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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:04 So I always put on the Swedish TV, the first thing
00:06 I do in the morning.
00:09 My dad's first job was--
00:12 he had a fashion store.
00:15 I would say what comes from my Albanian root
00:18 is has been my temper and my--
00:20 you know, the strong will and the fighting spirit.
00:24 It's like it comes from within.
00:26 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:36 The weather is getting better in Milan,
00:38 so better weather, better moods.
00:39 Every time I complain in training
00:41 that I feel like it's cold, everyone always says,
00:44 hey, you're from Sweden.
00:45 But for me, that's the reason I'm not living in Sweden now.
00:49 For the last 10 years, I've been living abroad.
00:53 So last time in Madrid and now in Milan.
00:56 So I feel like--
00:58 I feel more at home at the warmer places.
01:02 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:12 What makes me feel at home when I'm abroad
01:15 is probably trying to stay with some cultures that
01:17 are from Sweden where--
01:19 what I grew up to.
01:20 So every morning I wake up and I watch Swedish TV
01:25 and that kind of thing.
01:26 So it gives you that homey feeling.
01:27 I value the mornings a lot.
01:29 I'm a morning person.
01:30 I wake up always early.
01:32 I like to prepare for the game, eat certain hours
01:35 before training to be prepared.
01:38 So I always put on the Swedish TV, the first thing
01:40 I do in the morning.
01:41 Otherwise, for me, home is not a place for me.
01:46 For me, home is the people, the people you love.
01:48 And when you're with them, you can feel at home anywhere.
01:51 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:03 Milan as a city, I like it.
02:05 I mean, it's a big city, but it's also pretty compact.
02:10 So it's always a lot of people on the move.
02:12 Me, personally, I like when it's like--
02:14 I like to live in big cities where it happens,
02:17 where everything happens.
02:19 There is a lot of people.
02:21 I mean, the weather is good here.
02:22 The food is good.
02:24 Great.
02:25 And it's a fashion city, which is something
02:29 that appeals to me as well.
02:31 So I like the city.
02:33 I'm feeling more and more at home in it.
02:36 Just trying to find somewhere to live in Milan
02:39 and in every new city, it's hard because you don't know
02:43 the areas in the beginning.
02:44 But then I always go with a gut feeling.
02:46 So I visit a lot of areas in Milan.
02:49 And then I went around Navigli there,
02:54 and I felt, oh, I like this place.
02:57 You know, you have the water.
02:58 You have full of life, a lot of restaurants.
03:01 And I like that feeling when you just
03:03 step out of the apartments, and then it's
03:06 a lot of life outside and a lot of things to do.
03:09 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:18 I love the fashion, first of all.
03:20 Unfortunately, I'm always away during the fashion weeks
03:23 because it's always during international dates.
03:26 So we're away with the national team.
03:27 But for me, sometimes I just walk around in the city.
03:31 And instead of looking in the stores,
03:33 I'm looking at the people.
03:34 I like how they dress, the way they dress.
03:37 It's like chic, elegant, and also a little bit
03:40 unbothered style.
03:41 You know, everyone has their different style.
03:43 And I like that part.
03:45 So I like to just walk around the city and people watch
03:49 and get inspired by different ways
03:53 how people express themselves throughout their clothes.
03:56 Every time we have like a fitting with--
03:59 now with Milan, we've been with Off-White, for example.
04:02 And then I've been talking to the people that work there.
04:05 And I was like, you have a dream job, just walking around
04:08 and working with clothes.
04:11 You know, for me, it's like it's so much fun.
04:14 And I would love to be in that industry.
04:17 I probably won't because I'll always have football as a--
04:20 I want to work within football.
04:22 But it's also a big dream to work with clothes.
04:25 I mean, I'm super interested in that.
04:27 And also got a little bit from my parents.
04:29 They were into the fashion when they were younger.
04:34 They always told me.
04:35 And they had like a store where they always had this interest.
04:39 So I think it comes from that.
04:41 My dad's first job was he had a fashion store.
04:46 So he always ordered the newest clothes.
04:49 And had just an eye for that.
04:52 And I never asked him about it until I got older.
04:56 And he was telling me about it.
04:57 And I was like, yeah, that makes sense a little bit,
05:00 you know, because I think it's a little bit in the DNA.
05:03 And I also sometimes look at my parents.
05:05 I'm like, you dress well, you know?
05:08 They're like proper elegant.
05:10 And they know what fits them.
05:11 So it comes from somewhere.
05:13 [MUSIC PLAYING]
05:16 I have a very strong connection with my heritage
05:28 and the way I grew up.
05:31 I learned the language because I was born and raised in Sweden.
05:35 So I had a little bit hard time to learn the Albanian language.
05:38 Obviously, we spoke it at home.
05:40 But then my parents thought it was important for me
05:43 to go to school and try to learn it.
05:46 So I did that, which I'm super happy now.
05:48 Because I feel close to my heritage and close to Kosovo.
05:54 And I think it's important to know where your parents come
05:58 from, because I don't think I would have been here today
06:02 if they didn't take the decision when they were younger
06:06 to move to Sweden and give me really good opportunities.
06:13 But I'm proud of them.
06:14 I'm proud of my heritage.
06:15 [MUSIC PLAYING]
06:18 I would say what comes from my Albanian root
06:26 is has been my temper.
06:29 Now I'm very calm.
06:30 I think I really developed a lot.
06:34 But I like that, the strong will and the fighting spirit.
06:40 It comes from within.
06:41 And I think it's in the DNA to never give up
06:44 and having that fighting spirit.
06:46 And that, I can say, comes straight out from my parents
06:49 and from how they grew up.
06:51 So I know it comes from there.
06:53 And I see it also in my nephew and nieces
06:56 that are growing up now.
