North Macedonian football has made headlines in global football today, and they have become the brightest new team in European football after iceland, the dark horse of the 2018 World Preliminary Tournament. If portugal can win the last match, they will create another dark horse miracle in the World Preliminaries. So, what is driving the rapid rise of this new european football force?
First of all, North Macedonia, with a population of just over 2 million, certainly does not have an advantage in terms of football population, which is much clearer in the case of Iceland. However, North Macedonia has an efficient youth training and selection system, and the high turnover rate has become the basis for their continuous exploration of football talents. Grasping the quality of youth training is the best housekeeping skill of North Macedonian football. But talent doesn't happen overnight, and for North Malaysia, which doesn't use quick ways such as naturalization to improve their strength, the mechanism of selecting and nurturing young players is the secret of their success for decades.
The second secret is to rely on the surrounding resources and borrow other people's soil to cultivate their own stars. This is the best example of this, which is known as the first star in the history of North Malaysia. At the age of 15, as an ordinary young player in the former Yugoslavia, he went to the youth training of the Italian Club brescia to "learn from the experience", which was once the youth cradle of italian superstar Pirlo. After more than 20 years of trial and error in Italian football, Pandev has become a model for the young players of North Malaysia, and has also pointed out a "model road" for many later newcomers. At present, the North Malaysia international, overseas players have become the main force, they are all over the European league in more than a dozen countries, and the experience is indeed rich. Even Striker Trajkovski, who killed Italy, played for Palermo in Serie A.
The third secret is that the strength of the youth training is linked to professionalism. As early as 2010, at the age of 27, he funded the construction of the Pandav Academy Club, which can be understood as a football school that started out and was linked to professionalization. With his influence and philosophy, after more than ten years of development, Pandev College is now a strong team in the North Macedonia Professional League, with a league runner-up and a temporary second place in the North Macedonia League this season. After making a lot of money, the first star thinks of cultivating hard-core talents for the country, so that the youth training of the strength faction will naturally cultivate many powerful players.
The last secret, proper tactics and high morale of the players. Playing on the spot is often more likely to enhance the dark horse potential of a weak team. As early as the last World Preliminary Round, North Macedonia drew with Italy in the last away game of the group stage, and they were fully aware and confident of a decisive battle with the European champions. North Malaysia coach Milevsky said that our fighting ability is not as good as Italy, but we are not bad at fighting morale, which is the key to victory. Knowing oneself and knowing one's enemy, the fighting spirit of North Macedonia has led them to success in key battles!