Next month young girls from all over the world will travel to Papua New Guinea to participate in the U20 World Cup. Sweden being one of the nations will send around 20 players, one of which is Loreta Kullashi.

The age range in the Swedish squad varies from 1996 and younger. The youngest is born 1999 and it happens to be miss Kullashi. The Swedish team will take on Brazil, North Korea and hosters Papua New Guinea in group A.

17-year-old  Kullashi, who was actually born in Finland, is no new name to the Swedish national teams. During the U17 Euro last year she scored a total of six goals and helped Sweden advance to the Elite Round. A 13-0 win against Romania resulted in four goals from Kullashi and in the final round they beat Russia 2-0. Guess who scored both goals? Loreta Kullashi of course.

Apart from the blue and yellow jersey she also holds the black and yellow one belonging to the AIK women’s team. This year they’ve played in the Swedish second division, Elitettan and  Kullashi’s resume on the goal scoring chart? 14 goals in 19 rounds! No wonder several Swedish articles has listed her as a talent to keep an eye on.

With Kosovare Asllani as a pioneer introducing Albanian women to Swedish football, Loreta Kullashi is following her lead. This is Sweden’s new rising star!

Picture from FSHF.org.

Fatjona Borova, aged 23 just recently received her FIFA badge which means she’s now listed as a FIFA assistant referee. This actually means that she’s the first female one from Albania. Apart from her Albania has three male main referees acknowledged by FIFA; Lorenc Jemini, Enea Jorgji and Bardhyl Pashaj plus another six male ones as assistant referees; Rejdi Avdo, Ermal Barushi, Ridiger Cokaj, Egin Doda, Denis Rexha and Ilir Tartaraj and yet another one as a Futsal referee: Kreshnik Hakrama but amongst these names there’s only one female, Fatjona Borovoa who also is the youngest of the bunch.

Miss Borova was born in Shkodër in 1992, a city which has raised several of our Albanian football players. As a ‘Shkodrane’ of course football was played in her younger days and she even started played basketball too which she did for several years. She made it to the police academy  but can now put FIFA assistant referee in the resume as well.

She was one of the first women in Albania to referee in the domestic league, not only in women’s football but in the male department as well. A job she often shared with Krista Gjyli. And these two women became historical during the Albanian Super Cup on May 4th 2013 as they both were selected as assistant referees alongside Edvin Hoxha. And the year after this female Albanian duo once again collaborated during an U19 group stage qualification which was hosted in Albania.

I was quite emotional during the simple ceremony earlier his week when the general secretary of Albania’s Football Federation Ilir Shulku handed over the FIFA referee badge to Fatjona Borova, the first female one from Albania.

Picture from FSFH.org

While other countries are preparing for the World Cup Albania’s ladies will be in Luxembourg to play a friendly game. Albania will not participate in the World Cup this time around since they did not manage to advance but can not forget that our girls actually made their debut in the world Cup qualification which is a huge triumph.

The friendly game will be played tomorrow at the Stade Jean Donnersbach during the evening and coach Altin Rraklli has called up a couple of new names. A total of 19 players is on his list that FSFH announced. Amongst them there are three new names from Sweden; Naime Merovci, Veronika Jashari, Kujtime Kurbogaj however we also have players like American raised Furtuna Velaj, Fatbardha Aliu who has taken a step up from the U19 team, Bundesliga player Geldona Morina and as always team captain Aurora Serenaj.

The last time these two teams were faced against each other it ended with a 2-1 win for Albania. Goals were scored by Furtuna Velaj and Suada Jashari, they have both been called up for tomorrow’s game by the way. This was on April 9th 2013 during the qualification for the World Cup qualification itself and now two years later the two teams will meet again.

Here you have the entire list for tomorrow’s game:

1. Pellumbesha Gjyli
2. Veronika Jashari
3. Albina Rrahmani
4. Esmeralda Franja
5. Fitore Govori
6. Fatbardha Aliu
7. Erida Bajrakurtaj
8. Lucia Gjini
9. Kujtime Kurbogaj
10. Floralba Krasniqi
11. Dafina Memedov
12. Aurora Seranaj
13. Geldona Morina
14. Atdhetare Halitjaha
15. Suada Jashari
16. Nurtene Topalli
17. *Furtuna Velaj (Update: Will not play due to an injury!)
18. Aurora Thaci
19. Naime Merovci

Wishing them the best of luck tomorrow. Suksese vajza!