Lecce has Ylber Ramadani: he is the man of hope

LECCE - Lecce's victory over Torino, which was crucial to continue hoping for salvation, has Ylber Ramadani's tearful face. The Albanian footballer "branded" the victory over the Granata with a goal of rare beauty, a conclusion from twenty meters that ended up in the top corner. All this, after the Giallorossi midfielder had hit the ball with a perfect technical move, one of those that should be shown in football schools to teach children how to shoot in similar circumstances.

As soon as the ball hit the bottom of the net, Ramadani, drunk with joy, went to celebrate with the fans and then burst into tears, before being overwhelmed by the embrace of his teammates.

Fate wanted the protagonist of the "match of his life" (but the next one will be the same) to be a player who has had a troubled season. After the positive 2023/2024 season, in which he had the daunting task of taking the place of the captain Morten Hjulmand, a top player, the Albanian played the European Championship with the "Eagles" national team.

As often happens after these important appointments, however, with the club team he had a performance with more shadows than lights, alternating good performances with very negative ones, so much so that he slowly disappeared from the radar of technical choices.

Luca Gotti always lined him up in the starting eleven and Marco Giampaolo did the same in his first outings under his management. Then, the Giulianova coach followed other paths, often preferring Balthazar Pierret. Sometimes Medon Berisha or Mohamed Kaba. Thus, from being the irreplaceable linchpin of Lecce's midfield, Ramadani found himself wearing the shoes of a supporting actor and, we can be sure, he suffered a lot for it. But he did it in silence, without controversy, as befits a serious professional.

Confirming a very particular season for him, the Albanian midfielder also had an uncontrolled reaction when, during Lecce-Parma, on September 21, he was replaced by Gotti. But he immediately admitted the mistake he had made and apologized to everyone. To the coach as well as to his teammates. Despite this, he was in the crosshairs of criticism for a long time, despite the fact that the Venetian coach himself remarked, after a few days, that the "issue" had been largely overcome, that similar situations, although unfortunate, are a consequence of the competitive trance.

From the fifteenth to the thirty-sixth matchday, Ramadani was rarely deployed as a starter, often coming on for a short part of the match and also remaining on the bench nine times, due, as Giampaolo explained at the time, to a small back problem that he had to deal with.

The Albanian was not in the starting lineup on Sunday either, in the thirty-seventh round, in the match against Torino. In the 44th minute of the first half, however, Pierret got injured and the Albanian was thrown into the fray. And so, returning to the field after the interval, in the 1st minute, he took on the role of the man of providence for Lecce. Nikola Krstovic maneuvered stubbornly on the left, along the line of the area, and served backwards to the onrushing Ramadani, who coordinated himself magnificently, shooting a bolt that made the «Via del Mare» explode with happiness.

Probably, the Albanian's tears after the goal were for the team, which had not won for too long and absolutely needed to do so against Torino to cling to the dream of salvation. But they were also for himself, for the disappointment he has inside for a season that did not go, on a personal level but also for the team, as he would have wanted and hoped. They were for his family and for those who supported him in a complicated year.

We don't know if the match-goal he scored against "Toro" will prove useful to the club chaired by Saverio Sticchi Damiani to maintain the category, but in the meantime it's nice that he "signed" it, keeping Lecce afloat. Too often, in football, insiders and fans forget that every footballer, who we would all like to be an indestructible and infallible "hero", is always and in any case a man, with all his limits and fragilities.