Vedat Muriqi it’sthe footballer of the moment at Mallorca and not himselfmother, because he certainlyë it’sthe player whothere is a bbermsthe bestson the weekendsnin La Liga.
The Kosovar star excelled last weekend with three goals against Athletic Bilbao, securing a 3-2 victory for Mallorca.
One of the best Italian journalists, Gianluca Di Marzio, has written an extraordinary article about the Prizren player: From the Kosovo war to brilliance in Turkey, failure in Serie A and rebirth in La Liga with the Mallorca jersey.
Below is the full article translated by Di Marzio for Vedat Muriqi:
Vedat Muriqi’s rebirth at Mallorca: second-highest scorer in club history with 46 goals
Open the La Liga top scorers’ ranking and alongside names like Mbappe, Ferran Torres and Lewandowski, you will also find Vedat Muriqi. The Kosovar “Pirate”, who has experienced a true renaissance in Spain thanks to Mallorca.
With 14 goals in the league, he continues to break record after record, including the one achieved in the recent 3-2 victory over Athletic Bilbao, where he scored a hat-trick and thus became the second best scorer in the history of the club from the Balearic Islands with 46 goals, surpassing Juan Arango and approaching Samuel Eto’o, who holds the record with 54 goals.
telegrafi.com
In Italy he was often labelled as slow or slow on the move, but in La Liga Muriqi is a different player: ruthless in the area and increasingly decisive. The collaboration with Lazio never fully blossomed: the team needed a striker alongside Ciro Immobile and the transfer market brought Simone Inzaghi the Kosovar striker for 21 million euros, the second most expensive purchase of the Lotito era. The results? Just a few appearances from 2020 to 2022 and only two goals scored, both against Atalanta, one in Serie A and one in the Italian Cup.
However, the adventure with Lazio ended early, as in January 2022 Mallorca decided to buy him for 13 million euros. A second youth for the striker, who in Spain found continuity, goals and the enthusiasm of that child who grew up with the ball at his feet, despite the fear of the war in Kosovo.
Muriqi, protagonist in La Liga with Mallorca
The war was the most difficult experience of Muriqi’s life. At just six years old, he was forced to leave Prizren.
“They took our valuables and money. They told us they would bomb the house if we didn’t leave within two hours. God protected us. There were 50 of us, we slept in the basement and we only had two liters of milk to eat. We ate bread and onions for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” Muriqi said in an old interview for Journal of Sport.
The conflicts between Serbia and Kosovo would mark his adolescence, but his goal always remained the same: to become a footballer. He achieved this in 2005 with KF Liria, in his homeland, before continuing his career in Albania with Teuta Durrës and Besa Kavajës, until he made his big step in Turkey, playing for Giresunspor, Genclerbirligi, Rizespor and Fenerbahce.
World Dream with Kosovo
Since 2008, no Mallorca player had scored a hat-trick; the last was Dani Guiza against Real Murcia.
It was Vedat Muriqi who broke this taboo against Athletic Bilbao, with a touching dedication to his father: “If he were alive, he would celebrate his birthday today. My son bears his name. He passed away when I was 7 years old,” said Muriqi after the match, excited.
Among Muriqi’s objectives, in addition to survival with Mallorca, is also the dream of the World Cup with Kosovo.
The national team, led by Franco Foda, will face Slovakia in March and then play in a possible final against one between Turkey and Romania.
Muriqi is undoubtedly the symbolic man of Kosovo, as well as the best scorer of all time with 32 goals.
Leading figures and decisive goals, especially the one scored in the final seconds against Greece, which secured Kosovo a step towards qualifying for the play-offs.
Whether with Mallorca or Kosovo, Vedat has no intention of stopping dreaming. /Telegraph/