With the start of September being one of the big FIFA windows, there are a bunch of players getting national team call ups. Figured I could start yet another thread for it, to discuss any and all Palermo players playing internationally. Here's a list of the call-ups I've seen so far: Youth Level: Accursio Bentivegna: Italy U-20s. Matches: first two rounds of the 2015-16 Torneo Quattro Nazioni U-20s, Italy v Germany (9/3) and Switzerland v Italy (9/8). Round robin home and away tournament (4th country is Poland, who they'll play for the first of two matches in October) Uros Djurdjevic: Serbia U-21s. Matches: 2017 European U-21 Championship Qualifiers, Group 2, Serbia v Lithuania (9/8). For some reason Andorra has played 3 games already in the group, but this will be Serbia's first. (The rest of their group is Ireland, Andorra, Italy, Serbia, and Lithuania, two legs home and away.) Full Nationals: Giancarlo Gonzalez: Costa Rica. Matches: Friendlies against Brazil (9/5 Harrison, NJ) and Uruguay (9/8, San Jose, CRC). Achraf Lazaar: Morocco. Matches: 2017 Africa Cup of Nations Qualification, Group F, against Sao Tome and Principe (9/4). Morocco won their first match and seems to be in a pretty easy group, although for some reason the highest ranked team in the group is Cape Verde, at 50. (full group by standings: Cape Verde, Morocco, Libya, Sao Tome and Principe) Alexsander Trajokovski: Macedonia. Matches: UEFA Euro 2016 Qualifying, Group C, Luxembourg v Macedonia (9/5) and Macedonia v Spain (9/8). Already 6/10 games in, its not looking good for the Macedonians, who have taken just 3 points (from last place Luxembourg) and could be eliminated by the end of these two matches. (rest of the group by standings: Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine, Belarus, Luxembourg) Ivaylo Chochev: Bulgaria. Matches: UEFA Euro 2016 Qualifying, Group H, Bulgaria v Norway (9/3) and Italy v Bulgaria (9/6). Also through 6 matches, Bulgaria is in a much better spot. Currently sitting 4th, they are just 2 points behind their first opponent Norway for the 3rd spot which guarantees at least a playoff to make it to the Final tournament. They also have similar run-ins after that, both playing Italy, Croatia, and a powderpuff, In Bulgaria's case, Azerbaijan, in Norway's Malta (full group by standings: Croatia, Italy, Norway, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Malta).
http://palermocalcio.it/it/1516/news/scheda.php?id=32102 Gonzalez called up for Costa Rica's WCQs in two weeks. Trajkovski called up for Macedonia's two freindlies
2 Palermo players taking part in the Euros starting today, Oscar Hiljemark with Sweden and Thiago Cionek with Poland. Hiljemark has made a couple of second half sub appearances in the last couple months, but I wouldn't expect too much from him. Cionek has been more consistently called up during qualifying process, but almost never gets any minutes. Absent some CB injuries/suspensions, I doubt he sees any time. Bit ridiculous that Vazquez didn't get a call up for Italy. Among the ex-Rosanero contingent, Steve von Bergen (33 years old at this point) is in the squad for Switzerland. He only spent a season here, but he was a competent CB. Kamil Glik, also called up for Poland, will be one of the people keeping Cionek on the bench Kyle Lafferty, for Northern Island, has 17 goals for the national team, more than twice the next highest scorer. He was voted player of the season during Palermo's Serie B year. Zampa called him an "out of control womanizer" and sold him that summer Matteo Darmian in the Italy squad, its still inexplicable to me that he plays for Manchester United now. Salvatore Sirigu, no doubt the best keeper Palermo has had in a long time, also on the bench And thats everybody I recognize. Unsurprisingly a fairly small contingent given how heavily Palermo scouts from South America, combined with the fact that some of the more common European countries Palermo draws from (Slovenia, above all), didn't qualify.
Given how poor I think this roster is right now, there have been a surprising number of national team callups for the international break. Posavec called up for Croatia's U23 Euro qualifying (games against Sweden and Georgia) Balogh called up for Hungary's U23 Euro qualifying match against Lichtenstein and a U23 friendly v Poland Nestorovski and Trajkovski both called up for Macedonia's WCQ against Albania Jajalo called up for Bosnia's WCQ against Estonia (he apparently changed his nationality to his country of birth this year. He previously appeared twice for Croatia. Chochev called up for Bulgaria's WCQ vs Luxembourg Gonzalez called up for Costa Rica's WCQs v Haiti and Panama and finally Rajkovic called up for Serbia's WCQ v Ireland
A handful of players were called up during this past weekends break. Most notably, Nestorovski scored for Macedonia against Italy, making 5 goals in his last 5 matches in all competitions. Macedonia still fell 3-2 in the end, thanks to a last minute goal from Italy. ex-Rosanero Belotti also got his first international goal. Others in action, Hiljemark played 90 minutes for Sweden in a win over Luxembourg Jajalo got 20 minutes as a sub against Belgium Chochev sat on the bench in Bulgaria's game against France. Those three are all back in action today, Chochev and Hiljemark go head to head in Sweden-Bulgaria Jajalo and Bosnia take on Cyprus plus Balogh and Sallai join the Hungary U-21s to take on the Greek youth side.
Results roundup: Balogh came on for the last 17 minutes of a 3-1 loss. Sallai stayed on the bench Hiljemark got the better of Chochev's Bulgaria, going the full 90 and scoring the second goal right at halftime in a 3-0 win. Chochev started and played 72 minutes. Jajalo spent the full match on the bench during a 2-0 Bosnia win over Cyprus. Two more Rosanero in action today, Aleesami and Norway take on San Marino Cionek and Poland take on Armenia You'd think with all these national team players (even just fringe ones), Palermo would be better...