During the World Cup 2010 qualifiers, he was called up regularly in the national team for all 10 group matches, playing on eight of them. In two of those matches Berisha played as a starter, in a 0–1 against Hungary on 28 March 2009[38] and four days later in a 0–3 loss against Denmark on 1 April 2009.[39] After the end of the tournament, he refused permanently to be called up for the national team's fixtures, one reason being that he is living a long distance away from Albania. As of 14 October 2009, his last game with the national team, Berisha had made 17 appearances and scored one goal for Albania.[40]

On 9 December 2013, he declared that after the opening of the winter transfer period he will sign for a football-club in Europe to be more close Albania and to play again for the national team,[41] but suddenly on 22 January 2014 it was announced that fellow A-League club Melbourne Victory had agreed to sign Berisha for next season 2014–15.[1] On 5 April 2014, he was asked by Albania national team coach Gianni De Biasi to play again for Albania only for the official matches valid for UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers and Berisha asked just ten days for final response.[42] His late response was definitive to not accept latest invitation, as he declared that as long as he was playing in Australia he couldn't come to Albania due to the long distance.[43]

Wow. I get its a long way to go, but if our guy's thought like that ( and they did pre Guss and for Oceania qualifiers) Australia would have never made a WC final

Interesting that a foreign national team player would choose to stay and play here for the dollars...

My how times change. Perhaps the HAL isn't as uncompetitive for players wages as some would think. Don't get me wrong I know we aren't going to sign Messi any time soon, probably never, although never is a Long time. What I mean is that for good players we are competitive (Milligan, Broich, Berisha for starters).

My view has always been that an increased salary cap just leads to your domestic players on average getting a pay rise, not that you are all of a sudden going to be Man City. We see it all the time with J, K and Chinese super league players. The average player gets paid a lot more but its hard to see the extra value.

It would be nice to see him playing against European giants in his time with us, but it'll also be good to getting our money's worth with less time away.

Measure him up for the Golden Boot already.

He is apparently a very very poor flier, so a 24+ hour flight to Europe for one match is probably not worth while in terms of the affect it has on him.

Albania beat portugal away last week in a Euro qualifier.
How little people know about European football on this forum is sad.
I suppose if you have never seen a live game apart from play station you have to be ignorant.
Cyprus, Albania, and many other smaller nations in Europe do Ok, but it is silly to expect them to be powerhouses countries.
As far as Berisha goes when he was playing in England he did his knee and was out for a full year after playing for Albania when his club suggested he have a rest. He never played for this club again.
He has used this experience to decide if it is in his best interest to travel 20,000 km a game and risk his career again.
Australia's National Team has learnt not to travel these great distances so most of their games are now in Europe.

If thats the case I wonder what made him want to take such a long flight here in the first place?

Having Berisha finish chances is what you pay for, if he misses a few games you'll still see him competing for the golden boot.

Most of the games he misses are nothing to do with 'time away'

These acts are now justifiable. No pussy bs at MVFC.

Albania beat portugal away last week in a Euro qualifier.
How little people know about European football on this forum is sad.
I suppose if you have never seen a live game apart from play station you have to be ignorant.
Cyprus, Albania, and many other smaller nations in Europe do Ok, but it is silly to expect them to be powerhouses countries.
As far as Berisha goes when he was playing in England he did his knee and was out for a full year after playing for Albania when his club suggested he have a rest. He never played for this club again.
He has used this experience to decide if it is in his best interest to travel 20,000 km a game and risk his career again.
Australia's National Team has learnt not to travel these great distances so most of their games are now in Europe.

Thanks, PV4.

Surprised he has only scored 1 goal out of 17 appearances for Albania?
i]

I think that stat may explain partly why he left Europe for Australia

lol yeah he must be shit :roll: Eurosnobs, can't please them.