But young girls in Kosovo’s football world are pioneering cooperation.

“I never imagined that sport, especially collective ones, would be an important element for peacebuilding between different communities in our country,” Armenda Filipaj, manager of the “Prishtina” club told BIRN.

‘We don’t link our friendship with politics’

Andjela Canacevic. Photo: BIRN

Andjela Canacevic fell in love with football about a year ago, when she saw some influential girls in the world’s most popular game tackling the ball.

It did not take much time for her to understand that this was a game she wanted to be part of.

“I play for ‘Brezovica’ as defender because I like this position. We all get well within the club, and we’re advancing fast,” she told BIRN.

The club mostly trains on a school courtyard, but when it rains, they are forced to used closed pitches.

Andjela’s club gathers girls from Kosovo’s Serbian community, but in many cases they have faced their Albanian peers in friendly matches.

“We have played against ‘Prishtina’ club and had no problems at all. ‘Prishtina’s girls are very nice,” Andjela said.

“We even got together after the match. We didn’t have any tension and spent a good time together,” she added.

Engjellusha Tasholli. Photo: BIRN

She says her parents support her fully and are not concerned about her playing with Albanian girls. “My mother works in Pristina, together with Albanians. My parents never stopped me in any aspect whatsoever,” she said. 

“We don’t link our friendship with politics and we always get on well,” she explained.

The peak thrill for Andjela and her fellow players was a trip to Barcelona where they watched a match between Barcelona and England’s Chelsea.

“I play football because of the love I have for the game and I enjoy it. I don’t have any specific objective. I just want to enjoy it,” Andjela says.

Her team mate, Jana Simanovic, plays in a different position, as attacker. She says that from the first day she went on the pitch, she realised her passion for football.

“Initially I thought that football was a sport for boys – but then I realised that I have talent for it, too,” she smiles.

To cross the language barrier, use English

Aferdita Fazlija. Photo: BIRN

Engjellusha Tasholli wakes up every day at 6am to catch the bus for Prishtina for her daily training session. 

Training starts at 8am and immediately after she has to catch the bus back to her home town of Lipjan, some 18 kilometres south of Pristina. Her school classes start at 10am.

“I’ve played football for a year now, and always enjoy it. Every match, whether it’s competitive or friendly. I feel proud to be able to do what I like to do,” Engjellusha says.

She says that, besides sporting reasons, her and her team mates’ priority is to empower girls and encourage them to get involved in the sport.

In return, Engjellusha says football has offered her opportunities she never imagined while growing up in small towns and villages.

“The dream for all the girls in the team was to go to Barcelona and we managed to go there. It was the best experience ever,” she says.

Speaking of her Serbian colleagues, Engjellusha says that at the beginning communication was difficult because of language barriers, but in time they adapted to speaking English with each other.

“Last year, we got on very well together. We communicated in English and we understand each other well in football,” she says.

Football is serving as a get-together bridge not only for Albanian and Serbian girls from Kosovo.

For 18-year-old Bosniak Amina Zekic, football has offered a long journey since she started to play for the “Behar” club of Vitomirica, a Bosniak village. 

Three years after, she got a transfer to the western Kosovo “Istogu” football club before joining “Prishtina”.

Ivan Nikolic. Photo: BIRN

Amina recalls her first days when she joined “Prishtina” and had problems communicating with Albanian colleagues who did not speak her language.

“They knew I was Bosniak and tried to communicate with me the best way they could. They told me that if it’s impossible for me to speak Albanian, we could switch to English,” Amina says.

Her passion for football began when she played at home with her brothers, but also in school. When she got an opportunity to train in Peje, she did not want to miss it.

“My father did not allow me at first because [he thought] it was a sport for boys, but when he saw me training in our courtyard, he brought me to training himself and came to the stand to see me play. Now he fully supports me,” Amina says.

“We get on very well with Amina. She is very nice girl,” Erjona Mehmeti, a “Prishtina” defender, says. “I have also played against Serbian players in friendly matches. We communicated in English and got on very well with them,” she adds.

