First she was severely injured, then she recovered to earn a place in Germany’s squad for the Women’s EURO 2013 and, just before Christmas, she tied the knot. It has been 12 months to remember for Fatmire "Lira" Alushi, nee Bajramaj, both on and off the pitch. The 25-year-old now looks back at the year that was 2013.
Exciting, stressful, but nothing if not uneventful; when Lira Alushi looks back at the year 2013, even she struggles to find a concise way to appropriately describe the last 12 months. There have been so many experiences, so many highs and lows, but at the forefront of all are some important realisations. “I learned to how to fight,” she says. “I was out of the game for a long time this year. Now when I play football, I just want to have fun.” Gone are the days when the midfielder allows herself to be affected by outside influences, and anyone waiting to hear her specific goal for 2014 gets a mere shake of the head and a very simple answer: “I’m just going to try to help the team and stay healthy. It’s a simple as that.”
Special understanding should be reserved for a young woman, who perhaps for far too long has fulfilled false misconceptions, whether as one of the glamour girls at the heavily marketed Women’s World Cup in 2011, an advertising icon or as simply a pin-up. These are roles that Alushi was not meant to play, and it is noticeable after just a short time in her company. “She is real team player,” says Colin Bell, her new coach at 1. FFC Frankfurt, who has found her a joy to work with since her arrival. “She has worked so hard on her own game. She’s become a very strong personality,” the Englishman continues.
Goodbye ‘glamour girl’
She has always had elegant stepovers and quick back heels in her repertoire, but they are not her only signature features. She has also on occasion had to grab a fresh jersey in the half-time interval, her commitment having helped encrust her first one with mud. Indeed, Lira Alushi is the model of a fighter. “I noticed that I could improve on that side of the game,” she says. Initially, the home faithful at the Stadion am Brentanobad rubbed their eyes in disbelief at the sight of their No19 throwing herself courageously in front of an opposition free-kick, though similar feats of bravery are becoming a regular occurrence. Deeds like these add a new depth of character to the down-to-earth fans’ favourite, as well as helping to change her image.
”Make-up and nail varnish – I’m done with all that,” Alushi had emphasised before the Women’s EURO, and ideally, she would love to have played a more meaningful role at Germany’s eventual triumph, the eighth time the country had been crowned European champions. However, it was a tough few weeks on a personal level for her. Coach Silvia Neid had almost left the 2011 German Women’s Footballer of the Year out of the squad entirely, which would have been a very tough decision. Alushi was named in the squad but, having travelled to the tournament with almost no match practice and thus lacking in form and sharpness, her only appearance of the tournament was a 27-minute cameo in the team’s second group game - a 3-0 win over Iceland.
However astonishing a player with so much talent had ended up marginalised, even more astonishing was how she responded. There were no grumbles or complaints. On the contrary, she became one of the most vocal of the team’s supporters, even with her direct competitors for a first-team place: Melanie Leupolz and Lena Lotzen. “I supported the team because I was so impressed by what they had achieved,” says Alushi. “I wasn’t jealous of them in the slightest. It was the opposite: I cheered for them, and I was just happy to even be in the squad.”
Neid praising
She has resumed playing a key role in the national team in the months since the triumph in Sweden. In a 13-0 World Cup qualifying win in Slovenia on 26 October, Alushi not only scored her 15th goal in 65 international appearances but also recorded five assists, unsurprisingly receiving the Player of the Match award. “I really enjoyed Lira’s performance,” said Neid after the game. “She gives us fresh ideas, a new impetus and she’s a very busy player.” Alushi can once again count herself as one of the first names on Germany’s teamsheet, not just on account of her strong displays but also because of how she has adapted her game. “At my club, I don’t hug the touchline anymore. I have more freedom and swap positions more,” she explains. “That type of flexibility really suits me.” It is also making her an ever more attractive transfer target for other clubs. She is yet to decide what her next step will be when her current contract in Frankfurt expires in the summer of 2014, knowing only that she will “assess all my options”.
