Ferhan Hasani, current member of the Macedonian national team, conducted an interview with German medium Stern. The title of the article was “Boy, you just come from war?” and following are some interesting parts of it.

The title of the interview is inspired by Hasani’s answer on the question how often he trained as a youth player. Hasani stated that he trained every day, although the football fields were in bad shape. Because of that he frequently came home with bloody wounds and his mother asked him “Boy, you just came from war?”. Thereafter, Hasani talks about the generally poor conditions like showering without warm water and sharing a dressing room with 50 people.

Afterwards, the interview moves to another direction where he is asked about the coexistence between Macedonians and Albanians in Macedonia. The Macedonian national team player answers that he talked at home just in Albanian and that he had no Macedonian friends, furthermore there were no Macedonians in Shkendija’s youth teams. Nevertheless, he praises the situation in the Macedonian national team where Hasani says that the only important factor is the performance. Even though the forward doesn’t sing the national anthem, he states that he plays from the heart for Macedonia. There was the opportunity to play for Albania but he chose Macedonia because he sees Macedonia as his homeland. He also says that they need support from the fans and the situation needs to change for the better. He believes that there is not much missing to achieve something with the national team.

At the end he talks about his club Wolfsburg, and that he had offers from Croatia and Serbia before he signed in Germany. The switch from Macedonia to Germany was very difficult but he is happy that he got the chance, and it was a very special moment for him when he made his debut in the Bundesliga against Mainz. In conclusion, he affirms that his goal is to make it in the Bundesliga.

The original interview was done by Daniel Jovanov.