Unsurprisingly, Kosovo has nominated Albian Hajdari for the national team. The TSG Hoffenheim center back recently decided to change his nationality.
After Leon Avdullahu, Albian Hajdari is the second Swiss player to decide to play for the Kosovan national team in future. The center back, who moved from FC Lugano to TSG Hoffenheim this summer and is a teammate of Avdullahu there, was also included in the squad nominated by national coach Franco Foda for the October internationals on Friday.
Hajdari, who only joined TSG at the end of August, had recently played his way into coach Christian Ilzer’s starting lineup in Kraichgau. He started in both the 4-2 win at Union Berlin and the 1-4 defeat to FC Bayern, after coming on as a substitute for the first time against Eintracht Frankfurt on matchday 2 (1-3). Hoffenheim signed the 22-year-old center back from Lugano on a short-term basis via an exit clause after summer signing Koki Machida suffered a cruciate ligament rupture in the Bundesliga opener in Leverkusen (2-1).
In September, the Swiss Football Association was still confident
At that time, the left-footed player had arrived as a Swiss international: last March, Hajdari, who had also played for various youth national teams for many years, made his only senior international appearance in a 3-1 win against Luxembourg – and that is how it will remain. Although national team director Pierluigi Tami was still confident in September (“I’m not worried”), Hajdari, like Avdullahu and 18-year-old Eman Kospo (AC Florence) before him, decided to pursue a future with the Kosovo national team.
Foda’s team, which includes another Hoffenheim player, striker Fisnik Asllani, faces Slovenia in World Cup qualifying on Friday before traveling to Sweden, which has struggled so far, three days later. Kosovo is in second place in Group B with three points after two matchdays. The leaders, with a perfect six points, are Switzerland.
