February 21 – In a significant move to break through footballing ethnic barriers, 17-year-old Ilija Ivic is set to become the first Serb-kosovan player to represent Kosovo having been named in the country’s under-19 squad.
Ivic comes from the mainly Serbian town of Gracanica, near the Kosovan capital, Pristina.
Kosovo, with its majority ethnic Albanian population, proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2008 in a move Belgrade still refuses to recognise even though most of the United Nations does.
“I am not at all interested in someone’s nation or religion,” said the team coach Ramiz Krasniqi.
“ He is one of the bigger talents. He is … a guy who has shown that we can count on him at games,” Krasniqi said in an interview with the Serbian media outlet Danas.
Ivic plays for Albanian top-flight club Flamurtari FC and downplaying any issues based on his ethnicity, told the Kosovan publication Telegrafi: “I have been a part of Flamurtari for three years and I feel at home, everyone has accepted me and everything is fine.”
“For me, it is a good feeling because my work and quality have been appreciated, it gives me an even greater push to move on.”
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