By Andrew Ceacatura
It’s the 89th minute, and the Swiss star forward Xherdan Shaqiri breaks away down the field. Fighting off his defender, he slots the ball past Serbian goalkeeper, Vladmir Stojkovic, to give Switzerland a badly needed win against Serbia in one of the best games of the World Cup so far in Russia. Shaqiri sprints towards the corner flag, removing his shirt in ecstasy finishing it off with a giant flex before making a gesture by crossing his hands, inverting them and connecting them with his thumbs to make a bird-like symbol. After that celebration, many on twitter joked that Shaqiri and his teammate, Granit Xhaka, who scored the equalizing goal and made the same symbol were throwing up gang signs. No Bloods, no Crips, but in principle, these jokes actually weren’t that far off from the actual meaning of “the eagle.” The “eagle” that I am referring to is almost certainly the Albanian Double-Headed Eagle found in the center of the Albanian flag. FIFA fined both players 10,000 Swiss Francs (converts to roughly the same in US Dollars) for making an “unsporting behavior contrary to the principles of fair-play.” This brings to question why this gesture came out in a Swiss win.
Now I’m not going to explain the enormous complexities of the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 90s which led to multiple wars and horrific atrocities against civilians on all sides of the many conflicts. There are volumes of books, each the size of dictionaries, and six-hour-long documentaries on the subject. The wounds from the violence have not healed, and if this was an SI or ESPN article there would be a massive, ethnically charged argument in the comment section amongst Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Kosovars, Slovenes, etc. For the purpose of this article, let’s focus on Serbia, Kosovo, Albania and how the Swiss team is involved. In a dumbed-down version of history, 20 years ago today, there was an armed conflict in what was then the Serbian region of Kosovo. The belligerents were what can be considered modern day Serbia against rebel factions, namely the Kosovo Liberation Army, in the region of which roughly 90% of the population are ethnically Albanian. It is believed that well over 10,000 soldiers and especially civilians were killed in a conflict filled with atrocities contrary to every belief in doctrine of human rights. The Kosovo War and all the other Yugoslav wars in the 90s created over 2 million refugees fleeing the Balkans. Switzerland was the recipient of many of these refugees, including the Shaqiri and Xhaka families.
Xherdan Shaqiri was born in Kosovo, and his family fled to Switzerland in 1992. Granit Xhaka was born in Switzerland but his family was forced to flee Kosovo in 1990 due to the activities of his father, Ragip, who was jailed as a political prisoner for almost four years by the, largely Serb, Yugoslav government in Belgrade, the current capital of Serbia. Xherdan and Granit are not alone even within the Swiss team. Blerim Dzemaili, a Swiss-Albanian, left Macedonia. Valon Behrami fled Kosovo. Josip Drmic’s family fled Croatia. The families Haris Seferovic and Mario Gavrinovic left Bosnia shortly before their births. Seven out of the twenty-three man Swiss squad, were products of political unrest in Yugoslavia. Add eight other players from African and South American families, and 15 out of 23 Swiss players aren’t actually ethnically Swiss. This makes Switzerland easily the most multicultural team in this tournament. This continues with other national teams, namely the ones from Serbia and Croatia who have numerous players such as Milos Veljkovic (Serbia) and Ivan Rakitic (Croatia) who were born and raised in Switzerland. Others like Dejan Lovren (Croatia) fled to western Europe. Lovren notably had to relearn the Croatian language after moving back to Croatia due to his adoption of German as his stronger tongue. There are many stories from the players from Switzerland, Serbia and Croatia who had spent time during the war playing soccer under the threat of gunfire and bombings just to escape the realities of war around them.
These players grew up playing in an environment where football was played with extra political and ethnic emphasis. Soccer is an instigator. It can be an instigator of peace, but also of war. Notably, a 1990 Yugoslav League rivalry match in Croatia between Serbia-based Red Star Belgrade and local side Dinamo Zagreb was abandoned when the fans started rioting and attacking each other. When a policemen was beating a Croatian fan, Zvonimir Boban, Zagreb captain and future captain of Croatia at the 1998 World Cup where they shocked the world with a third-place finish, kicked the police officer, was arrested, suspended from the upcoming 1990 World Cup squad for Yugoslavia, and became a national hero in Croatia. This incident was considered one of many sparks of the Yugoslav break-up and subsequent conflicts. Today’s generation of Balkan stars such as Shaqiri, Modric and Mitrovic, growing up playing in the shadows of violence, has remained mostly silent in regards to ethnic tensions in the region. So what caused Shaqiri and Xhaka to make such public declarations of ethnic loyalty?
