Granit Xhaka’s famous will to win, determination, leadership skills, and sheer resilience can all be traced back to his upbringing in Switzerland, and more significantly, his parents’ own experiences in Kosovo before he was even born.
Young Granit would have these virtues instilled in him by his parents when growing up in Basel, Switzerland, and they are values that still inspire him to this day – both on the pitch and off it.
He says his upbringing shaped how he behaves in everyday life and underpins his spirit when he is playing as well.
“My main inspiration when I started my career was my dad,” Granit explains.
“He played football himself before he got an injury, but it was not just that which inspired me – his life as a whole did. He taught me never to give up on anything, to be strong, and mentally tough. He was the guy who inspired me the most.
“He was a professional for a club in Kosovo when he was younger, he was a winger – but unfortunately by the time I was born he wasn’t playing anymore, because he had to stop with injury.
“But really, he inspired me more as a role model, rather than on the pitch. He went through a lot of very, very tough moments in his life. He’s always been very strong mentally, and he taught me those same values that I have in football now, but also my life.”
Xhaka, 30, says he remains very close to his parents, who have been there every step of the way during his career so far.
The Xhaka family also includes Granit’s older brother Taulant of course, who plays international football for Albania. When the two came head-to-head during the 2016 European Championships, both his parents were in the crowd to support them – their mum sporting a half and half Switzerland and Albania shirt!
“My dad is always behind me,” he says. “He knows everything about the pressure of playing football and what we go through. It’s not just him though, my mum as well. She’s a very, very important presence in my life. I can speak in a different way to my mum as I do with my dad, so for me, both of them are inspiring, because of what they went through when they were young – we just don’t see it now.
“I don’t believe that the new generation today could do that. When my parents left Kosovo before the war, they were not prepared for it, but they did it.
“If we – this generation – had to leave our homes now, we wouldn’t be prepared, we don’t know the language or where we could go to. You don’t know who to trust. You start with zero money, minus money, so to come from where my parents did is difficult to understand and is very inspiring for me, because I don’t think that we – this new generation – could cope with that. It’s a completely different life that we have now.”
Granit started his career with FC Basel in Switzerland – where Taulant still plays – before heading to Germany, aged 19, to sign for Borussia Monchengladbach. His dad, Ragip, moved with him to Germany, while his mum stayed in Switzerland with Taulant. It meant the family has split apart for two years, which Granit said was understandably tough on his parents.
It was another character-building experience for the Xhaka family though, and Granit says he and his brother were originally persuaded to go into football by their parents in a bid to keep them on the straight and narrow.
“One of my big motivations when I started football, especially from my parents, was so that I and my brother didn’t go down the wrong route as kids,” he says. “It can be easy to be distracted when you are young, so they wanted us to play football to help us avoid problems like drugs or trouble when we were growing up.
