
1978	No.
1982	He didn't qualify.
1986
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
2026	To dispute
Total	0/22	-	-	-	-	-	-

Euro Cup

Euro
Year	Round	J	G	E	P	GF	GC
1960	No.
1964	He didn't qualify.
1968
1972
1976	No.
1980
1984	He didn't qualify.
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016	Group phase	3	1	0	2	1	3
2020	He didn't qualify.
2024	To dispute
Total	1/16	3	1	0	2	1	3

UEFA Nations League

EUFA League of Nations
Year	L	G	Round	J	G	E	P	GF	GC
2018-19	C	1	Third place	4	1	0	3	1	8
2020-21	C	4	First place	6	3	2	1	8	4
2022-23	B	2	Third place	4	0	2	2	4	6
Total			3/3	14	4	4	5	13	18

Players

Most games played

• Updated on March 31, 2023.

Top scorers

• Updated on March 31, 2023

Last call

Called for the party in front of POLPoland March 2023, valid for classification for Eurocopa 2024.

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Apa.	Goles	Club
1	1BY	Etrit Berisha	10 March 1989 (34 years)	75	0	Torino
12	1BY	Elhan Kastrati	2 February 1997 (26 years)	2	0	Cittadella
23	1BY	Thomas Strakosha	19 March 1995 (28 years)	22	0	Brentford
2	2DEF	Ivan Balliu	1 January 1992 (31 years)	9	0	Rayo Vallecano
3	2DEF	Ermir Lenjani	5 August 1989 (34 years)	45	5	Ümraniyespor
4	2DEF	Elseid Hysaj	20 February 1994 (29 years)	75	2	Lazio
5	2DEF	Frédéric Veseli	20 November 1992 (30 years)	44	0	Benevento
6	2DEF	Jon Mersinaj	8 February 1999 (24 years)	1	0	Lokomotiva Zagreb
13	2DEF	Enea Mihaj	5 July 1998 (25 years)	14	0	Famalicão
15	2DEF	Marash Kumbulla	8 February 2000 (23 years)	18	0	Rome
17	2DEF	Andi Hadroj	22 February 1999 (24 years)	3	0	Partizán
8	3MED	Klaus Gjasula	14 December 1989 (33 years)	22	0	Darmstadt 98
10	3MED	Nedim Bajrami	28 February 1999 (24 years)	11	0	Sassuolo
14	3MED	Qazim Laçi	19 January 1996 (27 years)	21	1	Sparta Prague
18	3MED	Lindon Selahi	26 February 1999 (24 years)	4	0	Rijeka
19	3MED	Anis Mehmeti	9 January 2001 (22 years)	1	0	Bristol City
20	3MED	Ylber Ramadani	12 April 1996 (27 years)	25	1	Aberdeen
21	3MED	Kristjan Asllani	9 March 2002 (21 years)	8	1	F. C. Internazionale Milano
22	3MED	Amir Abrashi	27 March 1990 (33 years)	50	1	Grasshoppers
7	4OF THE	Myrto Uzuni	31 May 1995 (28 years)	29	5	Grenada
9	4OF THE	Jasir Asani	19 May 1995 (28 years)	1	0	Gwangju
11	4OF THE	Taulant Seferi	15 November 1996 (26 years)	11	1	Vorskla Poltava
16	4OF THE	Sokol Cikalleshi	27 July 1990 (33 years)	52	12	Khaleej

Coaches

This is a list of the coaches of the Albanian national team since 1988:

Coaches	Period
Shyqyri Rreli	1988-1990
Aargon Shula	1990
Birce Bejkush	1990-1994
Neptun Bajko	1994-1996
Astrif Hafizi	1997-1999
Medin Zhega	2000-2001
Sulejman Demollari	2001-2002
Giuseppe Dossena	2002
Hans-Peter Briegel	2002-2006
Otto Baric	2006-2007
Arie Haan	2008-2009
Josip Kuže	2009-2011
Dzemal Mustedanagic	2010
Gianni De Biasi	2011-2017
Christian Panucci	2017-2019
Ervin Bulku (Interino)	2019
Edoardo Reja	2019 - 2023
Sylvinho	2023 - Actual

Uniform

The traditional uniform of the Albanian team has been a red shirt with black pants, and it has undergone few modifications throughout history. Below are some models.

Local

1946

1970

2010

2015

Euro 2016

Visitor

2010

2015

2015 third uniform

Euro 2016

Third uniform Euro 2016

Sporting manufacturer	Period
Adidas	1980-1991
Uhlsport	1992-1995
Puma	1996–2004
Umbro	2004-2008
Nike	2008–2010
Legea	2010-2011
Adidas	2011–2016
Macron	2016–presente