FLASH
Shkruar nga Ben Blushi
Because the National Team is not just for Albania. The National Team of Albania is actually the National Team of three countries.
On the occasion of the National Team's victory over Serbia, I am republishing this article, which I believe is appropriate for this day.
Albanians have been playing football for almost 100 years, but they have never won so often and so easily as recently. Albania has had some great players, perhaps even greater than those playing today, but it has never had a great team.
Football today is not just a sport. History does not know any great team that has won when the country it represents is isolated, occupied or suffering from crises. If the 11 players of Albania had played for Afghanistan, which is an abnormal country, they would not have won so much. If the same players had worn the Ukrainian shirts, while fathers and brothers were bleeding in war, they would not have been able to go to the European Championship.
Usually, national teams run at the pace of the nation. The history of football proves that what happens off the field greatly affects the field. Non-sporting reasons are just as important as sporting reasons for winning. But what are these reasons in the case of the Albanian National Team?
In the 50s to the 90s, when Albania was a closed country, athletes, like all Albanians, had a complex towards foreigners. Restrictions on food, clothing, technology, art, movement, as well as prohibitions on private property and free speech forced Albanians to be inferior in general. Every Albanian believed that every foreigner was cheaper, better nourished, stronger, faster, more intelligent and richer than him. With this mentality, the footballers of those years also entered the field. They played convinced that they could. They were prisoners inside the jersey they defended. That jersey did not remind them of the nation they loved, but of the state they did not love. That state had forbidden them everything that their opponents had. When they went outside, they were confused, because their country was a hell compared to the places they went to play. Going outside this hell was traumatic and did them more harm than good. If on the field they were equal to foreign footballers, off the field they were fatally unequal.
Today, of course, it is different. Albanians have overcome their isolation complexes. More than 1 million live abroad and, regardless of the jobs they do, they are equal to those foreigners who do the same job. At least 5 million foreigners come to Albania who eat, dress and live like us. In bars they are equal, in hotels they are equal, in consumption they are equal, in language they are equal, in sins and anger they are equal. Equality outside the stadium helps the stadium.
Shqipëria sot është në përgjithësi një vend normal. Ajo është shumë më e hapur se Shqipëria e viteve 80, më e kamur se Shqipëria e viteve 90 dhe më e qetë se Shqipëria e viteve 2000. Duke u pasuruar shqiptarët kanë mësuar si ti bëjnë më pak dëm vetes. Në mes të viteve 90’ ne kishim një Kombëtare të mirë e cila fatkeqësisht mundej gjithmonë në minutën e fundit. Aq e shpeshtë u bë kjo rastësi, saqë u kthye në rregull. Dhe meqë u kthye në rregull përsëritej. Ne mundeshim gjithmonë edhe kur shënonim të parët. Lojtarët nuk besonin se mund të fitonin edhe kur ishin në avantazh, prandaj e lëshonin lojën në fund sikur iu humbte durimi.
Por jashtë stadiumit edhe Shqipërisë së atyre viteve i kishte sosur durimi. Megjithëse e hapur ndaj botës, Shqipëria që doli nga komunizmi ishte shumë e varfër dhe shumë e egër. Kombëtarja ishte një mix futbollistësh që kishin ikur si emigrantë dhe kur ktheheshin këtu, gjenin një vend të tmerrshëm, të ashpër dhe të ndarë në copa nga viti 1997. Kush mund tu kërkonte atyre të qëndronin në fushë kur gjithë vendi po binte sic edhe ra? Prandaj Kombëtarja vetëm mundej edhe kur fitonte.
Si rregull, kur vendet vuajnë, Kombëtaret munden sepse humori i vendit ndikon tek lojtarët dhe gjithë ambienti sportiv. Kombëtarja e Spanjës doli kampione e Botës atëherë kur Spanja arriti zhvillimin më të madh ekonomik në Evropë, në vitin 2010. Suksesi i saj nuk ishte vetëm sportiv. Gjermania doli kampione e Botës në 2014, kur udhëhiqte gjithë botën me eksportet e saj dhe teknologji. Më parë kishte dalë kampione në vitin 1974 dhe 1990 kur e kishte marrë veten nga rrënimi i luftës dhe ishte kthyer në një superfuqi. Sot Gjermania e ngathët dhe e futur në recesion nuk do dilte dot kurrë Kampione e Botës edhe nëse do kishte marrë borxh 11 lojtarë luftarakë shqiptarë. Njëlloj ka ndodhur edhe me Francën, Italinë, Kroacinë, Greqinë apo Kombëtare të tjera më të vogla. Kur vendet janë mirë, me shëndet ekonomik dhe optimizëm, kombëtaret shkëlqejnë.
Por në rastin e Kombëtares sonë ka edhe një arsye tjetër, të ndryshme nga rregullat që ndikojnë te Kombëtaret e tjera.
Në historinë e Botës nuk ka asnjë Kombëtare që furnizohet nga tre shtete fqinje si kjo Kombëtare që furnizohet njëkohësisht nga Shqipëria, Kosova dhe Maqedonia. Kjo që nuk ndodh askund, ndodh në Shqipëri. Prandaj kjo është një kombëtare e çuditshme si përbërje, e panjohur si rast dhe unike si eksperiment. Kombëtaret e mëdha të botës kanë futbollistë nga ish kolonitë e tyre apo nga emigrantët që janë natyralizuar. Por ama një belg që flet frëngjisht nuk luan për Francën sepse ai nuk kërkon që Belgjika të bashkohet me Franën, një austriak nuk luan për Gjermaninë sepse asnjë nga këto dy vende nuk do që Austria të jetë Gjermani dhe asnjë argjentinas nuk luan për Spanjën sepse këto janë dy vende të ndryshme që flasin të njëjtën gjuhë.
While the Albanian National Team is unique on the planet because it plays for a historical revenge. Fans demand from it to do historical justice by defeating its enemies on the field. The national team is a small army of Albanians united in one goal: to correct history by running after a ball. It unites on the field the pieces of a country divided 100 years ago. That is why it gathers so much passion, nerve, sweat, blood, tears, energy, demographics, scenography, choreography, patriotic architecture and lust for national revenge. It is the only national team that has as its anthem, songs about people who were killed 30 years ago fighting with weapons to change history. These songs that come from war and perhaps go towards war, are better known, sung more and excited more strongly than the Albanian anthem itself.
Because the National Team is not just Albania's.
This is the reason why thousands of Kosovar fans abandon their national team that represents a state and follow the Albanian national team that represents a nation. The Albanian national team is in fact the national team of three states, or more precisely the national team that can destroy the two states where Albanians would not want to be. Kosovo and Macedonia. Patriotism, i.e. the need for a common state, is the main coach of the national team.
He directs it, tames it, hurries it, raises it, unites it, divides it, enlarges it, makes it furious, uproots it, lowers it, presses it, attacks it and rushes it. The national team plays and wins on a green field that always seems red to Albanians. Unity is its field. Opponents are its enemies. The ball is its weapon. Composition is its soul. If the national team had only footballers from Albania, it would never have had this success and this support. Albania would have a team but not a national team, but history requires that Albanians have both a team and a national team.
This is the reason why the National Team wins and will win. Even if it sometimes loses. It still wins.
Lini një Përgjigje