Rocky road for women’s football in Kosovo

Amina Zekic. Photo: BIRN

Neglected and under-financed as it is, women’s football is not a new thing in Kosovo.

Aferdita Fazlia pioneered the sport among girls in 1984 when she joined “Prishtina”, the only women’s club in Kosovo, then part of the Yugoslav football league.

There were many questions to answer and one of the most important was to prove that “football is also for girls”.

“It was really challenging,” Fazlia, who now works as Deputy Director for the Department of Sports at the Ministry of Sports, told BIRN, of the years back when she started playing football.

“There were things that a sports player might find difficult to overcome because of the prejudices that dominated that time,” she added.

She needed to change four buses to travel around 60 kilometres from her home village to Pristina, five days a week. She did not reach home until around 11pm.

“There were 60 kilometres then, but it was like 300 kilometres today,” she jokes.

But worst was yet to come for Fazlia and her team mates. In the early-1990s Kosovo football clubs left the Yugoslav leagues after the country broke up. The only women’s football club in Kosovo ceased to exist for years, until the early-2000s.

“It was impossible to get organised … even men’s football faced difficulties functioning,” she recalls.

“As sports people, we have to work to create the conditions for all young boys and girls who are Kosovo citizens to enjoy equal rights. This can only be achieved through projects that can be implemented in areas where different communities live,” Fazlia said.

As a person whose football career has been heavily affected by politics, Fazlia thinks some lessons have been learned.

“Politics affects sports because, unfortunately, it touches on sensitive areas … but if we manage to penetrate rural areas and present sporting ideas as they should be, I think that political influences could be short-term,” Fazlia said.

Chronic lack of resources

Armenda Filipaj. Photo: BIRN

In the Serb-majority municipality of Gracanica, some 10 kilometres east of pristina, Ivan Nikolic and his NGO “Communication For Social Development” has spent almost two decades backing projects that bring young people from different ethnic communities together.

Nikolic says sports should especially bring people together, but that in the Balkans it is all too often used for opposite aims.

“The football stand is the place where nationalism and ethnic hatred is promoted. On sports billboards and posters we often see messages that call for intolerance – then it is very difficult to turn things into the right direction,” Nikolic told BIRN.

He thinks Kosovo needs to have “leaders for positive changes” and sees girls in football playing that role.

“They need to be supported. We need to take into consideration what are they going through, what problems they face,” Nikolic said.

“Sport should promote fair play, cooperation and love, and someone should be the flag bearer of these positive changes. So we are offering them cooperation,” he concluded.

Armenda Filipaj, manager of the “Prishtina” club, says gathering girls in the club proves to the public that football is not only for men – and that Kosovo girls do not only succeed in individual sports.

But the neglect of women’s football over the years has made it difficult for those who want now to encourage the sport.

“Taking into consideration the economic situation in our country, it is impossible for most families to cover football expenses [for their girls]. They have other priorities,” Filipaj told BIRN.

“There are other courses that are more necessary for their schooling,” she added.

For a club to be functional, it also needs a coach and a pitch. 

Filipaj says she tries to find ways to cover operational costs through different funding and projects.

Breaking ethnic barriers is another challenge.

“We try to not divide them, to not say ‘Prishtina’ against ‘Strpce’. We have also combined the teams, based on their needs. For instance, when they need a goalkeeper, we give them our goalkeeper,” Filipaj said.

“We try to keep politics out of sports. Fortunately our coach is very open-minded and 100-per-cent oriented to sport,” she added.

A lack of access to sporting infrastructure makes the challenges even bigger.

“It is painful that our girls can’t even step into many football stadiums in Pristina. Only three football pitches offer their spaces for girls,” Filipaj complains.

“The ministry [of sports] and municipality [of Pristina] should do a mapping and see how many girls are playing football. If we had a pitch to play on, the performance of our girls could be much better,” she concluded.