Kosovan Superliga Preview 2024/25

After a side wins three titles in a row, it seems quite a wild prediction to be thinking that, perhaps, the side who have established dominance are not favourites to make it four titles on the spin. 

But that’s the situation that the Kosovan Superliga is in this upcoming season. 23/24 was a tight title race as Llapi, Malisheva and Drita hung on to the bitter end before Ballkani eventually added gloss with a seven point margin of victory. On the back of their best European season ever also, with a notable Conference League Group Stage win over Dinamo Zagreb, Ballkani could be considered to be on the cusp of turning an era of dominance into a dynasty.

But no side has had more of a refurbishment over the summer than Ballkani. Let’s just look at the list of players that moved on to pastures new who were major pieces of their jigsaw last season:

Lumbardh Dellova

Edvin Kuc

Qendrim Zyba

Nazmi Gripshi

Meriton Korenica

Armend Thaqi

All of them moved to bigger clubs in bigger leagues for bigger wages and bigger pay packets. Ballkani, at some point, would always need to have a bit of a refit but it is very difficult to think of a comparative exodus of talent from a title winning side anywhere in football.

For that reason, Ballkani’s European campaign this season so far has certainly not been the smoothest, losing to Andorran’s UE Santa Coloma to drop out of the Champions League at the first hurdle before a more reasonable 2-0 aggregate win vs Hamrun Spartans to reach a Conference League 3QR tie vs Larne - a very winnable tie. 

But Ballkani must hit the ground running and a great deal will rely upon the form of homegrown talent Lindon Emerllahu. While few would identify a combative midfielder in this sort of preview as the key cog, he must graduate into replacing Kuc and Zyba all in one go, dictating tempo and physicality in Ballkani’s engine room. There’s a lot of hope that he can do so but, in a transitional period with a lot of new players around him,  he has to be the constant.

When it comes to those newbies, striker Sunday Adetunji is perhaps the most known but found himself unable to cope with steps up to Serbia and Slovenia at Cukaricki and Celje. On his best form from Shkupi, he will absolutely be one of the league’s deadliest strikers and, returning to the level where he presented that form before striking out when stepping up, you have to assume he will.

The questions over Ballkani are around two key elements - replacing Dellova and replacing Gripshi. So far, more trust has been put in Bernard Karrica to cover the latter as a tricky forward who may, this season, reach his undoubted potential. The former relies on Astrit Thaqi, brought in from Drita, to deliver while Marsel Ismajlgeci has moved into midfield to provide more cover there. That’s what we’ve seen in European games - will that be what we see in the league. Ballkani may be reigning champions, but to retain they need bets on both their signings and their prospects to develop to mostly pay off.

It helps that the selling market has happened elsewhere also. Llapi came closest to Ballkani last term and key to that was the form of Muhamet Hyseni who had a banner season and earned a move to Denmark. Llapi’s question mark is simply if they have the goals in them to cushion that loss and it’s a definite maybe.

To do that, they’ve brought in two key signings - Blend Baftiu from Drita who had a decent return from midfield in his two years there but who can and has delivered more in the past, and Ardit Tahiri from Partizani who was a sub on loan at Drita last term and needs to pick up considerably more to fill the boots he’s been asked to. Llapi have a fantastic supply line to deliver chances for their new artillery, but time will tell if they’re only firing blanks.

Drita have, over one tie, already established themselves as the most impressive in Europe so far, taking out last year’s group stage members Breidablik 3-1 on aggregate. Their losses of Baftiu and Thaqi are players they’d likely prefer to have but weren’t players so as central an import as those Ballkani and Llapi have lost. As a Baftiu replacement, Salifu Ibrahim is an experienced Ghanaian taking his first step in Europe and Blerton Sheji is a low risk defensive pick-up. Drita are rarely far away and certainly are no worse than last year, but you feel that they need others to fall back to them rather than them having taken a step forward.

Malisheva’s primary achievement so far has been in keeping the band together. Drilon Hazrollaj is a star if he keeps his tendency to overdo things in check and Etnik Brruti is a midfielder whose development journey may take him to the top five leagues.

But there isn’t all that much else. While those two are the stars of the side, and perhaps the best players in their positions in the entire league, they are decidedly short of the top three everywhere else on the park. Considering that Brruti and Hazrollaj are almost certainly on the wish list of many other clubs, this season could see a severe bump back to Earth for Malisheva.

Prishtina tend to yo-yo between contending and being nowhere - last season they were nowhere so does this season mean they’re on the right track? Loads of outs and a few more ins mean that they’re basically unrecognisable so to look at those ins - Dashmir Elezi hasn’t had things go right over the past 18-20 months because of failing to adapt when moving out of North Macedonia and dealing with personal tragedy but this is as close a foreign move as he could get to his homeland and he could star. Tope Fadahunsi is perhaps the only player ever to move from Sutton to Prishtina but he comes with a bit more first team heritage behind him than many of the English players that have made the trip to Kosovo and that must be an encouraging sign. Sunday Akinbule has a fine scoring record also. There’s absolutely the encouragement on paper but will it knit together on the pitch?

Gjilani had money issues last term and have moved to a smaller core of players this time around but there is quality there. Haxhihamza is a good GK at this level, Marko Martinaga has ample experience at higher levels, Sabit Bilali is a smart get and Senad Jarovic was exceptional on loan last term. It gives them a quality spine to look further up the league after a season of consolidation last term.

That leaves our likely bottom four in Dukagjini, Feronikeli, Suhareka and Ferizaj. Dukagjini don’t look in a great state in terms of who they’ve lost and that they’ve broadly recruited from the lower tiers. Some of that makes their promoted competitors weaker but still, it’s not that promising. Feronikeli look to have brought in well - the Greek duo of Karagounis and Ioannidis are good pick-ups for a side of their status - we’ll see how that lies in the first game vs Ferizaj.

Speaking of Ferizaj, taking another bite at the Superliga bouncing straight back from relegation. They come in on the back of a good pre-season and the addition of Fatjon Yusufi is an underrated bit of composure and leadership to bring in and Ermin Imamovic comes in on the back of a banner walk season for Jezero. They’ll certainly be no pushovers.

Suhareka might be. Their main get is Hysen Memolla but he’s not starting to show his age at a point that may overtake his experience and knowledge of defending. They were the less impressive of the promoted sides and, crucially, it’s hard to see where goals come from.

Kosovo always presents an interesting title and this season looks no exception. In a way, it feels almost like a league without a mid-table or, at least, a mid-table that will be defined not by mediocrity but by experiments not having worked.

But, for so many sides, if those ingredients combine right, this could be as open and unpredictable a season as any.