Adnan Januzaj and England???

It's a ludicrous proposition as he doesn't qualify for several years and all this hype after one game?! Seriously how good is he? Better than messi or ronaldo?

 

He is not better than either yet.However when this is England's front three they will....................get to the quarter finals of a major tournament.

 

You have missed my point. He obviously has potential. It's the media hyping the kid up on a quiet news week.
This is a non story.

If he wants to win something you pick Belgium not england. Better team and will go further next tournament.

 

Some stupid fat beardy * from the Daily Mail said so. ( what more proof do you need?)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...dnan-Januzaj-play-England--Martin-Samuel.html

 

the signs are obvious, why would he repeatedly reject Belgium?

 

The whole idea that a player should pick the country he represents due to ambition is sickening. Martin Samuel has no say in how a player should decide and his ideas are bogus.

Hope he picks Albania, or waits for Kosovo.

 

He's not average enough to play for England:

http://thetinboonie.com/only-english-people-can-properly-underperform-for-england-says-jack-wilshire

 

The English media are stupid. Here's why:

1) He did not reject the Belgium call-up due to hope of playing for England. If he did, he is misguided. Belgium and Albania have been fighting over him for a couple years, and he has not been capped at the youth age due to his wanting to not be locked into either team. It's the country he grew up in vs. the country of his parents. He's also (apparently) eligible for Serbia and Turkey but I don't think he's thinking about them. He might also be holding out for a Kosovo national team. England doesn't factor.

2) He does not qualify under FIFA's rules. The English media have been confusing the home nations agreement with FIFA's rules. FIFA requires that you be a citizen to play for a country. That's it. No residency required. Mix Diskerud plays for the US despite his never having lived in the US (always in Norway) because he is, and has been since birth, a citizen of the US. This "5-year residency" is bullshit, and the irony is that Jack Wilshere, despite his idiocy, is (accidentally, I'm sure) correct. Januzaj should not be able to play for England, but it's due to the fact that he's not a citizen, not because of Wilshere's idea of Englishness.

3) The most embarrassing part from England's perspective: He's not even eligible under the home nations agreement. The rules for naturalization (there are different rules if he had happened to have an English parent/grandparent - he doesn't) are that a player has to be educated for 5 years before 18 in that country. Meaning he would have had to leave Belgium when he was 13 for Manchester. He was 16. He can only receive two years of education before turning 18 and therefore will never be eligible. Saying that, this is not a FIFA rule, rather a British rule that they have submitted to FIFA, and so therefore if England really wants him then they can convince him to reject callups from Albania and Belgium, and try to have the rule change by the time he accepts British citizenship. The odds of that are low I think.

Is that a bit more clear? The English media is awful and idiotic... I can't believe that they don't do basic research into this.

 

Don't most people from Kosovo go on the play for Albania (or Serbia for Serbs) anyway seeing that they are ethnically Albanian. I'm thinking of Lorik Cana and Etrit Berisha here. Looking at their Wiki page a fair few of their current team are Kosovar. I'd be surprised if he is holding out for Kosovo's FIFA membership.

But he looks a talent so I just want to see him play football one way or another

 

Yep. Switzerland have lost many players to Albania recently (most at the youth level). A bit off-topic but the Switzerland-Albania match coming up should be entertaining. Guys like Xherdan Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka for Switzerland against Lorik Cana and Albania.

 

Funny thing is, if he was black, there would be no discussion about this matter.:smiley-laughing002:

 

I'm swiss and I don't know many ? the better Albanians have played for Switzerland e.g. Frederic Veseli, Pajtim Kasami, Xhaka, Shaqiri and Valon Behrami

 

I was confusing Harolind Shala (Norwegian who switched to Albania recently) as being Swiss since those are the two European sides I follow closest. Other than that I think there are a few in the youth sides. Just looked on Wiki and 3-4 of the players at every youth level were born in Switzerland.

 

Yeah, one Swiss-born player who plays for Albania now is Migjen Basha a regular with Torino in the Serie A. But albanians have a lot of resentment towards players who choose other countries over them, so will be interesting to see what reaction Shaqiri and co get

 

I've been looking forward to Switzerland at Albania for a while, saw an interview with Granit Xhaka from a day or two ago but didn't read it. The headline alluded to his being nervous/excited, all of that. Still can't believe Norway lost to them in Oslo though...

 

Apparently there were more Albanians there at the game than Norwegians - must have helped. They'd actually have a good midfield if players like Januzaj and Shaqiri played for them. As for Xhaka, fantastic talent but a lot of Swiss fans don't like him because of this; [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K68jZLJXYrI"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K68jZLJXYrI[/ame]

 

Norway has that problem against a few countries, Albania being one of them. I'm from the US, so it's like when we play any Latin American team then US supporters will be outnumbered. It's why we always play against Mexico in Columbus, Ohio even though it only seats about 25k. We play them in friendlies in the big stadiums in Dallas, LA, NYC, etc., when we need money, but for competition that's basically the only place we can play and outnumber their supporters.

Didn't know that about Xhaka though. It'd be interesting to know (possibly less to find out) if he would have done that in a closer match.

 

Yeah Latin American fans are just crazy and with Xhaka, against another country no I don't think he would have done it, but against Albania I don't think it would have mattered. Also Shaqiri scored in this game and refused to celebrate.

 

They're * nuts! And yeah, I meant that I wonder what Xhaka would have done in the same match against Albania but if it had been tied at that point. Not against another country. As far as Shaqiri goes, at least he put the ball in the net. :icon_mrgreen: