FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
If there is an image that is regularly repeated in Albanian football, it is that of the player who leaves for Europe with great promises and returns before the year is out, with suitcases full of excuses, but with a new contract ready on the table. This phenomenon, which we can now fearlessly call the “Boomerang Syndrome”, is becoming a worrying norm that reveals not only the true level of rivalry in our championship, but also the lack of sporting ambition in the face of the financial comfort that returning home offers.
The most recent case, that of Redon Xhixha, who is wearing the Tirana jersey again after the adventure in Azerbaijan, is just the seal of a season that is proving a success that has remained in attempts to some extent, of our most sensational exports. Xhixha left as the absolute scorer and the great hope of the red and black attack, but after three years at Qarabag, where his brilliance was strained and his minutes limited, he chose the familiar path: returning to where they call him "king". This return, although it excites the white and blue fans, is in fact a silent admission that the pace of international football, even in championships like the Azerbaijani one, remains a difficult bite to swallow for the stars of the Superiore.
The story doesn't stop there. We remember Juliano Skuka, the youngster who broke transfer records when he was sold to Metz in France for 1.4 million euros. Expectations were that he would be the "Skuka of the National Team" in the strong European leagues, but the reality was painful. After just a year of wandering around the benches and failed loans, he settled back in Rinas to join Partizan. Likewise, the case of Sherif Kallaku remains a symbol of this constant fluctuation; a player who fled to Croatia with the status of an undisputed fantasy player, but who returns to Teuta, Tirana and Partizan, proving that his comfort zone is within our borders, where the low pace of the game allows him to shine without needing the physicality required abroad.
Even names like Regi Luskja or Albi Doka complete this gray panorama of our football. The first tried the "paradise" of Sheriff Tiraspol, a club that played at the highest levels of the Champions League, but returned within a year to wear the jersey of Egnatia and then Tirana. The second, after trying the Croatian and Hungarian championships without finding stability, returned to the white-blue "verb". All these moves have a common denominator: our players find it very easy to give up. Why fight with flesh and soul for a starting place in the cold of Central or Eastern Europe, when you can return to Albania, receive a fat salary (often higher than what you would receive abroad as a bench player) and be treated like a savior?
The problem here is two-fold. On the one hand, the Superior produces players who are not yet ready for the peripheral foreign championships and when these players are faced with real intensity, they “drown” within the first 45 minutes. On the other hand, our clubs, instead of promoting new talents and daring, prefer to recycle these unsuccessful “exports”. They welcome them with the red carpet, giving the keys to the team to players who have just lost their most important battle abroad.
As long as returning to Albania after a failure abroad is seen as a "blow in the market" and not as an alarm for a decline in the level, our football will continue to revolve around itself. This closed circle is turning the Superiore into an asylum for those who did not have the strength to move forward, killing the competition and giving the wrong message to every young person aspiring to Europe: Don't worry if you failed, we will always wait here as heroes./Top Channel
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