Day -288 WorldCup2018
The Malta team that will play England on Friday could, if selected, feature three English-born players. The goalkeeper, Andrew Hogg, was born in Surrey but moved to Malta when he was 5.
The other two, Sam Magri and Luke Gambin, are as Maltese as I am Irish or Algerian (a grandparent on either side...or is it a great-grandparent?). But they have spent more time in Malta, thanks to a Maltese grandfather making them eligible to play for Malta, than I have in either Ireland or Algeria. I, sadly, never got the call to represent either country at anything. I still have dreams....
Luke Gambin plays for Luton Town in League Three in England (the 4th division in olde English). "Plays" is a bit of an exaggeration as he hasn't played in a league match yet this season. Sam Magri plays non-league football for Ebbsfleet United. With thanks to one of my (many, many) readers, Ben Holmes, I noticed a link between Magri and Gambin apart from the obvious good fortune at being able to play international football for a country they had an almost unknown link with. In recent interviews they both mentioned how they are looking forward to the prospect of reuniting with England's Raheem Sterling. Magri played with Sterling for England at the U17 World Cup in 2011.
Gambin played for Barnet against Sterling and QPR in a youth match. Sterling was 15 at the time but playing in a higher age group. Gambin was 17. Both Maltese players mentioned how incredibly talented Sterling was at that young age. Their careers took very different paths but, with the beauty of international football where unlike the Champions League smaller teams can still dream, on Friday a 4th division player and a non-league player will be on the same pitch as the Premier League star. And that's just two of the Maltese players. The majority of the rest of them play in the Maltese league, at a level similar of maybe lower to that of Magri and Gambin.
Malta's team has three more overseas based players: Zach Muscat plays in the Italian third division; Andre Schembri plays in Cyprus' top division; Jean Paul Farrugia plays in the Swiss second division. And an honourable mention has to go to the evergreen Michael Mifsud, the former Coventry City hero, who in his heart is still playing for one of the biggest teams in Europe.
If you hadn't realised already what a mismatch this is on Friday, doesn't that put it into perspective? How are Malta's players even supposed to compete with England?To frame it differently, it's like Lincoln City or Sutton United playing a Premier League team in the FA Cup. Impossible, right? Well, no. But it is an FA Cup super-upset kind of gulf in class.
As the experts say the match starts as a draw. And it's up to England to change that. The longer it remains as it started the more I will wonder if the impossible may happen. But in the end it won't matter too much, because it's in Malta's next match on Monday when I'm looking forward to a real chance at a win against our fellow group minnows, Scotland.
The Malta team that will play England on Friday could, if selected, feature three English-born players. The goalkeeper, Andrew Hogg, was born in Surrey but moved to Malta when he was 5.
The other two, Sam Magri and Luke Gambin, are as Maltese as I am Irish or Algerian (a grandparent on either side...or is it a great-grandparent?). But they have spent more time in Malta, thanks to a Maltese grandfather making them eligible to play for Malta, than I have in either Ireland or Algeria. I, sadly, never got the call to represent either country at anything. I still have dreams....
Luke Gambin plays for Luton Town in League Three in England (the 4th division in olde English). "Plays" is a bit of an exaggeration as he hasn't played in a league match yet this season. Sam Magri plays non-league football for Ebbsfleet United. With thanks to one of my (many, many) readers, Ben Holmes, I noticed a link between Magri and Gambin apart from the obvious good fortune at being able to play international football for a country they had an almost unknown link with. In recent interviews they both mentioned how they are looking forward to the prospect of reuniting with England's Raheem Sterling. Magri played with Sterling for England at the U17 World Cup in 2011.
Gambin played for Barnet against Sterling and QPR in a youth match. Sterling was 15 at the time but playing in a higher age group. Gambin was 17. Both Maltese players mentioned how incredibly talented Sterling was at that young age. Their careers took very different paths but, with the beauty of international football where unlike the Champions League smaller teams can still dream, on Friday a 4th division player and a non-league player will be on the same pitch as the Premier League star. And that's just two of the Maltese players. The majority of the rest of them play in the Maltese league, at a level similar of maybe lower to that of Magri and Gambin.
Malta's team has three more overseas based players: Zach Muscat plays in the Italian third division; Andre Schembri plays in Cyprus' top division; Jean Paul Farrugia plays in the Swiss second division. And an honourable mention has to go to the evergreen Michael Mifsud, the former Coventry City hero, who in his heart is still playing for one of the biggest teams in Europe.
If you hadn't realised already what a mismatch this is on Friday, doesn't that put it into perspective? How are Malta's players even supposed to compete with England?To frame it differently, it's like Lincoln City or Sutton United playing a Premier League team in the FA Cup. Impossible, right? Well, no. But it is an FA Cup super-upset kind of gulf in class.
As the experts say the match starts as a draw. And it's up to England to change that. The longer it remains as it started the more I will wonder if the impossible may happen. But in the end it won't matter too much, because it's in Malta's next match on Monday when I'm looking forward to a real chance at a win against our fellow group minnows, Scotland.
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