14 hours agoThe remarkable account of Kastrati: Even if I play for Real Madrid I'll always be the same release that kept the cows
Periskopi(6 years ago)
(6 years ago)The touching story of Lokomotive's star and the new reinforcement of Dinamo Zagreb, 21-year-old Kosovar Lirim Kastrati, rarely recalls the world's most difficult route of football until later, Luka Modrich. Kastrati is from the village of Hogosht, located near the city of Kamenica, and proudly remembers the childhood of [...]
The touching story of Lokomotive's star and the new reinforcement of Dinamo Zagreb, 21-year-old Kosovar Lirim Kastrati, rarely recalls the world's most difficult route of football until later, Luka Modrich.
Kastrati is from the village of Hogosht, located near the city of Kamenica, and proudly remembers his difficult childhood, the days he could only dream of a career as a professional football player.
I know that Luca Modrich as a child has preserved goats, and I can proudly say that I have preserved the cows near my village. Every day I got up at dawn and went with my 12 cows to nearby meadows and forests. My family is still engaged in producing milk and milk products, and it's even now when I go to Kosovo, I gladly take a flock of cows and go for a walk with them. I'm not ashamed of this at all, and I'm always proudly talking about this”, says Kastrat with a flowing Croat.
What did such a life look like from the perspective of a Kosovo boy? Also, he knew the names of all 12 cows?
Of course. Larra, Mother... well, now I can't remember everything. And what did it look like? I sent them to pasture and while they were grazing, I ran around. So I haven't been sitting next to them all day. Each cow had a bell around its neck, and I kept an eye on it all the time”, says Kastrat, who has also encountered wolves at the time.
Were there dangerous situations?
Are you talking about wolves? Yeah, I had a few close meetings with them, but I had two dogs with me, both of them the size of three wolves. It was like I had ten bodyguards with me, so I was never afraid. So as a boy I used to keep cows and play soccer at the local club, KF Kika, same time. But it was untrained because we were gathered from our entertainment for the games alone. Then I played for Kamenica three years until I was spotted by the Pristina Arsenal”, recalls Kastrati and continues: “Every day I had to travel from Kamenica to Pristina by bus for three hours. Since there was only one bus line, I had to miss school for the last two hours. And when I finished training in Pristina, I had no money for a taxi, so I had to run to the bus station to catch the last bus. So I spent six or seven hours a day on the bus”.
Key details of Kastrat's career were invitations from Tirana's Church, when he was 15 years old
“I went there for a test along with three hundred other boys. They tested us for three days; speed, technique, dancing, and many other elements, where I obtained 98 points; and I was the second best at the evidence. So, I vowed football would be my life and I would never have to ask my father again before”, Kastrati points out.
Are you a star in your village?
It's a small place where everyone knows each other, everybody's like a family. When Locomotive plays, the games are seen in a projector, about 300 people gather, all cheer for me. I've distributed at least seventy fans there, and I'll never be able to pay those people for everything they've done for me. When I was a kid, they raised the money I had for the bus; somebody a euro, somebody two, somebody five... Believe me, even if I play for Real Madrid, I'll always come back to them and spend time with them, and I'll always be the same Freedom that the cows kept in his village”
