Football of Luxembourg: Surprising development

Luxembourg has 600k population and this country is one of the small countries in Europe. Even so, Luxembourg is playing important role in European political and economic life. The capital has the same name as the country. There are 3 offical languages here: French, German and the national language Luxembourgish.
The people of Luxembourg are called Luxembourgers. A lot of immigrants arrived from other countries too. The largest foreign ethnic groups are the Portuguese, comprising 16.4% of the total population.

Interest in football is less than other European contries, but recent times interest in football increases. Luxembourg's neighbors France, Germany and Netherlands were very dominant in football history, also Belgium's progress in football is well known. One of the rich countries in the world Luxembourg didn't want to stay as a "outsider" in this region. That's why in 2001 football academy opened here and teenagers are enrolled this academy, who are between 13-19 year old. Nowadays this academy's graduates force world media to write about them.

Luxembourg settles in 86th place in FIFA Ranking. In 2016 Luxembourg played with passion against Bulgaria away. They lost match 4-3 but played football was signal of beautiful days in the future. After this Luxembourg achieved the best result of their history. In 3 september, 2017 they drew with world champion of future France in Toulouse. This result was shocked all of world football media. I should say in this match Pogba, Griezmann, Mbappe, Giroud and other world stars were in the starting line-up.

"UEFA Nations League" started in 2018. Luxembourg settled 2nd group of 4th division. Their opponents were Belarus, Moldova and San Marino. In first 2 games they defeated Moldova (4-0, home) and San Marino (3-0, away). But Luxembourg lost to Belarus every two game (0-1, 0-2), defeat San Marino (3-0 again) and draw with Moldova (1-1) can't help Luxembourg. They finished group behind 4 points Belarus and took 2nd place.

"Small country" very successful at club level. The most successful club of the country F91 Dudelange after eliminated Poland's Legia and Romania's CFR Cluj deserved to took part in UEL group stage. Dudelange was in the group F, against Milan, Olympiacos and Real Betis. Luxembourgers can draw with Real Betis (0-0) in last match and finished group in 4th place.

Luxembourg has settled in group B of the Euro-2020 qualification. After two games Luxembourg take 2nd place with 3 points in front of Portugal. They played first two games at home. Luxembourg defeated Lithuania (2-1), but lost to Ukraine with last minute own goal (1-2). Players have important role in Luxembourg football's improvement. Let's know them.

Goalkeepers:

Anthony Moris (29 years) - Royal Excelsior (Belgium)

Once upon a time he played at Belgium U19, but now he is Luxembourg national team's first GK.

Tim Kips (18 years) - Magdeburg (Germany)

He is third GK of Luxembourg, but most probably he can be first GK in the future. Kips one of the talented GK in Luxembourg.

Defenders:

Maxime Chanot (29 years) - New York City (USA)

Chanot also have french citizenship and he is main figure of defence in this team.

Kevin Malget (28 years) - F91 Dudelange (Luxembourg)

Like Chanot, he has important role in Luxembourg's defence.

Vahid Selimovic (22 years) - Apollon Limassol (Cyprus)

Serbian-origin player played one game Serbia U19 too. He also has bright future.

Enes Mahmutovic (22 years) - Mddlesbrough (England)

Mahmutovic has kosovan citizenship too. He is considered such a talented defender.

Dirk Carlson (21 years) - Grasshopper (Switzerland)

Also the player with US citizenhip has 15 appearances for Luxembourg.

Laurent Jans (26 years) - Metz (France)

He is captain of the team and played 24 games for national team.

Midfielders and Forwards:

Christopher Martins Pereira (22 years) - Troyes (On loan from Lyon, France)

Cape Verde-origin player is considered on of the talented player, who was grown by Luxembourg.

Lars Gerson (29 years) - Norrköping (Sweden)

He played first game in the national team in 2008 and also has Norwegian citizenship. Gerson has 66 appearances and scored 4 times.

Aldin Skenderovic (21 years) - Elversberg (Germany)

Luxembourg national team has 4 Balkan-origin footballer. Skenderovic is on of them.

Olivier Thill (22 years) - Ufa (Russia)

Olvier is another great talent from Luxembourg. He introduced himself in Progress Niederkorn and signed russian side Ufa in 2018.

Leandro Barreiro Martins (19 years) - Mainz (Germany)

I said, in Luxembourg the largest foreign ethnic groups are the Portuguese. Barreiro Martins also one of them. If we look at his age and club, we can say he'll be great player.

Daniel Sinani (22 years) - F91 Dudelange (Luxembourg)

Another Serbian-origin footballer in Luxembourg is Daniel Sinani. He is mainly backup player.

Vincent Thill (19 years) - Pau (On loan from Metz, France)

He was born in 2000 and little brother of Olivier. I think Vincent is most talented Luxembourger player.

Daniel Da Mota (33 years) - Racing FC Union (Luxembourg)

Portuguese-origin player scored 7 times in 92 matches for national team.

Gerson Rodrigues (23 years) - Jubilo Iwata (Japan)

Another portuguese-origin midfielder in Luxembourg national team. He played in Japan since January.

Aurelien Joachim (32 years) - Royal Excelsior (Belgium)

He is very experienced forward. He has 78 appereances and scored 15 goals.

Head Coach:

Luc Holtz (49 years)

He works as a head coach of Luxembourg for 9 years. Can he surprise with "Gold Generation" us again? We must wait for to see this.

Luxembourg has great development and their future looks brightly. They have such good Economic opportunities for it. Maybe, they'll repeat Belgium's success in the future, who knows?