Connections - Albania

The European Championship finals will be upon us this summer and in the period running through to the competition Connections will look at some of the teams taking part. We start with one of the countries that have few Tottenham connections but does have a rather surprising one for you to watch out for next summer.
 
Tottenham have not met an Albanian side nor have they signed any players from that country. Despite that the forthcoming European Championship finds us looking at their bench and their assistant manager is Paulo Tramezzani, our former Italian player.

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Paulo whose details are featured in Connections-Italy (1) was with the club between 1998- 2000 making just six appearances. Signed by Christian Gross he failed to impress and quickly returned back to Italy.   
 
Apart from that one surprising connection all the only other connections have come at International level. Albania has met England on four occasions and each of the games were World Cup qualifiers. The first coming in March 1989 when we had Chris Waddle in the line-up alongside former Spur Gary Lineker in England’s 2-0 win. The following month England won the return 5-0. The same two players started and both scored then Paul Gascoigne came off the bench to get England’s last goal and his first for the country.
 
The next meeting came in 2001, Sol Campbell played in the 3-1 win. In the September England won 2-0 at home with ex-players Campbell and Nicky Barmby in the side
 
Albania and England also have something in common, they were both invited to take part in the second World Cup in 1934 held in Italy and both countries declined.
 
Other Tottenham players that have represented their countries against Albania include, Jurgen Klinsmann (Germany) Gudni Bergsson (Iceland) Dimitar Berbatov (Bulgaria) Teemu Taino (Finland) Pat Jennings (N.Ireland), Steve Carr, Gary Doherty and Robbie Keane all for the Republic of Ireland.
 
Albania qualified for this summers European Championships ahead of Denmark and our own Christian Eriksen. These games were a 1-1 draw in Albania when Denmark grabbed a late equalizer. The return game which Christian missed was a 0-0 game. 
 
If you know any other connections between Albania and the club do please let us know.
 
COYS
Keith Harrison.
t- Keith 16024542
f- peter shearman (old non de plume)

Notes -1 – The three part look at Connections – Italy starts at - http://www.indiaspurs.com/blog/connections-italy-part-one