Football gives Kosovo wings in emergence from bloody history
Team from once war-torn country meet England for first time looking to extend 15-match unbeaten run
Kosovo played their first Fifasanctioned competitive game less than three years ago, a World Cup qualifier against Finland, and since then have won their Nations League group. They are undefeated in 15 games and beat the Czech Republic 2-1 on Saturday. Recognition came too late for another generation of their most famous sons – Xhaka, Shaqiri, Valon Behrami, Adnan Januzaj are committed elsewhere – but even so, a nation of 1.8 million have become competitive in very little time.
It is impossible to talk about Kosovo without talking about the war and the Nato bombing of the former Yugoslavia that forced Serb forces to withdraw. After that Serbia game last summer, Xhaka and Shaqiri were charged by Fifa for their eagle-gesture goal celebrations referencing the Albanian flag and very much a political statement. To describe Kosovo’s relationship with Serbia in terms of football feels grossly inadequate given what was done in Kosovan territory during the war.
It is a far more painful and complex legacy than anything football commonly has to deal with, although football is one of the highest-profile expressions of Kosovo’s nationhood. Serbia still does not recognise Kosovo as an independent state and the two teams cannot be drawn against each other under Uefa provisions which keep apart countries with politically sensitive histories. Kuqi, an articulate, thoughtful man, concedes that it is a “hatred”, although he tries not to dwell on it.
His cousins stayed in Kosovo and lived through the conflict, as did his wife. “She has seen people, lots of people, shot in the space of a minute or two,” Kuqi says. “She has seen everything. It is hard to understand that feeling unless you see something like this. They were kicked from one place to another trying to survive.” He stops to reflect again. “We don’t talk a lot about the war because you feel sad when we do.” agent and said, ‘Am I? Am I going to Tottenham?’ I wasn’t. From then I knew: you just focus on football.”
Mind, there have been bumps along the way. After a move to Norwich City, finding opportunities limited, he was first loaned back to Coventry, then spent a year at Aberdeen.
“I’ve always backed myself. The reason I went on loan was because I wasn’t playing at Norwich. I wasn’t happy to not be playing.,” he says.
When the new manager, Daniel Farke, was appointed at Carrow Road, however, he selected Maddison immediately. And the player excelled sufficiently in the 2017-18 season to earn a move to Leicester. Now he has been drafted into Gareth Southgate’s squad for the first set of internationals of the season. The call-up is, he says, the highlight of his career, the biggest honour a player could achieve. And he hopes it is a rather more encouraging experience than his last outing in an England shirt, during the summer’s Under-21 European Championship.
“I reflected on that tournament for a little while,” he says of hapless English failure in Italy. “No one was more disappointed than us lads. Because we were so up for it, so motivated, so hungry to do well. Ultimately, we fell short.” Southgate has insisted lessons must be learnt by those involved.
“Maybe when we look back we might think we were overconfident. It didn’t seem like that at the time. We were so motivated to do well and we worked so hard,” he says. “Maybe we did think we were one of the best teams in the tournament and with the talent we had, I don’t think we were stupid saying that. But we lost to Romania in a must-win game. I don’t think we took it for granted, but it’s something we’ve got to learn from.”
If he plays against Kosovo on Tuesday in Southampton, the learning experience will reach another level. He says he is ready for the call-up and will endeavour to block out the “noise” surrounding it and concentrate on what he does best.
“You try not to think about it. You’ve just got to let your football do the talking,” he says.
And leave it to someone else to do the tweeting.
There is great understanding, he says, that those Kosovan players born in the 1990s could not wait for Kosovo when it came to their international careers. “Xhaka and Shaqiri grew up in Switzerland, the country gave them great opportunity,” Kuqi says. “It is not easy to turn their back on that. You don’t know how many World Cups you are going to have as a footballer. It is not like you play until you die.”
From the current team, he picks out Milot Rashica, a midfielder at Werder Bremen, and Arber Zeneli, a forward at Reims. Swansea City’s midfielder Bersant Celina, a former Manchester City academy boy, is another prospect, currently injured. But then this new generation are the lucky ones, with Kosovo’s admission into Uefa meaning that their domestic clubs
A whole generation of Kosovan players was lost to the game because of the war
now have the chance of competing in Europe, and all the advantages that brings.
A whole generation of Kosovan players was lost to the game because of the war and, in many respects, the 12-year-old Kuqi, a displaced child living for a while in a refugee camp in Finland, was one of the lucky ones.
He was able to forge a fine career through talent and determination, and since he retired in 2016 has completed his Uefa pro licence. He has managed in Finland already and one has to concede that his experience in life, as well as his football CV, is remarkable.
The region that is the former Yugoslavia is one of the world’s great centres for producing elite players, uninterrupted even by a war that was devastating for so many. Last of the new nations to emerge is Kosovo, where, as Kuqi says more than once, “the game is in our blood”. Given how they have fought to have their own team, it is hard to argue.