Florent Muslija and his Kosovo team-mates are determined to take another step closer to an unprecedented qualification for the FIFA World Cup 2026™ as they prepare to face Slovakia in the European play-offs.
Muslija, who is on loan with Fortuna Dusseldorf from SC Freiburg, started every match for his country during the UEFA qualifiers group phase as they finished second behind Switzerland in Group B, pushing Sweden and Slovenia lower down the pecking order.
The 27-year-old midfielder and his team-mates now face Slovakia on 26 March as they look to continue on their path towards the tournament in Canada, Mexico and the United States, with Türkiye or Romania their final opponents in Path C should they progress.
Muslija was born in Germany and made five appearances for the Germany U-20s in 2018, before opting to play for Kosovo in 2019, making his senior debut the same year. The attacking midfielder, who usually plays in central midfield or on the left wing and now has 38 international appearances and two goals to his name, spoke to FIFA earlier this month.
Florent Muslija: In international football, you’re obviously judged on whether or not you’re playing for your club. I have a good standing in the team and I’ve also put in some good performances in recent games. Hopefully, I can carry my good club form into the national side and even improve on that.
There’s not a huge difference. I see myself as a leader at Dusseldorf and for the national team, both on and off the pitch. I’m now at an age where I can and should take on more responsibility. Maybe one difference is that, at Dusseldorf, we have a very young team, whereas the national side has plenty of experienced players.
He wants me to take on responsibility and knows that I can be a match-winner. He wants to see it on the pitch. Obviously, he also wants me to help out defensively and I try to do my best in that area, to give the team more stability and quality.
It was a really positive campaign. We put in some excellent performances and developed even more as a team. We’ve really clicked as a group, we’re all there for each other and support one another. The level has been consistently high and I think that’s there for all to see. We definitely want to continue in the same vein and I believe we can.
These things happen in football sometimes. Luckily, it was just that one match, otherwise we probably wouldn’t be in the play-offs now. Unfortunately, we were slow to get going in that game and lost it before we even reached half-time. That said, we can still be proud of ourselves. We’ve achieved so much already and, of course, our job is not done yet. We want to qualify for the World Cup and we’ll give everything to get there.
Obviously, it’s really special. The atmosphere in our stadium is always amazing. To score a goal for your country – and such an important one at that – it gives you a lift and also gives you a sense of confidence and freedom to play. It was a wonderful feeling.
We’ve become a really solid unit and we’re very consistent in the way we play. We’re good going forwards, and we’ve tightened up at the back as well. When you see, for example, how we as a team dealt with Viktor Gyokeres and Alexander Isak [in the games against Sweden], we didn’t give them a sniff. We have players with great game intelligence, both in defence and attack.
We are a tiny country. Opponents like Sweden, Switzerland and Slovenia probably don’t lose too much sleep over us. But we have a lot of heart, passion and footballing quality. You can see that in the way we play. We have also shown that we can hold our own against the big teams. That says a lot about us and our country.
We need to bear in mind that we will only have these games – starting with Slovakia. We will need to give everything we’ve got. Every one of us needs to give 100%. We have to leave everything on the pitch and be aware of what a great opportunity this is for us as a nation. If we can do that, then we have every chance of succeeding.
There is huge excitement, both among the players and all the fans and people living in Kosovo and overseas. We know how important these games are and, of course, we would be making history as such a small country. That is a dream that we all share.
I don’t think we need any more motivation – we can feel it already. It’s just an indescribable feeling, when you think about the possibility of playing in a World Cup. Just the thought alone is enough to push you to your limits and play football with that same spirit.