What has not changed is her humility; in fact it has even grown as a result of her long period on the sidelines. On 30 September 2012, while playing for previous club 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam, she tore cruciate ligaments in her right knee. It was a setback that effected a marked change in her career outlook. “If you put yourself under too much pressure, you achieve nothing. I learned that when I was recovering from injury, even though I’m extremely impatient and very ambitious.” People will never forget how she posted a photograph of herself with her partner Enis Alushi, also a footballer with 1. FC Kaiserslautern and who had cruelly suffered the very same injury just three days before her, with both of them on crutches wearing wide smiles. Such shared experiences have no doubt brought the couple closer together, and they also remain branded in peoples’ minds.
”I can still remember sitting on the couch on New Year’s Eve last year, while everyone else had gone out,” she recalls. “It was too icy and slippery for me, and I was worried something would happen to my knee. That was a really tough time.” It was not the only occasion that doubts manifested themselves, and Alushi was grateful for the help of her now husband. “He was an enormous help to me then,” admits the Germany star.
Football couple with busy schedules
Like Lira, Enis originates from Kosovo. The two have seemingly sought and found each other in Germany and on 10 December they were married in Mönchengladbach, where a large part of her family still live. Finding a date for the wedding was no easy task, however, and the women’s footballing calendar - filled as is it with 2015 World Cup qualification matches – left only a small margin of time in which to operate. Once the date had been decided, though, the ceremony duly followed. Though it was a private affair, Lira reveals that “we’ll have the proper celebration next year. People will have to start getting used to calling me Lira Alushi,” she laughs.
As will likely be the case with her continued wedding celebrations, her fans are not excluded from her private life, and she regularly posts pictures of herself at home on social networking sites. “There’s always something surprising. I want to portray myself as someone completely normal,” she says. “It’s important to me to remain genuine.” Genuine would be one appropriate word to describe Lira Alushi’s 2013.
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First she was severely injured, then she recovered to earn a place in Germany’s squad for the Women’s EURO 2013 and, just before Christmas, she tied the knot. It has been 12 months to remember for Fatmire "Lira" Alushi, nee Bajramaj, both on and off the pitch. The 25-year-old now looks back at the year that was 2013.
Exciting, stressful, but nothing if not uneventful; when Lira Alushi looks back at the year 2013, even she struggles to find a concise way to appropriately describe the last 12 months. There have been so many experiences, so many highs and lows, but at the forefront of all are some important realisations. “I learned to how to fight,” she says. “I was out of the game for a long time this year. Now when I play football, I just want to have fun.” Gone are the days when the midfielder allows herself to be affected by outside influences, and anyone waiting to hear her specific goal for 2014 gets a mere shake of the head and a very simple answer: “I’m just going to try to help the team and stay healthy. It’s a simple as that.”
Special understanding should be reserved for a young woman, who perhaps for far too long has fulfilled false misconceptions, whether as one of the glamour girls at the heavily marketed Women’s World Cup in 2011, an advertising icon or as simply a pin-up. These are roles that Alushi was not meant to play, and it is noticeable after just a short time in her company. “She is real team player,” says Colin Bell, her new coach at 1. FFC Frankfurt, who has found her a joy to work with since her arrival. “She has worked so hard on her own game. She’s become a very strong personality,” the Englishman continues.
Goodbye ‘glamour girl’
She has always had elegant stepovers and quick back heels in her repertoire, but they are not her only signature features. She has also on occasion had to grab a fresh jersey in the half-time interval, her commitment having helped encrust her first one with mud. Indeed, Lira Alushi is the model of a fighter. “I noticed that I could improve on that side of the game,” she says. Initially, the home faithful at the Stadion am Brentanobad rubbed their eyes in disbelief at the sight of their No19 throwing herself courageously in front of an opposition free-kick, though similar feats of bravery are becoming a regular occurrence. Deeds like these add a new depth of character to the down-to-earth fans’ favourite, as well as helping to change her image.
