Filip Kostic, the humble cross weapon

From a distance, Filip Kostic is nothing special. His gaze is cold and searching and a soft and impermanent fuzz forms on his cheeks. He’s over six feet tall, but he doesn’t look it. His wiry build makes his gait heavy, almost difficult. He has no tattoos and rarely uses social networks. Be Instagram profile He’s naked and if his photos didn’t occasionally show a ball, you wouldn’t even know he was a professional footballer. During the few interviews he gives, he often stutters awkwardly and looks down. He is shy and reserved and only loves the spotlight when it illuminates the green lawn.

An unusual light shines in his eyes: He’s famous, but he almost doesn’t seem to want to be.

His style is simple, outdated. His ride is commanding but clumsy. Kostic doesn’t play football for fun or even to extend his childhood. He is an atypical outsider: he is neither a loner nor an exhibitionist. He’s like Valdanos Batistuta: “He doesn’t dribble because he doesn’t know how to do it, he doesn’t invent because it’s not his specialty, and he doesn’t argue because he gets distracted.” Kostic is nothing special, but he still gives his coaches never stopped him.

His career changed when Adi Hütter made him an all-round left winger in Frankfurt. Since then, Kostic has searched for the bottom of the field like a bird for its nest: he feels like he belongs and has to return there whenever he can. It’s as if Kostic has to work hard to really make an impact. Seeking stress, chasing it, and constantly struggling with it. The feeling is that it makes no difference to him whether the pitch is 100, 200 or 300 meters long: Kostic would always play the same way. That’s why his characteristics fit so well with Massimiliano Allegri’s football philosophy.

Because Kostic plays simple, anachronistic football. Because he is a man who he understood that there are categories in life and that he has accepted his humble fate: Stay calm, run and carry the ball among the best at the front.

With Kostic it’s like Pirandello’s old, made-up woman. When you see it for the first time you have to laugh. But then you understand. You understand that his stubborn crosses are those of a methodical person, a professional who strives for perfection in every small gesture. A craftsman of a now lost technique: the cross. Sometimes, when he reaches the bottom, he seems to count his steps, like a diver does when standing on the platform, or a tennis player before his serve.

Kostic always has everything under control: rhythm, strength and coordination. In every ball he throws into the air there is a hint of hope, a promising longing for success. So much so that he achieved a unique achievement: Make actions that appear not to be unpredictable. That’s what makes it unique: Search (and find), to paraphrase Victor Hugo, the extraordinary in the depths of the ordinary.

In an increasingly monotonous and hypertactic football Even a well-made cross is water in the desert.

“Those who believe that physical measurements and indicators of speed and strength determine a football player’s performance are sorely mistaken, as are those who believe that intelligence tests have something to do with talent or that there is a connection between penis size and sexuality .” Enjoyment. Good football players may not be titans created by Michelangelo, let alone.

In football, skill is more important than sporting conditions, and in many cases skill lies in the art of transforming limitations into virtues.”

E. Galeano, splendor and misery of the game of football

Kostic will never be Didì, who treated the ball with the same affection as his wife. And not even Kopa, who drew arabesques for the field. He is and remains an indispensable player, one of those who makes those who have them play better. Above all, he is and remains a humble man who understands his place in the world. If you think about it more, maybe that’s exactly what it is His greatest advantage: having nothing special and being exceptionally normal. Which, as someone said, is now an extraordinary achievement.