IN MY WORDS: JAHMIR HYKA

The life story of the Quakes Albanian Winger

By San Jose Earthquakes

July 28^th, 2017

The time that I was born was not an easy time for my family because it was the period of communism. Albania was coming from a time when it was very hard for the people to get work or purposeful jobs. They didn’t have the money to live very good, but that period was close to ending and I was raised up very good from my family.

I am so close with my family and I am always talking with them. I have two brothers and two sisters. They are older than me. I am the youngest so they always call me the baby of the family. My brother, Bledi, is the one I am talking always with – he is the middle one. I am very close with him. He also played soccer, so after the games we discuss what I did good and what I did not do good.

"Thank God that happened because I don’t know if I could do something else."

I do not remember when I started to play soccer, but it was at 5 or 6 years old. I was just playing in the street with my friends and I knew that I wanted to be a soccer player. Thank God that happened because I don’t know if I could do something else.

My professional path started when I was 8 years old in a team called Dinamo. I continued to play there until the age of 16 and at that time, the first team coach took me in with the first team.

At 17, I moved to Norway. It was a bit early for to me to move there, but it was a good experience. It was hard at 17 years old to go out of the country because in Albania we are very close with our families. It was not close to Albania, but I think the best thing is that I learnt a lot about living alone. I think that helped me with the future because it makes you grow up faster. I think that was the most important thing for me.

"I always wanted to come to America."

I have been in many countries and I have friends everywhere. The best time I had was in Switzerland. I have very good friends there who I can talk to like my brothers. They visited me here and I keep in very good contact with them.

I always wanted to come to America. I heard from people that it is a little bit different from Europe, but I didn’t think it was so much different until I came here. There are many different things, I do not know how to explain it. In Europe you get used to going out and drinking coffee all the time in the city, and here it is not like that, but I like it.

Everything is huge here. That was the first impact when I came. From the streets, to the space, to everything that I have here, it is totally different. In Europe, you have everything so close with each other, and here it is so huge, the streets are so far away, without a car you are dead.

"I miss everything from my country, but the most is my family."

I like to travel a lot. The beach is the best part in California and the weather. It’s perfect. I wanted to travel through all America and we are doing that because we are playing all over here. I want to see more cities here and the White House – I’ve always wanted to go there.

I miss everything about Albania. I grew up there and I have my friends, my family. I miss everything from my country, but the most is my family. Now this period is a period of summer, I miss also that a lot, but I have gotten used to it because I am 10 years or more out of Albania.

I cannot speak bad about my country, of course it is not everything perfect, but I love it and I miss also my countrymen. We are a small country but with honest and very friendly people. I hope people can go visit Albania because it is a country that is growing up and also has beautiful beaches.

Footnotes

Contributor: Charlotte Muscroft

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FootNotes

Contributor: Charlotte Muscroft