The European Championship is the stage where the best European players compete in the major championships. Stars from the Premier League, Exemplars, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 attended the tournament. There are also players from other fairly strong secondary leagues, including the RPL. Of course, the national teams also include players from the championships of the countries they represent at Euro 2024. Today, it is not even surprising that a large number of top footballers have arrived from the Saudi Arabian championship, which has become one of the richest in the world.
However, in team applications you can also find people from completely exotic leagues for such an important tournament as the Euro Cup. It turns out that you can get into the team that will compete in Euro 2024 from Iran, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan and… England’s third division! These heroes deserve a separate story.
Which former RPL legionnaires perform at the European Championship:
More than 20 former RPL heroes will go to Euro 2024! The list is impressive: from Khvicha to Tedesco
Giorgi Gvelesiani, Georgia national team and Iranian championship
Georgy Gvelesiani
Photo: Dan Mullan/Getty Images
Obviously, the Iranian championship is not the tournament in which the players of the European teams want to participate. Rather, the Iranians themselves are willing to go somewhere to grow, including the RPL. However, 33-year-old defender Gvelesiani is a rare exception. Until 2017 he played in Georgia for Dynamo Tbilisi and then decided to move to Iran. And now he has been playing in the local league for seven seasons, changing four clubs: Zob Ahan, Nassaji, Sepahan and Persepolis. The last two seasons he won the championship title with Persepolis. Before Euro 2024, Georgiy played only one friendly match for the Georgian national team in June. However, French coach Willy Sagnol included him in the request and not, for example, Torino’s Saba Sazonov. And in the 2nd round he was free as a substitute against the Czech Republic.
Gvelesiani has an original attitude towards the regime: “I am not a super professional. Sometimes I sleep two or three hours, eat what I want and wake up when I want. I don’t think football has anything to do with it. The game depends on your personality, that’s the most important thing. My secret is that I always give 100% on the field.”
Luka Gugeshashvili, Georgia national team and Azerbaijan championship
Luka Gugeshashvili
Photo: Pat Elmont/Getty Images
The 25-year-old goalkeeper of the Georgian national team this season sat on the bench under Andrei Lunev in Qarabag. He sometimes replaced the Russian, who needed a rest after all his injuries. Gugeshashvili played only 13 games in all tournaments, missing 10 goals and allowing five shutouts. He has been with the Azerbaijani club since January 2022 and has already won three championship titles with Qarabag. Before that, he played a bit abroad in the Polish third league with Podlasie and in the Spanish third league with Recreativo. For the Georgian national team, Luka has only one match: in 2023, he played a full time to zero in a sparring with the mysterious Mongolian national team. Gugeshashvili replaces the main goalkeeper of the national team, Giorgi Mamardashvili.
Georgia Vivid Report:
“After the match I kicked my wife out.” How Georgia’s love for football went unrequited
Vernon De Marco, Slovakia national team and United Arab Emirates championship
Vernon DeMarco
Photo: Christian Hofer/Getty Images
The defender of the Slovak national team was taken to the Emirates. For some, the UAE Championship is the same as a “water bomb championship”, and De Marco apparently felt good there, as he maintained the level of a national team player. The Slovakian with the captain’s armband fought for the colors of the Hatta club, which signed him in the summer of 2023. True, the results were not encouraging: Hatta took last place, having won one victory in the entire championship, and He was removed. Vernon’s contract is expiring, so the 31-year-old will be a free agent in July.
In general, De Marco is a true man of the world. Born in Argentina, raised in Spain, he received Slovak citizenship after nine years playing for Zemplin and Slovan Bratislava. He speaks six languages. He played 10 games for the Slovak national team and scored one goal, but at Euro 2024 he remained in the reserve team in the first two rounds.
Tauljant Seferi, Albania national team and UAE championship
Tauliant Seferi
Photo: Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Getty Images
Seferi (aka Suleymanov), 27, also played for the Emirates last season. The Albanian national team forward arrived at Bani Yas a year ago from Vorskla on loan for 250,000 euros. Tauliant scored 11 goals in the UAE Championship and helped his new team maintain its place in the top division.
