In the heart of the Balkans, Kosovo is turning heads—not just for its stunning landscapes or its cultural exports, but for its unexpected rise in the world of padel. With a population of just 1.7 million and a history defined by struggle, this young nation is stepping up as a trailblazer in one of the world’s fastest-growing sports.
For all its beautiful landscapes and cities rich in culture, history and architecture, Kosovo has a complex and tumultuous past. For many, the thought of Kosovo may spark immediate connotation with the global superstars it has produced, from Dua lipa to Rita Ora. For others, due to its complex past and relatively new independence, it may spark memories of a troubled recent history and the struggle it faced before reaching independence in 2008.
Despite these challenges, however, Kosovo has appeared as a pioneer and an exciting frontier for many industries in recent years, most notably IT. However, surprisingly to some, it has also been making remarkable strides in the sporting world, driven by a young and sport obsessed population. Perhaps most surprising of all, however, has been Kosovo’s new-found status as a pioneer for Eastern Europe’s nascent padel scene; a scene in which progress and achievements have been coming thick and fast. As Cage 91 reports, Kosovo is fast arriving as a trailblazer for other nations at the start of their own padel journeys to follow.
Building Padel’s Foundation in Kosovo
When walking the streets of the capital city of Kosovo, Pristina, amongst the ancient architecture and bustling cafes, there’s a relatively new player on the scene, Kosovo’s first padel club, Be All Padel, which officially opened in July 2022. This state of the art facility is home to three indoor courts and a budding community of padel enthusiasts in the capital city. One wouldn’t be mistaken to think that the creation of these padel courts might have been the very first step on a long padel journey for Kosovo. However, the first courts only appeared after a string of huge padel successes.
Beginning back in 2021, long before many countries had even begun to consider the introduction of padel, the Kosovo Padel Federation was formed. Since then, the federation has been going from strength to strength, achieving a series of successes along the way. Beginning with its acceptance as a member of the Kosovo Olympic Committee, followed by being granted membership into the European Padel Federation and the International Padel Federation, the successes have been coming thick and fast. This becomes more impressive when learning that for the first two years of operation, the Kosovo Padel Federation received no government funding at all (other countries, take note!).
Cage 91 recently sat down with Jusuf Kika, the Secretary General of the Kosovo Padel Federation, to discuss the current state of play in Kosovo and the wider Balkans region. Kika played a key role in the creation of the Federation in August 2021, a feat larger sporting nations of the New Padel World have not managed until more recently. He has also appeared as one of the main drivers behind the growth of padel in the region, helping to secure funding for the first courts in the country to be put in place in Pristina, in 2022.
Kika, a former football player before he turned his eye to padel, tells us:
“The federation worked tirelessly, even without funding in the first two years, just to reach where we are today.”
“We have organized numerous tournaments, championships, a league, training for referees and coaches, seminars, as well as capacity building for the federation itself. Year on year, we have marked small successes, the fruits of which have started to be seen now with the success that the sport has achieved in our country”.
Early Wins: Making a Mark on the International Stage
The culmination of this hard work and relentless energy to get the sport up and running in Kosovo came to bear at the 2024 European Padel Championship in Krakow, Poland. Only a year after the first courts were erected in its capital city, Kosovo managed to secure their first ever international victory over Ireland which, in Kika’s words, was a “true milestone” for his country. Despite not doing enough to make the recent European Championship finals in Italy, their fruitful launch onto the international scene has proven that Kosovo is already prepared to mix it with some of its larger eastern European neighbours, and nations several times its size right across the continent .
Looking Ahead: The 2025-2030 Action Plan
After such a fast and exciting start to padel life, you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking things might plateau in the coming years. With Kika, however, it’s quite the opposite. After sitting down and speaking with Kika, he makes it abundantly clear that padel’s brightest days still lie ahead, insisting the nation is far from done with making waves in the padel world.
It would be remiss of us not to mention Kosovo’s ‘2025-2030 Action Plan’, a Strategy that Kika speaks fondly of, and is something of a guiding star for him and Kosovo’s young padel community as they look to continue growing the sport within the country, and change perceptions outside it, by putting a real emphasis on integrating padel into schools and universities, and opening new clubs and courts in every city. The ambitious plan is aimed at priming padel in Kosovo for a moment that would, if it’s to be achieved, be the country’s biggest moment on the sporting stage yet: hosting the 2030 Mediterranean Games. Padel’s inclusion in the 2023 European Games showcased just how impactful the multi-sport Games stage can be for padel, with Krakow boasting capacity crowds in the city’s main square. It could potentially see padel in Kosovo taken to a whole new level of popularity and cultural importance.
Kika’s restlessness, however, is infectious, because with the home stretch of 2024 already upon us, his focus has already turned to getting the first group of certified padel coaches and umpires operating by the end of the year; which, in itself, would be another significant step forwards to grow the game further and encourage what is currently Europe’s youngest population to fall further in love with the game.
