Ilija Najdoski, the legend of the Macedonian football, former Macedonian national team player, European and World Club Champion representing the Belgrade team “Crvena Zvezda”, and former “Vardar” player, talks about his job position as technical manager for the A national team. He talks about the atmosphere in the national team and about the expectations before the match against Slovakia on November 15 at the National Arena “Philp II” in Skopje.

-“Football is the challenge of my life. I took the position of technical manager at the A National team because I wanted to help the team, to share my experience, to help the younger players gain confidence, and to be the link between the technical staff, the players and the football federation. One of the goals in my football career is to never be satisfied with secondary roles, always to face new challenges and achievements. It’s a great challenge to secure a place in the playoffs for the European Championship and the World Cup. Football is a tough sport, we cannot become successful over night, but we must strive for better results. It’s very important for me that I help the team achieve positive outcomes that everyone will be proud of. Let’s take the Belgian team as an example, a team that had many successes in the past; they couldn’t secure a place at the European and the World Championships 3 years in a row. But they were patient, they were creating a new generation that will play at a very high level, and now they are getting the expected results.“– stated Najdoski.

Our team’s atmosphere is at a very high level, it’s due to the fact that the players are in the team for the benefit of the football in Macedonia. 

-"The National team atmosphere is excellent, we are building a professional relationship with the players, and there is a mutual respect among them, which is very important to me. We don’t forget why we are in this team, the approach is strictly professional and I feel that it’s the only right way to approach this. Lately I see that the players take the spot in the national team very seriously, they use the time before the match to improve their game, to be of better use for the coach and the technical team, and primarily focus on being on the A team and to play their best game. “-stated Najdoski.

“We need to be focused on the team, the younger players need to respect every opponent, but especially themselves.” – suggests the football legend before the match against Slovakia.

-“Slovakia has proven to be a very good team, they won their first three matches and they hold the top spot in the group. But I think that we should put more focus on our team and our game. This will be a tough match, and we must have faith, to start the game with no fear and play the best that we can. If the fans give their full support and feel that the players are giving their best at this match, like they did on the match against Ukraine, then we have nothing to lose. Quite the opposite, we need to think positive and fight form the beginning till the end."

The generation of National players of Panchev, Gjurovski brothers, Boshkovski, Savevski, Stojkovski, etc. Najdoski says that they would’ve had better results if they were playing in their best football years.

-"Our generation was strong, but we were at the last years of our football careers, almost at the end of our careers and that was the main reason why we had those results in the qualifications cycle. For example, at the time Croatia separated from Yugoslavia, in their national team they had players that were younger than us, players like Shuker, Jarni. Bilikj, Boban, Vlaovikj etc. They had the strength and energy to play at a high level in the following years which brought them the great results at the World Cup in France and Euro Championship in England. Maybe we could have scored better result with our team, but the circumstances were that we didn’t play in our best football playing years. “-stated Najdoski.