Napoli’s Blerim Dzemaili, who originates from Bogovinje, has paid Drita’s fee for participating in the Macedonian First League this upcoming season.

Drita Bogovinje managed to secure promotion to the Macedonian First League after finishing in second place of the second division last season.  It will be the first time in the club’s history that Drita will participate in the First League.  So far, the club has acquired several players to be competitive this season with the likes of Goran Stankovski, Minas Osmani, Aleksandar Krsteski, Emir Shabani, Petar Basnarkov, Aleksandar Donev and others.

Drita has also received significant help from Napoli’s midfielder Blerim Dzemaili, a teammate of Goran Pandev.  Dzemaili was originally born in Bogovinje before moving to Switzerland at a young age.  He ultimately chose to represent Switzerland internationally.  Earlier in his career, Blerim featured for the Swiss U21 national team in a qualifier against Macedonia in Kumanovo which Macedonia won 2:1.  Dzemaili has remained loyal to his hometown team Drita and paid a fee of 12.000 Euros to ensure that the club will participate in the First League this upcoming season, daily newspaper Dnevnik reported.

“This is not the first time that Dzemaili has helped the club and we highly appreciate his support”, Drita’s president Abedin Aliti told Dnevnik before adding, “Drita will become a joint stock company very soon and we hope to become a stable first league club.”

Although Dzemaili never actually played for Drita, he made a gesture which other players, who have the resources, should follow.  Drita is currently at a training camp in Bulgaria where they are scheduled to play several friendly matches in anticipation of the new season.