I’ve been playing soccer for a long time, 19 years to be exact. Although I am a goalkeeper, I have played on the field for many periods in my career, and I like to think that I have a poaching striker’s instinct. I’m a Sunday league Emile Heskey. Though my job is mostly preventing goals, I occasionally have had the opportunity to score goals, some of them big goals (relative to the level I was playing). When you score a big goal in a big moment, there isn’t an experience, there isn’t a drug that can come close to replicating that feeling of euphoria. There is a moment that lasts anywhere from 3-10 seconds starting once the ball hits the back of the net off of your boot where you lose all control of your body in something sort of similar to a “fight-or-flight” instinct. Some have immediately started running screaming, some have stood in shock as they are mobbed by teammates, and some just lose their bearings and may throw their shirt over their head while running towards the sidelines (I’ve done that, not too proud in hindsight). Some of the more bizarre include Cristiano Lucarelli of A.S. Livorno taking his shirt off and humping it, Paolo Di Canio and Giorgos Katidis each making the fascist salute towards the crowd, and then there’s Mario Gjurovski of Muangthong United who took off his pants, put them on his head and pretended to gun down the audience (he was sent off, but only due to a second yellow card).
I went on a tangent there, but the point is that Shaqiri and Xhaka, two normally non-politically vocal figures, were caught up in the moment. We may never know if they planned these displays, but major international games, especially at the World Cup, nationalism rises to feverish levels. FIFA generally does everything possible to plan tournaments where two countries with deep-seeded international tensions will not face each other. All the former Yugoslav republics are separated to the best of FIFA’s abilities, North and South Korea don’t often meet in competitive fixtures, Greece rarely plays Turkey, Israel rarely plays any Arab team, and so on. They failed to realize the dangers, or perhaps failed to prevent a match between Serbia and a national team filled with players from all of the backgrounds that feel wronged, persecuted and deeply harmed by the Serbian government of the past. It’s a match with such heavy emotional status that an eagle made with the hands is perhaps the best outcome. When Shaqiri won it in the dying minutes, Switzerland felt like they beat Serbia, Albania felt like they beat Serbia, Kosovo felt like they beat Serbia (who still refuses to recognize their independence), and any Balkan country that fought and lost lives at the hands of Serbian soldiers felt like they were the ones who in fact vanquished the Serbs.
This article is over but I do want to leave a little public service announcement. It’s important to remember that none of these players were in the trenches, laid landmines, shot anyone nor committed genocide. The people of the former Yugoslav republics were victims of “leaders” who never picked up a gun and forced conflict upon the people of different ethnicities who coexisted mostly peacefully for decades. I harbor no ill feelings towards any of the teams involved in this tournament based on the actions of their government past or present. I am thrilled to see how well Croatia is clicking in this tournament. I’m saddened to see a strong Serbian squad who played attractive football exit in the group stage, and I am hoping that Switzerland can make a deep run. I don’t condone the actions of Shaqiri and Xhaka, but I understand. Fines won’t discourage ethnic tensions, sportsmanship and peaceful contest will encourage unity, acceptance, and, the the idealist mind of the writer, healing.
It’s the 89th minute, and the Swiss star forward Xherdan Shaqiri breaks away down the field. Fighting off his defender, he slots the ball past Serbian goalkeeper, Vladmir Stojkovic, to give Switzerland a badly needed win against Serbia in one of the best games of the World Cup so far in Russia. Shaqiri sprints towards the corner flag, removing his shirt in ecstasy finishing it off with a giant flex before making a gesture by crossing his hands, inverting them and connecting them with his thumbs to make a bird-like symbol. After that celebration, many on twitter joked that Shaqiri and his teammate, Granit Xhaka, who scored the equalizing goal and made the same symbol were throwing up gang signs. No Bloods, no Crips, but in principle, these jokes actually weren’t that far off from the actual meaning of “the eagle.” The “eagle” that I am referring to is almost certainly the Albanian Double-Headed Eagle found in the center of the Albanian flag. FIFA fined both players 10,000 Swiss Francs (converts to roughly the same in US Dollars) for making an “unsporting behavior contrary to the principles of fair-play.” This brings to question why this gesture came out in a Swiss win.
Now I’m not going to explain the enormous complexities of the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 90s which led to multiple wars and horrific atrocities against civilians on all sides of the many conflicts. There are volumes of books, each the size of dictionaries, and six-hour-long documentaries on the subject. The wounds from the violence have not healed, and if this was an SI or ESPN article there would be a massive, ethnically charged argument in the comment section amongst Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Kosovars, Slovenes, etc. For the purpose of this article, let’s focus on Serbia, Kosovo, Albania and how the Swiss team is involved. In a dumbed-down version of history, 20 years ago today, there was an armed conflict in what was then the Serbian region of Kosovo. The belligerents were what can be considered modern day Serbia against rebel factions, namely the Kosovo Liberation Army, in the region of which roughly 90% of the population are ethnically Albanian. It is believed that well over 10,000 soldiers and especially civilians were killed in a conflict filled with atrocities contrary to every belief in doctrine of human rights. The Kosovo War and all the other Yugoslav wars in the 90s created over 2 million refugees fleeing the Balkans. Switzerland was the recipient of many of these refugees, including the Shaqiri and Xhaka families.
