"Having the team where football was born in our country is an honour and we are proud." Following the collapse of Yugoslavia and Kosovo's limbo status after the 1998-99 war, young players were not allowed to play in international competitions until three years ago. "I felt bad when I saw how (Raheem) Sterling was shouted in Bulgaria and it reminded me how we were not allowed to play for almost 30 years," said Afrim Islami, 40, who put a big banner at his shop with a photo of English forward Sterling saying "Welcome Bro". Other banners across the capital said "Welcome Brothers" and "Bros Before Scores". The Fadil Vokrri stadium hosts only 12,600 fans but Kosovo's Football Federation said there were more than 200,000 requests to buy tickets which made the online site crash many times.

Source: International New York Times November 16, 2019 13:41 UTC