Exchange with the Albanian gallery

“On September 12, 1962, during a football match against Norrköping, my father scored the first Albanian goal in the history of the UEFA Champions League. While this event remains a statistic linked by fate to Sweden and Norrköping, it holds a deeper significance for me.
Memories belong to events and times that pass away, yet they remain alive as long as we breathe.
After the match, when he returned to Albania with the triumph of that goal, he brought back a ball signed by the players and an artistic book featuring black and white photos from Swedish life style.
To this day, I don’t fully understand why that book accompanied me throughout my childhood and youth. However, I can say that the design of its pages and the symbolic image of the ball unknowingly shaped the purpose of my life.
We are part of those moments when our parents chose to keep some things unspoken …”

Jon Kraja

With support of the
Albanian Embassy in Sweden