After a two-day trip and a 28-hour stopover in Germany, the Albanian duo of Ness Ziona were able to return to Israel. "Soccer without fans is not worth much"

• Jasmine hiked in action. "I haven't touched the ball in two months"

  Photo: 

  Alan Shaver

The journey of Yashmir Hicke and his friend Sabine Lilay back from Albania to Israel is reminiscent of immigrations in the 1950s to the Holy Land and less to the modern age. When the league came to a halt, Skacia Ness Ziona allowed its foreign players to return to their homeland. But when Hika and Lillai wanted to return to Israel it was already a much more difficult task. Albania closed the airport in Tirana, and the club's leaders already seemed unable to return the two foreigners to Israel.

But last week, a single flight from Tirana to Frankfurt and Ness Ziona jumped on the bargain. The two Albanians also expressed their willingness to embark on the journey, and in an interview with Israel Today, Hicke told a number of hardships they went through.

"All in all, it took us two days to get from Albania to Israel. On normal days, it is a flight of less than four hours," says Hicke, continuing the journey: "We tried everything to find a solution to get to Israel, but there were no flights, only once a week, so we said that everything was superior. On the flight to Germany and from there we will continue to Israel.

"In the end we found a flight to Tel Aviv but only the day after. We landed, and then found out that we had no place to sleep in Frankfurt. We couldn't leave the airport because of government procedures with the Corona and all the accommodation at the airport was full. 28 hours we were at the airport. We found a little corner there to sleep and that's it, there's not much to do except wait. "

Hicke (left). "I did not imagine such a long journey" // Photo: Bernie Ardov

That sounds crazy. What did you eat there?

"Normally we are athletes, not eating nonsense but apart from McDonald's nothing was open. We mainly ate there and drank a lot of coffee. It took us two days to get from Albania to Israel, we had to eat something."

Did you know what you're doing when you left home in Albania?

"I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but I didn't imagine such a long journey. It's lucky that Sabine went through it with me. Is this a story I can tell my grandchildren, but tell you the truth? If I stay with Ness Ziona in the league, it's worth everything."

"I missed the ball"

After such a crazy journey, Hicke (32) is yet to return to the field. He has been home for three days out of two weeks where he will have to be in solitary confinement. Like all players, those in Ness Ziona are unclear as to what fitness will come back and how the forced retardation brought with them by the Corona virus will affect them.

"I haven't touched the ball in two months," said the Albany, adding: "In Albania we couldn't go out of the house so I couldn't practice. Even while we were allowed out of the house, we couldn't go to the fields or play football. We tried to keep ourselves running as much as possible. We would be in such a situation. It was very difficult, but we went through it. As a professional footballer I did everything I could. Even at home I worked hard, strength training and running, but I missed the ball. "

Hicke. "Soccer without fans is not worth much" // Photo: Alan Shiber

When you landed in Israel, life was almost back to normal, what did you think when you saw it?

"We landed at night and the airport was empty, but then we went outside and saw that everything looked normal. The cars on the road, people in the street. I heard that people were going to the sea. The situation here looked good. I'll keep myself in isolation to return properly."

Have you heard that there is a chance that the audience will return to the stands this season too? It is not safe, but possible.

"Really? It's good to hear. Football without fans isn't worth much. I've seen games abroad without a crowd and it's awfully weird. If the situation improves in Israel then maybe it will really happen. "

You are not fully fit and so are your teammates. The rest of the teams are not at peak fitness either, so how do you get back to the reality of three games a week?

"Even when we're fully fit, it's hard to play three games a week. It's going to be a tough time and players have a risk of injuries. I think everyone is aware of the risks involved in a big load of games in a short time, especially after two months without football."

Hicke celebrates the Maccabi Netanya uniform. "This season things didn't exactly work out" 'Photo: Danny Maron

It's an unusual season, personally. You started in Netanya and then you moved to Ness Ziona because you didn't play.

"Sometimes it happens like that in football. I had a good start in Maccabi Netanya, we had successes, we went to the finals and finished in the top playoffs. This season things didn't work out and I decided to move to Ness Ziona, play more and try to help the team stay in the league. "We were in good shape and momentum, I was very optimistic. Now it is obviously not going to be easy, it's a different reality."

After all, do you think Ness Ziona will stay in the league?

"Of course it is."