FIFA's newest member, Kosovo, received a boost yesterday when Xherdan Shaqiri spat his dummy out over being overlooked for the Switzerland captaincy and vice-captaincy and hinted he could pledge his allegiance to the country of his birth, in protest at Vladimir Petkovic's decision to name Stephan Lichsteiner as skipper, with Granit Xhaka and Valon Behrami acting as vice-captains.
And Shaqiri isn't the only current international who could represent Kosovo. Players with family ties to the Balkan country are eligible to play for them, even if they've represented another country in a competitive match. Manchester United's Adnan Januzaj is rumoured to have decided against turning out for Marc Wilmots' Belgium side, while, worryingly enough for Shaqiri, the aforementioned Xhaka and Behrami could also qualify as Kosovan players.
Granit's older brother Taulant is also eligible to turn out for Kosovo, as is his captain in the Albanian national team, Lazio's Lorik Cana. In fact, Belgian newspaper La Mesue created a potential Kosovan XI a couple of years ago when they were attempting to gain full FIFA membership and, if all these players were to make the switch, 'The Dardanians' could have quite a side on their hands.
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