Uzuni, the boy who washed dishes and wanted to be like Cristiano

When he was barely ten years old, his family decided to leave the Berat District of Albania for Greece. There were only two ways. Or crossing the mountains, a journey of three days and three nights with his three-year-old brother on his back; or pay 8,000 euros to make an illegal but safe trip. His parents opted for the second option and Ferencvaros striker Myrto Uzuni settled in Greece.

“We went to have a better life. My father worked renovating roads while my mother washed dishes in a restaurant. I also had to work. She helped him. I would do 12 hours and play soccer, even if I had to get up at 6:00. I never stopped my dream, “he told AS from his house in Budapest, where he now lives with his family.” He only went to school in winter, “he explains, until, little by little, he realized that he had qualities.”I tried to do a test at the Olympiakos to see my talent, but I did not have the documents in order. That was when my father said that it was best to go back to Albania so that I could play on a soccer team. They sacrificed for me, “he adds.

And so they settled again next to the Tomori Mountains to play for the village team. Uzuni was 16 years old and it didn't take long to stand out. “A coach saw me and took me to his club, Apollonia. In the first friendly I scored two goals. And after six months all the clubs loved me, “he says. His training was totally self-taught, without help, since as a child he did not have the opportunity to be in any academy.

“Cristiano Ronaldo is my reference, I know his story, I read everything about him. It was my motivation. In Albania there are not many academies. That was the problem. I also had to pay 12 euros a month to go to training sessions and five for the minibus to take me to the games. He had no money and he would not stop crying at home. I paid for two months and had to ask my friends “, he is sincere now as a Champions player.

After Apollonia he lived great experiences at KF Laçi Albanian, such as when he scored 1-0 in the last minute against Anortosis that gave him the pass to the second round of the Europa League or the tie against Molde, in which he met to Solskjaer. “He was the Molde coach. He told me that I had played well and that I could be in any team if I wanted to.” That performance took him to Lokomotiv in Zagreb (“after a week they already told me they wanted me”) and, after two years, to Ferencvaros, although “Espanyol and Mallorca contacted me in March, but everything was cut short with the pandemic.”

Uzuni, who met his Christian idol in Turin when Ferencvaros fell 2-1 with an Albanian goal just a week ago, commented that that moment “was a dream, like the one I lived after the game when Morata congratulated me on how I had played”. Despite those accolades, and at 25, Uzuni has her feet on the ground. “Step by step, I don't want to make mistakes. I just want to score goals and give assists. For me that is now the important thing, and win games and play the Champions League. My dreams are big, but I prefer not to say them.”