Get Your Head in the Game by Dominic Stevenson

Author:Dominic Stevenson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786784520
Publisher: Watkins Media

The country is so excited

To Atdhe, the shirts he wears are more than the cloth around his skin – they are a symbol.

“Pulling on the shirt for the national team is different. You can’t explain how it feels. There was so much going on for the people of Kosovo, they never thought they would see the day where their flag was on a shirt and their boys would run onto a football pitch. They never thought they’d hear their anthem. It is a lot of pressure.

“It is emotional, you understand. You know people who have been through the war, and those people are now seeing Kosovo, not just in football, but in life all over the television and respected in the world. It’s unreal.

“The country is so excited by our national team. They haven’t been used to success, but our run through the European Championship qualifiers has raised the expectations so much. We started winning, and now people expect we will beat everyone who gets in our way.

“Whoever we play, we must win. That is the Kosovan mindset now, but I know the fans will be sad at some point. We aren’t used to not meeting expectations, and with each victory those expectations have got higher. I want to keep the momentum going for as long as I can though. I don’t want to let them down.

“We don’t focus on others. We play our game and we hope to make our people proud. They deserve it. Kosovo isn’t special, though; every country I have played in I have seen passionate fans who love their country as much as our fans love Kosovo. What is different is that no one expected it of us. It is special because for so long the world looked at us and felt sorry for us, but we have fought back on the football pitch and we are doing all we can. Who could have imagined that Kosovo would ever be in with a chance to go to the European Championship?”

Atdhe is right to ponder this question. If Kosovo qualify for Euro 2020, with a population of only 1.8 million, they will be the second smallest nation to qualify for the tournament82. In comparison, Iceland had a population of 330,000 when they qualified for Euro 2016, but that nation hadn’t been in the midst of a devastating war less than 20 years earlier.

“You can’t buy the fight and the passion we feel as Kosovans. To make the people proud is incredible. That makes us so hungry, we want to give it everything every time we step onto the pitch.”

Atdhe has been at Sheffield Wednesday since 2013, moving on a free transfer from Rapid Wien. I was at the first match he played for the club, and I saw him take on four QPR players and slam the ball home in the bottom corner from 20 yards out a mere 19 minutes into his debut. He is a special player, there is no doubt about that, but

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