Brazilian player joins FYROM soccer squad
SKOPJE (Reuters) – Nikola Ilievski, the coach of the national soccer team of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) has included Brazilian midfielder Aguinaldo de Jesus Braga in a 20-strong squad for their home friendly against Finland on Wednesday. The 27-year-old from Vardar, Skopje, had played in the FYROM premier league for three years. He applied for FYROM citizenship last week and is expected to obtain it before the start of the 2004 European Championship qualifiers. «He is strong, fast and big. We need such a player in the team,» Ilievski told a news conference yesterday. The game against Finland in the town of Prilep is FYROM’s second warm-up for the European qualifiers which start this autumn. FYROM drew 4-4 in Bosnia on March 27. FYROM said earlier yesterday they had canceled their friendly in Estonia on May 9 due to financial problems and were seeking an opponent among neighboring countries such as Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania and Greece.
