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Like a Byronic hero, he'll spend the rest of his life drowning himself in sadness, not thinking of what it was, but of what it could've been. Those who mock him will never get it, for he witnessed the face of true greatness and fatality let it slip away.

 

What I love most about this is that this reads exactly like something off RAWK if it was the other way around, except there wouldn't have been a hint of irony.

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http://www.tiranatimes.com/?p=133597

 

The three new players Pannuci has called up for the next two qualifiers include Spain-born defender of Albanian origin Ivan Balliu.

 

Balliu, recently awarded the Albanian citizenship, is regarded as the most promising entry. He is expected to team up with Napoli fullback Elseid Hysaj, the target of many big clubs this summer, as well as Hamburger defender Mergim Mavraj, strengthening Albania’s suffering defense after the departure of former captain Lorik Cana in mid-2016.

 

Born to an Albanian father and a Spanish mother, Balliu, 25, grew up as a professional player from the Barcelona youth academy. He was called up for Spain’s U16 and U17 and played Barcelona B and Portugal’s Arouca before joining Metz at the top French league in 2015.

 

Funniest thing is that Balliu reportedly had no idea of his Albanian ancestry and was scouted by the Albanian FA, because his surname "sounded Albanian" (his father isn't Albanian as the article says, rather he descends from Albanians) and fast-tracked for citizenship :lol:

 

Bloody hell, never thought I'd see someone post a link from the Tirana times on here :lol:

 

Albania's scouting system spends a lot of its time looking abroad to find young talent that may have some sort of  link to Albania, more in terms of ethnicity than the actual place. Which makes sense given that something stupid like 20% of the country left when communism fell, then you've got all the kosovans (who are ethnically Albanian) who fled that war, so there's a few members of the squad who had never even been to Albania before they got called up, like Xhaka for example.

 

Albanian nationalism is bonkers in general though, for example, Mustafi was all over the news and was celebrated country wide when he posted this picture of himself, the hand gesture is an Albanian nationalistic symbol (double headed eagle), despite the fact he's just won a trophy for Germany and his family is from Macedonia.

 

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Like a Byronic hero, he'll spend the rest of his life drowning himself in sadness, not thinking of what it was, but of what it could've been. Those who mock him will never get it, for he witnessed the face of true greatness and fatality let it slip away.

 

Are you really Spanish?!

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Manchester City: La Liga asks Uefa to investigate club's financial fair play

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41146009

 

Didn't the Madrid council do a dodgy deal with Real Madrid a few years back RE Buying the training ground then giving it back to them for free?? Barca' s dodgy deals, Clubs paying others to get results etc etc

 

Public tapping up of players, etc etc. All of that happened before the inception of FFP though, so it's ok :rolleyes:

 

Nowt to do with having your product eroded somewhat by having the spending power of your top couple of clubs matched (if not massively exceeded) by other 'elite' clubs. Clowns :lol:

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What dodgy deals? You mean the youth stuff? We paid very dearly for that.

 

Madrid got a slap on the wrist by the EU for that. At the end of the day, the big issue here is that FIFA are in rather flimsy grounds when it comes to regulating the business side of football. FFP would probably fall like a house of cards if PSG took it to court, very much like it happened with the Bosman ruling.

 

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