Xherdan Shaqiri was born in Kosovo, and his family fled to Switzerland in 1992. Granit Xhaka was born in Switzerland but his family was forced to flee Kosovo in 1990 due to the activities of his father, Ragip, who was jailed as a political prisoner for almost four years by the, largely Serb, Yugoslav government in Belgrade, the current capital of Serbia. Xherdan and Granit are not alone even within the Swiss team. Blerim Dzemaili, a Swiss-Albanian, left Macedonia. Valon Behrami fled Kosovo. Josip Drmic’s family fled Croatia. The families Haris Seferovic and Mario Gavrinovic left Bosnia shortly before their births. Seven out of the twenty-three man Swiss squad, were products of political unrest in Yugoslavia. Add eight other players from African and South American families, and 15 out of 23 Swiss players aren’t actually ethnically Swiss. This makes Switzerland easily the most multicultural team in this tournament. This continues with other national teams, namely the ones from Serbia and Croatia who have numerous players such as Milos Veljkovic (Serbia) and Ivan Rakitic (Croatia) who were born and raised in Switzerland. Others like Dejan Lovren (Croatia) fled to western Europe. Lovren notably had to relearn the Croatian language after moving back to Croatia due to his adoption of German as his stronger tongue. There are many stories from the players from Switzerland, Serbia and Croatia who had spent time during the war playing soccer under the threat of gunfire and bombings just to escape the realities of war around them.
These players grew up playing in an environment where football was played with extra political and ethnic emphasis. Soccer is an instigator. It can be an instigator of peace, but also of war. Notably, a 1990 Yugoslav League rivalry match in Croatia between Serbia-based Red Star Belgrade and local side Dinamo Zagreb was abandoned when the fans started rioting and attacking each other. When a policemen was beating a Croatian fan, Zvonimir Boban, Zagreb captain and future captain of Croatia at the 1998 World Cup where they shocked the world with a third-place finish, kicked the police officer, was arrested, suspended from the upcoming 1990 World Cup squad for Yugoslavia, and became a national hero in Croatia. This incident was considered one of many sparks of the Yugoslav break-up and subsequent conflicts. Today’s generation of Balkan stars such as Shaqiri, Modric and Mitrovic, growing up playing in the shadows of violence, has remained mostly silent in regards to ethnic tensions in the region. So what caused Shaqiri and Xhaka to make such public declarations of ethnic loyalty?
I’ve been playing soccer for a long time, 19 years to be exact. Although I am a goalkeeper, I have played on the field for many periods in my career, and I like to think that I have a poaching striker’s instinct. I’m a Sunday league Emile Heskey. Though my job is mostly preventing goals, I occasionally have had the opportunity to score goals, some of them big goals (relative to the level I was playing). When you score a big goal in a big moment, there isn’t an experience, there isn’t a drug that can come close to replicating that feeling of euphoria. There is a moment that lasts anywhere from 3-10 seconds starting once the ball hits the back of the net off of your boot where you lose all control of your body in something sort of similar to a “fight-or-flight” instinct. Some have immediately started running screaming, some have stood in shock as they are mobbed by teammates, and some just lose their bearings and may throw their shirt over their head while running towards the sidelines (I’ve done that, not too proud in hindsight). Some of the more bizarre include Cristiano Lucarelli of A.S. Livorno taking his shirt off and humping it, Paolo Di Canio and Giorgos Katidis each making the fascist salute towards the crowd, and then there’s Mario Gjurovski of Muangthong United who took off his pants, put them on his head and pretended to gun down the audience (he was sent off, but only due to a second yellow card).
I went on a tangent there, but the point is that Shaqiri and Xhaka, two normally non-politically vocal figures, were caught up in the moment. We may never know if they planned these displays, but major international games, especially at the World Cup, nationalism rises to feverish levels. FIFA generally does everything possible to plan tournaments where two countries with deep-seeded international tensions will not face each other. All the former Yugoslav republics are separated to the best of FIFA’s abilities, North and South Korea don’t often meet in competitive fixtures, Greece rarely plays Turkey, Israel rarely plays any Arab team, and so on. They failed to realize the dangers, or perhaps failed to prevent a match between Serbia and a national team filled with players from all of the backgrounds that feel wronged, persecuted and deeply harmed by the Serbian government of the past. It’s a match with such heavy emotional status that an eagle made with the hands is perhaps the best outcome. When Shaqiri won it in the dying minutes, Switzerland felt like they beat Serbia, Albania felt like they beat Serbia, Kosovo felt like they beat Serbia (who still refuses to recognize their independence), and any Balkan country that fought and lost lives at the hands of Serbian soldiers felt like they were the ones who in fact vanquished the Serbs.
This article is over but I do want to leave a little public service announcement. It’s important to remember that none of these players were in the trenches, laid landmines, shot anyone nor committed genocide. The people of the former Yugoslav republics were victims of “leaders” who never picked up a gun and forced conflict upon the people of different ethnicities who coexisted mostly peacefully for decades. I harbor no ill feelings towards any of the teams involved in this tournament based on the actions of their government past or present. I am thrilled to see how well Croatia is clicking in this tournament. I’m saddened to see a strong Serbian squad who played attractive football exit in the group stage, and I am hoping that Switzerland can make a deep run. I don’t condone the actions of Shaqiri and Xhaka, but I understand. Fines won’t discourage ethnic tensions, sportsmanship and peaceful contest will encourage unity, acceptance, and, the the idealist mind of the writer, healing.