KOSOVAPRESS News

Durmishi’s confession: We gave it all for 90s football

Football in the 90s in Kosovo went through an extremely difficult period. Burdened by the miserable conditions, but also by the pressure of the Serbian occupier, the footballers of this time gave everything, and even risked their lives to keep the sport of football alive in Kosovo.

One of the footballers who belonged to this generation was Arsim Durmishi, who tells KosovaPress about the vicissitudes he and his teammates had to face at that time.

He has played for teams like Besiana, KEK and Prishtina, but, as he says, without any professional contract.

Durmishi says that there were cases when the Serbian police attacked and mistreated referees and match organizers, while football players’ jerseys and equipment had to be secretly sent to football matches.

But, beyond these challenges, the former defender continued with his great dedication on the field of play, so much so that he was close to transferring out of Kosovo, but a serious injury stopped his career in half.

“There were three clubs that I was about to make an agreement with. There was Bronby from Denmark, they had Laudrup as a coach, there was Gaziantep in Turkey and in New Zealand or Australia I could choose from these three clubs. But, I had bad luck, life is like that, somewhere in the 50th or 60th minute, I don’t know exactly, I broke my leg. I had an injury that was not serious, but super serious. I had the whole lower leg immobile, I had all the ligaments torn and I had a broken back bone. I had 20 stitches on my leg. Then the career, as if when I touched that red button, everything changed”, Durmishi remembers the difficult period.

Today, after all these years, Durmishi says that the footballers of the 90s are in difficult living conditions. He expects that from the new Sports Law, this category will receive the treatment it deserves.

Meanwhile, for today’s football in Kosovo, Durmishi emphasized that good steps have been taken in its development, especially in terms of quality.