While Atalanta midfielder Jasmin Kurtic prepares for his fifth full season in Italy, the Slovenian’s journey back home every summer serves as a reminder of how he turned his humble beginnings into Serie A notoriety.
Kanizarica. A small settlement in the southeast of Slovenia, approximately 15 kilometres from the Croatian border, does not offer much nowadays.
A modest bar, a decent pizzeria and some local businesses are trying to defy the marginalization of a once proud coal exportation town that is situated along the regional road connecting Crnomelj and Vinica.
Domestic and foreign tourists, when travelling to the Adriatic coast, only spend a minute driving by not really knowing that a rich mining heritage is still very much alive. A mining museum and a perserved mine entrance are the last two reminders of Kanizarica’s glory years.
When the coal mine was closed after 138 years of operation in 1995, the emigration skyrocketed. High unemployment rates forced many skilled workers and young families into exile, never to return.
Despite the changes, a Porsche Cayenne with Italian licence plates can still be seen at the local football field. It is obvious that someone from Kanizarica, working and living in Italy, is doing very well.
A quick peek inside the building reveals the car’s owner. The inscription on one of the apartment door’s reads the surname of one of Slovenia’s top footballers: Kurtic.
When Jasmin Kurtic jogs around Kanizarica every summer those who drive by don’t really have an idea who the tattooed jogger is, but his neighbours sure do.
A chat with his friends, a cup of coffee with some acquaintances or just a smile on the face of a passerby are the things the 26-year-old loves most about his home town.
“I’m open with my fellow citizens. I like to stop by and drink a cup of coffee with anyone back home. It is who I am. I drive a Porsche and play in the Serie A, but as a person I have not changed a bit,” he told Nogomania after joining Fiorentina last season.
Just four years ago Kurtic jogged around Kanižarica anonymously. He was not greeted by fellow citizens, not recognised by strangers and he did not drink free coffee. He was only a youngster, one that played a lot of football at the local ground and trained at Crnomelj’s local club, Bela Krajina.
During that time Kurtic would drive to Crnomelj every day to train and play. For free.
Being the son and grandson of a miner (it was his grandfather who came to work at Kanizarica’s coal mine from Tuzla decades ago), he had a strict upbringing. As an 18-year-old, Kurtic had to start earning his own income.
“My parents are proud and hard workers, even now despite my success! My father said to me when I was 18, that I should find myself a job.
“It was not difficult. I started to work just across the road at a local company, dealing with metal production and thin plates treatment,” Kurtic reminisces while speaking of his welding and grinding days.
His peers and friends enjoyed their teenage years to the fullest, while Kurtic had to go to sleep early if he wanted to be fresh and ready for his work and football, going so far as to play before and after toiling at his job.
“When I was younger, I played football all day, every day. When I started to work, I played before or after work. I wasn’t interested in bars and parties. My friends were.
“Some of them told me I better stick with my job and leave football alone, but I always had faith. It was difficult to work and train, but I managed. I wanted to become just like Zinedine Zidane,” Kurtic admits.
That hard work paid off as his breakthrough came in 2011. Kurtic moved to Gorica, the four time-Slovenian champions located in a town on the Italian border.
Kurtic played in only 15 matches, when his agent called one day.
“I had to quit my job to go to Gorica, so it was quite risky. After one match I drove home and my agent called. He told me I should turn my car around and return to Gorica. Palermo wanted me.
“I thought it was a joke, because he likes to fool around, but it actually happened. My hard work was repaid.”
Palermo, Varese, Sassuolo and Torino. Kurtic survived it all and it took only three seasons in Italy for him to become an appreciated midfielder. No wonder that Fiorentina’s Vincenzo Montella gave him a call last summer.
It happened on the last day of the summer window. Kurtic was in Brdo, where the Slovenian national team players met with the Slovenian press before their European Championship qualifier against Estonia.
Kurtic answered all the questions directed at him in a professional manner, but after being excused to answer a phone call he returned with a goofy smile on his face. That was it. His transfer to Fiorentina was sealed.
“When the transfer was confirmed, I cried. Strong emotions took over my body.”
Though Kurtic has since moved to Atalanta after signing a four year contract earlier this summer, the former welder and grinder will return to his modest home town of Kanizarica.
Like every summer, he won’t forget to stop by at his former employer’s place to greet his former co-workers.
“I won’t change. I admit, I don’t have many true friends. Some people are jealous of my successs, but that’s how it is. I only listen to myself.
“It is the right way for me. I came this far because I didn’t listen to the ‘advice’ of people who said I should turn my TV off and forget about football.”
The people of Kanizarica are proud once again. The coal mine has long been shut down, but it is the miner’s son who has placed the settlement back on the map again.
by Miran Zore
What a tremendous read!!! I’m fascinated by the small community of slovènes in Serie A and stories like this are great to hear