Seferi was born in Macedonia and played for that country’s youth and youth teams. In addition, in 2014 he played a couple of friendly matches with the main team. He was then 17 years old and became the youngest footballer in the history of the North Macedonia national team. But three years after leaving for Switzerland, Tauliant suddenly decided to play in Albania. Initially he was called up to the youth team, and in 2019 he debuted in the first team. Seferi did not appear in Young Boys, he went to Albanian Tirana and from there to Vorskla.
Seferi has 21 caps and three goals for the Albanian national team. At Euro 2024, the forward played as a starter for Italy and as a substitute for Croatia. So far we have not seen any effective action from the UAE Championship star.
Albanians just play today:
Spain sent Albania home! And he didn’t miss a single goal in the group stage!
Yasir Asani, Albanian national team and South Korean championship
Yasir Asani
Photo: Dan Mullan/Getty Images
Another Albanian national team player from an unexpected league is 29-year-old Asani. In January 2023, the winger went to work in South Korea and signed a two-year contract with Gwangju. Last season, Yasir’s team finished third and in the 2024 season it is in sixth place.
Asani himself barely played for Gwangju this season, and it is even more surprising that he went to Euro 2024. In Europe, the peak of Yasir’s career was playing for Hungarian side Kisvarda. The winger also won gold in Macedonia with Vardar and in Albania with Partizani.
Asani, like Seferi, was born in Macedonia, played for the youth team of this country, then received an Albanian passport and changed national teams. He is in the Albanian national team since 2023. He played 16 matches and scored 4 + 5. At Euro 2024 he started all three group stage games. In the match with Croatia he made an assist.
Martin Adam, Hungarian national team and South Korean championship
Martin Adam
Photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images
This 29-year-old forward for the Hungarian national team has become one of the main memes of Euro 2024 due to his constitution. When Adam took the field in the first match against Switzerland, many thought he was very overweight. Martín himself explained: “I was born like this, I have this figure. “I’m not saying I was that big when I was born, but I have basic physical characteristics, genetics, and I can’t change that.”
Adam has been playing in South Korea for Ulsan Hyundai since 2022. Before that, he played only in the Hungarian championship and just before leaving for Asia he became the league’s top scorer, scoring 31 goals. Double that of the closest pursuer! Therefore, with the transfer of Martin, Paks earned a lot of money by local standards – 1.2 million euros. With Ulsan Hyundai, Adam won the championship title for two seasons in a row, although he did not score many goals: 24 goals in 67 games.
The center forward has also been in the Hungarian national team since 2022, scoring 3+3 in 25 games. At Euro 2024 he did not perform any effective action, coming on as a substitute with Switzerland, Germany and Scotland.
Adam’s appearance in the first round caused joy:
The meme of the day for Euro 2024 is the huge Hungarian striker. How did you get to the national team?
Callum Stiles, Hungarian national team and England’s third league
Callum Stiles
Photo: Richard Sellers/Getty Images
Let’s add an English Championship player to the incredible list. A representative of the Championship in a Euro 2024 level team is nothing, but meeting a player from the third division (League 1) in such a tournament is surprising. Especially if it’s a Hungarian called Callum Stiles!
The 24-year-old attacking midfielder was born and raised in England, but thanks to his grandmother’s Hungarian roots he was able to play for another country’s national team. In fact, Stiles spent four seasons in the English second division, but throughout the season he played in League 1 with Barnsley, to which he belongs, and in the Championship with Sunderland. Now Callum has returned to Barnsley, but was probably hoping that the European Championship would help him with a good transfer.
The boy has been playing for the Hungarian national team since 2022. In 23 games he only gave one assist. He did not appear in the first two rounds of Euro 2024, but he did start against Scotland. Apparently, the coach trusted his knowledge of British football. Callum played for an hour.
“To be honest, it was only in 2020 that I found out that my grandmother is from Hungary,” Styles admitted after his debut. “I knew she was from another country, but I had no idea where this country was. During the coronavirus quarantine I wanted to know more and my mother told me everything.”
A terrible end to the Hungarians’ decisive match in the group:
Video
A terrible injury overshadowed the last goal in Euro Cup history. The player was taken with an oxygen mask
