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In Kosovo they love Switzerland, Croatia and anyone who can destroy Serbia Israel today

2022-12-03T10:56:18.642Z


The Kosovans in Pristina celebrated for Granit Xhaka the victory last night on the way to the round of 16 of the World Cup • It symbolizes hope, revenge and memory of the war days for them • Watch Ronen Durfan's journey continues


In the final minutes, Granit Xhaka starts to fight with the Serbs.

"Plays her tough, but didn't think he should play for Kosovo," says a fan named Adnan, who is a dentist.

He's probably not that fair.

Jaka's father spent 3.5 years in a Yugoslav prison.

Others are yelling at him to calm down because there is another tournament to play and the hated Serbs are going home and just trying to squeeze out a relegation.

They are probably wrong, because Xhaka played his World Cup final yesterday.

Don't get confused with the horrific Kosovo war, it was in 1998-1999.

The father was a political prisoner back in Yugoslavia in the 1980s and underwent severe torture.

Part of the Balkan multinational state experiment that was Yugoslavia.

I tell my interlocutors that I remember Yugoslavia well because of its huge basketball teams.

They rightly point out that the football, cinema and music were also excellent.

But unlike the Serbo-Croatian speaking areas there is nothing of the Yugo-nostalgia phenomenon here.

In the meantime, some of Switzerland's black players join the brawl in Qatar and the local residents are sure that it is related to Serbian racism.

This is also a way to see the World Cup, photo: Ronen Dorfan

The demonization of everything Serbian is absolute.

At least on football days.

I watch the first half in the square near the cathedral named after Mother Teresa.

The Albanian nun wins the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on behalf of the poor in India.

The church is very central in the city even though 95% of the population of Kosovo is Muslim.

The game is projected on the walls of the church!

Nationalism produces fine football

So yesterday in Pristina we got something of this exotic football.

Pristina is a surprisingly elegant city, with an excellent road infrastructure around it.

But this is the Balkans.

The more you suffered because of the world's indifference - you get good budgets from its guilt.

Mulled wine stands waved Swiss flags.

In a sports store, the salesman tells me that the Switzerland shirt is the third most sold.

Brazil first followed by Messi's Argentina shirt.

But much less than the game in Kaliningrad 2018 when Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri celebrated with the Albanian Eagle gesture and agitated a pro-Serbian Russian stadium.

The Swiss team is third only to Brazil and Messi in Kosovo, photo: Ronen Durfen

The locals got their victory again: a wonderful 2:3 over Serbia, in what was perhaps one of the best games of the championship - a nation that produces good football has nothing to talk about.

Children of political prisoners produce committed footballers.

On both sides by the way.

The Kosovars celebrated again but very restrained, because then it was summer and the streets were full of people.

Then there were also 5-6 Kosovars in the Swiss team.

This time also a story in particular that the Serbs hung in the dressing room a large map of Serbia that does not indicate Kosovo and Kosovo complained to FIFA. 

In the hours after the game I talk to locals, waiters, hotel workers, about the war.

It is impossible to verify every story.

At their age they are second generation stories.

These are stories about genocide, about the destruction of houses, about rape, about just living in war.

One of the people says that part of his distant family was killed precisely when an errant NATO missile, which was supporting the Kosovars, hit the bus.

A million Kosovar Albanians became refugees, like the families of Xhaka and Shaqiri, who scored yesterday in the second consecutive World Cup against Serbia.

Materials that make a good football story for the world to enjoy.

There are also Serbs in order

By the way, during that war there was also a World Cup.

"We sympathized with Croatia because they were with us in the war and suffered from the Serbs," says the same Jaka-skeptic fan.

Nor does he remember the world being interested or protesting.

A bit like the rights of foreign workers or homosexuals in countries that do not host the World Cup.

Stand in Pristina with Swiss flags.

There is a victory, photo: Ronen Durfan

I ask him when Kosovo will be in the World Cup?

It will take a few more years, but he points to Muricki, Mallorca's excellent scorer who is leading a generation of better players.

And what about the relationship with the Serbs who stayed here?

"Most of them are in the north of the country on the Serbian border. They are fine. They can work here."

One of the hotel workers is really Serbian and comes every day by driving from Mitrovica in the Serbian region.

"There is no work in Mitrovica," she explains.

Her coworkers are watching the game with her.

After the war, 200,000 Serbs also became victims of deportation and Serbia is an outcast world country.

She also practically lost Kosovo but keeps her holy places - very important Orthodox Christian monasteries.

were we wrong

We will fix it!

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Source: israelhayom

All sports articles on 2022-12-03

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