National team player Stefan Ashkovski has been succesfully evacuated from Iran, informed the Macedonian Ministry of foreign affairs.

photo by FFM

Left winger Ashkovski in January signed for Iranian top flight side Mes Rafsanjan, dispite the Ministry’s advice for Macedonian citizens not to travel to Iran.

Due to the joint US-Israel attack on Iran, all sport events in Iran are cancelled and foreign players are advice to leave the country. As TV 24 informs, Ashkovski on Sunday has been evacuated through Türkiye. Ashkovski arrived at the Skopje airport on Tuessday evening and is now in him home in Macedonia.

In an interview for Sport1 he revealed that he managed to escape Iran thanks to the help of Jasir Asani, a product of Vardar and former Macedonian youth national team player who after not getting a call to the senior team opted to play for Albania (25 caps, 6 goals, 5 assists).

“There were attacks everywhere, even near me, they had just started. I hadn’t eaten or drunk for three days. I was just looking to get out of the country, after their leader (the ayatollah) was killed, nothing worked, everything was shut down… When it happened, I was left on my own, if it weren’t for Jasir… There were also foreigners, but no one helped me – I was sitting on the street, the foreigners from Persepolis were passing by on a bus, I asked them if I could go with them, they told me that I couldn’t. I traveled from Rafsajan to Tehran for 15 hours, then from the border by plane to Istanbul. It was a hassle going through Iran, Jasir helped me, he had his driver, and I managed with him. This will be a great experience for me in the future. It was very difficult, but everything ended well. Now I can’t wait to get home to sleep, to rest a little.” – said Ashkovski speaking to Sport1.

34-year-old Ashkovski so far has been capped 40 times for Macedonia.