06:58 They have the same spirit.
07:00 So I could say--
07:02 I would pinpoint that for sure.
07:03 [MUSIC PLAYING]
07:07 I think everyone would laugh if I said this.
07:16 Because I am very extrovert.
07:19 I like to talk a lot.
07:21 I'm very interested in people.
07:23 But when I was a kid and growing up, I was very shy.
07:26 So I think I have that mix of things,
07:29 mix of introvert and extrovert.
07:31 But the older I get, I'm more extrovert.
07:33 I think I'm a person with a lot of integrity.
07:37 So it's not maybe easy for whoever
07:40 to come close to me as a person.
07:42 But extrovert in the matters of meeting new people
07:47 and adapting has never been a problem for me.
07:50 [MUSIC PLAYING]
07:53 I think I'm pretty good at adapting.
08:04 I never felt I had a hard time, except when I was young.
08:07 My first move was to the USA.
08:10 And then it was easy, because I knew the language.
08:12 It was easy to get into the culture.
08:15 But when I moved to Paris and no one spoke English,
08:19 the same was the same when I moved to Spain.
08:21 No one spoke English.
08:23 In that case, it was harder to adapt
08:26 in the way of being able to have conversations
08:30 with your teammates.
08:31 In Spain, I started to learn the language directly.
08:34 Here in Italy, a lot of the girls speak some English.
08:39 And my Spanish has helped me a lot
08:41 to understand the meetings that we have.
08:44 And the Italians and the Spanish are
08:47 pretty similar to each other.
08:49 So I feel like it's been easy to get
08:51 into the Italian language in that kind of way.
08:55 [MUSIC PLAYING]
08:58 I think this is the life of professional players.
09:10 I mean, you can't always win.
09:11 You'll have seasons where things goes against you.
09:15 But I think the more experience I have,
09:17 I try to separate performances versus self-esteem.
09:23 When you're younger, when you didn't perform,
09:26 you felt really, really bad as a person.
09:29 When I was a kid, when I didn't win games,
09:31 I was punishing myself.
09:33 I'm not worth to have a Coca-Cola after the game.
09:36 I'm not worth to have a pizza.
09:38 I was like that.
09:39 I punished myself.
09:41 And all I get, I'm like, you have
09:43 to separate performances versus self-esteem.
09:47 Regardless the result, you're still worth as a person.
09:50 And I think you have to find that balance in life
09:54 for every professional player.
09:55 When a game doesn't go well, I call home.
09:59 I think that's a moment where you get back a little bit
10:01 to your comfort zone.
10:02 You want to talk to the people that loves you.
10:07 And when I talk to them, I don't want
10:09 to talk about football at all.
10:10 This thing I always had with my family,
10:13 especially with my family, I'm like,
10:15 I don't want to talk about football.
10:16 I just want to talk about anything else, everything else
10:20 besides football.
10:21 And so they know that even when I have success,
10:24 I don't want to talk to them about, oh, what a nice goal,
10:30 or how many really nice performance.
10:32 It's nice to hear when they text me it,
10:34 but they know that they should--
10:36 when we talk, we talk about everything else besides
10:39 football.
10:39 [MUSIC PLAYING]
10:43 [MUSIC PLAYING]
10:46 [MUSIC PLAYING]
10:49 The first time I went out of my comfort zone
10:52 was when I signed for American team.
10:56 And I was-- what was I-- 19 years old.
10:59 And I just took the decision.
11:01 I think I didn't ask my family about it.
11:05 I didn't ask anyone about it.
11:06 I mean, USA is not close.
11:09 I mean, it's far away.
11:10 But for me, I always like to take my decisions
11:15 through my gut feeling, like what feels right for me.
11:18 And that moment I got the chance to play in the US,
11:21 I just said, yes, I want to sign for them.
11:24 And then I signed before I even told my family about it.
11:28 So they make fun of me a little bit of it
11:31 because they read in the Swedish newspaper
11:33 before they knew themselves because I just was--
11:36 I was just like, yes, I want to do it.
11:38 And then I just went for it.
11:39 I like that.
11:40 I mean, I was--
11:41 and I am a brave person.
11:44 But I was really brave in that young age
11:47 to sign for a team in the USA.
11:51 The first day I arrived in the US,
11:53 it was more like a reality call.
11:56 Oh my god, I'm here now, you know?
11:58 Because sometimes I just go with what feels right for me.
12:01 And then suddenly I'm there.
12:02 And I'm like, OK, now I can prepare.
12:06 So it was a way of stepping out of my comfort zone.
12:09 But it was a really important step in my career
12:11 because I felt like I wanted more experience.
12:14 It was, for me, a dream when I was a kid to play in the US.
12:17 So when I got the opportunity, I took it.
12:20 And I learned a lot from it.
12:21 I'm not the person that stays in my comfort zone at all.
12:34 I mean, I think it's nice to have a comfort zone.
12:37 But I wouldn't have experienced everything
12:39 that I've experienced, the countries I've been playing in,
12:42 if I wasn't someone that took risks and took chances.
12:47 And I think that's--
12:48 when you push your limits, I think
12:51 that's where you learn the most.
12:53 And it can be challenging.
12:54 Maybe it doesn't go well or you don't have success.
12:59 But you always learn from those environments.
13:02 So I think it's important to push yourself and push
13:05 your limits and to learn something new.
13:07 And for me, I think I have that mindset
13:10 that I will never be fully learned.
13:12 I think every person you meet can teach you something.
13:15 Every new environment can teach you something.
13:16 And that's why I like to travel and get new experiences.
13:21 [MUSIC PLAYING]
13:25 [MUSIC PLAYING]
13:29 [MUSIC PLAYING]
13:32 (upbeat music)
13:35 (whooshing)