”Make-up and nail varnish – I’m done with all that,” Alushi had emphasised before the Women’s EURO, and ideally, she would love to have played a more meaningful role at Germany’s eventual triumph, the eighth time the country had been crowned European champions. However, it was a tough few weeks on a personal level for her. Coach Silvia Neid had almost left the 2011 German Women’s Footballer of the Year out of the squad entirely, which would have been a very tough decision. Alushi was named in the squad but, having travelled to the tournament with almost no match practice and thus lacking in form and sharpness, her only appearance of the tournament was a 27-minute cameo in the team’s second group game - a 3-0 win over Iceland.
However astonishing a player with so much talent had ended up marginalised, even more astonishing was how she responded. There were no grumbles or complaints. On the contrary, she became one of the most vocal of the team’s supporters, even with her direct competitors for a first-team place: Melanie Leupolz and Lena Lotzen. “I supported the team because I was so impressed by what they had achieved,” says Alushi. “I wasn’t jealous of them in the slightest. It was the opposite: I cheered for them, and I was just happy to even be in the squad.”
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Neid praising
She has resumed playing a key role in the national team in the months since the triumph in Sweden. In a 13-0 World Cup qualifying win in Slovenia on 26 October, Alushi not only scored her 15th goal in 65 international appearances but also recorded five assists, unsurprisingly receiving the Player of the Match award. “I really enjoyed Lira’s performance,” said Neid after the game. “She gives us fresh ideas, a new impetus and she’s a very busy player.” Alushi can once again count herself as one of the first names on Germany’s teamsheet, not just on account of her strong displays but also because of how she has adapted her game. “At my club, I don’t hug the touchline anymore. I have more freedom and swap positions more,” she explains. “That type of flexibility really suits me.” It is also making her an ever more attractive transfer target for other clubs. She is yet to decide what her next step will be when her current contract in Frankfurt expires in the summer of 2014, knowing only that she will “assess all my options”.
What has not changed is her humility; in fact it has even grown as a result of her long period on the sidelines. On 30 September 2012, while playing for previous club 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam, she tore cruciate ligaments in her right knee. It was a setback that effected a marked change in her career outlook. “If you put yourself under too much pressure, you achieve nothing. I learned that when I was recovering from injury, even though I’m extremely impatient and very ambitious.” People will never forget how she posted a photograph of herself with her partner Enis Alushi, also a footballer with 1. FC Kaiserslautern and who had cruelly suffered the very same injury just three days before her, with both of them on crutches wearing wide smiles. Such shared experiences have no doubt brought the couple closer together, and they also remain branded in peoples’ minds.
”I can still remember sitting on the couch on New Year’s Eve last year, while everyone else had gone out,” she recalls. “It was too icy and slippery for me, and I was worried something would happen to my knee. That was a really tough time.” It was not the only occasion that doubts manifested themselves, and Alushi was grateful for the help of her now husband. “He was an enormous help to me then,” admits the Germany star.
Football couple with busy schedules
Like Lira, Enis originates from Kosovo. The two have seemingly sought and found each other in Germany and on 10 December they were married in Mönchengladbach, where a large part of her family still live. Finding a date for the wedding was no easy task, however, and the women’s footballing calendar - filled as is it with 2015 World Cup qualification matches – left only a small margin of time in which to operate. Once the date had been decided, though, the ceremony duly followed. Though it was a private affair, Lira reveals that “we’ll have the proper celebration next year. People will have to start getting used to calling me Lira Alushi,” she laughs.
As will likely be the case with her continued wedding celebrations, her fans are not excluded from her private life, and she regularly posts pictures of herself at home on social networking sites. “There’s always something surprising. I want to portray myself as someone completely normal,” she says. “It’s important to me to remain genuine.” Genuine would be one appropriate word to describe Lira Alushi’s 2013.
