The Malta team continued with their preparation for the opening World Cup qualifier against Scotland on Sunday by listening to a team talk from their manager Pietro Ghedin at the Amsterdam Airport Hilton hotel. The team had to spend the night in Amsterdam after their flight to Estonia for tomorrow's friendly was cancelled. As they missed their training session (with a replacement to be found, looking for a spare pitch in Amsterdam might have been too big a task) Mr Ghedin decided a classroom session would be a good way to keep his group of twenty-something year old men focused and motivated during their boring, unplanned overnight stop. I pray that Mr Ghedin is very interesting to listen to.
In other news involving Maltese players abroad, Luke Gambin of League Two club Barnet FC, today turned down a £100,000 move to League Two rivals Leyton Orient because he is holding out for a move to a higher division. This may be because he can now call himself an international player. Gambin became a Maltese citizen earlier this year and has been impressive since becoming part of the Malta team. He was born, and grew up, in England but was "discovered" by the Maltese FA through Sky Sports news. Somebody at the MFA saw it reported that the had scored two goals in a match against Dover and was interested in his Maltese sounding name. A bit of research revealed a Maltese grandfather and straight out of the Jack Charlton/Republic of Ireland school of recruitment a new Maltese player was found. I honestly and truly wish him well, and not only that he makes a big difference for Malta but that he also achieves his ambition of reaching a higher level of club football.
I will keep an eye and ear out for transfer hews tomorrow, deadline day in England. Beyond tomorrow, a goal on his competitive debut for Malta against Scotland would do very nicely indeed.
Luke Gambin is is Estonia with the rest of the Maltese team today. They did make it and let's hope (if you are Maltese or if you like the underdogs) that an unscheduled night in Amsterdam will not have an adverse affect on their performance on Sunday.
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