TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania's national team coach, Italian Giovanni de Biasi, has received Albanian citizenship a day before the European championship qualifier against Armenia.
President Bujar Nishani on Saturday gave the coach his citizenship document at a meeting with the team in the port city of Durres, 33 kilometers (20 miles) west of capital Tirana, where they are training.
De Biasi, 58, has been leading Albania, which is third in Group I, since December 2011.
The Italian coach is married to an Albanian woman and will now have dual citizenship.