The national team break is slowly approaching, which is a sign for the selectors to start with publishing the lists for the finals of the qualifications for the World Cup in Qatar. Today, the selector of Romania caused a real shock, all because of the invitation to the 15-year-old!
There are not many examples that even footballers aged 18, 19 have received invitations for A teams of countries, imagine someone who has just stepped into senior football.
But that is exactly the case with Enes Sali, who currently plays for Farul from Constanta, which is owned by the legendary Gheorghe Hagi.
What is even more unusual is the life story of the 15-year-old midfielder who played seven games this season with one goal in Romania’s first division.
Namely, Sali was born in Canada, more precisely in Toronto, and he is originally from Turkey since his parents are Turks from Romania.
At the age of 11, he came to Barca’s La Masia from Woodbridge Strikers, Canada, from where he moved to Hagi’s private football academy, after a year.
He passed there more than well and became the youngest scorer in the history of the Romanian league! But it seems like that the Romanians handed him this invitation not to be taken over by Turkey or Canada, but not because he is really ready for the highest level of football.
- I think this is more like a strategy to protect our young players in the future. As happened earlier with Markovic, Adrian Rus, and as it will probably be with Radu Dragushin. They realized that the player has potential, which Mr. Hagi realized earlier – said Farul’s team manager
Still, coach Mirel Radoi has found himself under the scrutiny of the domestic media, as Sali is expected to make his debut in the last two qualifiers that the Romanians play with Iceland and Liechtenstein.
The impression is, real rivals for the debut of 15-year-old Sali…
