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Saturday, 8 a.m., Birkenau sports field in Rebstein SG: Dozens of club members are just setting up a party tent when Betim Fazliji, the prodigal son, the returned Hamburger, the original Rebsteiner, surprisingly turns up. The joy is great, the greeting warm. Someone shouts from the party tent: “Hey Betim, come and help us!” Fazliji waves it off with a grin. Jokes are made, jokes are made. You feel: this man is at home here.
And he’s back where it all started. Where he spent most of his childhood. “Betim was always first on the field. He was almost always there,” recalls his junior coach Martin Eggenberger. Did he already know that Fazliji would make it? “Yes, because he had the absolute will and was a team player.” it was what turned the attacking midfielder into a defender, says Eggenberger.
The fact that Fazliji now has to solve the defensive problems at the big FCSG makes the old youth coach proud. The two are still in regular contact: “Betim jokingly calls me Pep. Because of Guardiola. He often comes by, he has remained one of us and that is very nice.”
family first
Kushtrim, his older brother, also plays here. In the second team of FC Rebstein. If time permits, they visit each other at the games. Family is always very important to Fazliji.
Flashback: April 1999: The pregnant mother is at home in Presheva with her two older children. A small town in the south of Serbia, inhabited mainly by Albanians. Labor begins and Betim is born in neighboring Vranje. The father? Stuck in Switzerland, unable to travel to his family due to the Yugoslav war. Only months later does he see his youngest son for the first time.
The family has become even closer together: “I enjoy doing something with them and I am extremely proud of my parents. It is only through countless overtime hours and weekend work that they have made this life possible for us. I will be with them forever grateful for.” Today, the mother no longer works for health reasons, the father has always been a locksmith.
Dad issued an ultimatum
And Fazliji? From a young age, he had only one thing in mind. “First I smashed a few garage doors, then I went to FC.” It was the same at school. “I wasn’t a model student, I was annoying or teasing teachers.” But with his friendly nature, he always got through it. The 24-year-old later completed commercial training. But only because his father gave him an ultimatum: “If you don’t do an internship, you can forget about football!”
He takes his first steps at FC Rebstein, but only up to the D-Juniors. Because Fazliji has been called up for the U11 team of the Rheintal/Bodensee selection. There he quickly asserts himself before he starts playing for FC St. Gallen from the under-16 youth. He first visited the pros at the stadium when he was 12.
Zeidler was overjoyed
Peter Zeidler, the FCSG coach, almost gasped. He is so happy with the transfer. “I’ll get myself back together one day, but yes: I’m really happy.” It “hurt a lot” when Fazliji left FCSG for St. Pauli last summer.
“He really wanted to take this opportunity, but then he realized how beautiful it was in St. Gallen.” In which position he will use Fazliji, Zeidler cannot yet say. But there is much to suggest that the Kosovo international will play as a central defender.
Conversation with Timo Schultz
And coincidentally, right at the start of the season, Fazliji will play against the coach who brought him to St. Pauli a year ago: FCB coach Timo Schultz. “He is a very football crazy guy, always took me aside and was very communicative. He has a cool, dry sense of humor and I really look forward to it. He can dress warmly,” says Fazliji with a smile.
This connection even made a switch to FCB a problem. There was a conversation with Schultz, but it didn’t become concrete. “There was interest. But it was clear to me that I would switch to FC St. Gallen. Once green and white, always green and white. That’s why it was certain that I would come here », explains Fazliji about his basket to Basel He was always in contact with those responsible at FC St. Gallen, so it was out of the question for him to sell the club where he grew up for FCB.
That he leaves FC St. Pauli early after just one season and, despite a contract until 2025, also has something to do with FCSG, says the homesick St. Galler.
Source : Blick
I’m Emma Jack, a news website author at 24 News Reporters. I have been in the industry for over five years and it has been an incredible journey so far. I specialize in sports reporting and am highly knowledgeable about the latest trends and developments in this field.
