When I landed at the main New York JFK airport in the middle of September on a regular Air Serbia flight, and entered the building where passport control is passed and baggage is picked up, I thought that there was some confusion. If we hadn't landed in New York, or America, if the pilot hadn't, by some miracle, landed the plane in Havana or even in Haiti. So, some of the neighboring and for various reasons devastated countries.
When I was met by an American policeman, I accepted that there was no mistake and that we were at JFK, but in one of its garages where planes from banana countries, or so-called third world countries, are accepted. However, when I transferred to another domestic terminal two hours later to continue my journey to Washington, the situation there was not much better either. I remembered a report in the German Spiegel a few years ago after the great floods and devastation of New York - the infrastructure in America is like in Germany, but before the First World War - wrote the reporter of a well-known weekly.
Not to mention the fact that I was greeted at passport control by the tired face of a policeman, probably at the end of his shift, who nervously flipped through my document, looking for a visa, and then moved on to the familiar questions, why I'm coming, where I'm staying, when I'm coming back, who he pays for my stay, etc, etc...
A few months later, a new trip and on December 12, I landed at Hamad airport, the newest airport in Qatar, one of the countries of the third world mentioned. I get to the passport office, but instead of live people, policemen and officials, I'm greeted by scanners with barcodes and cameras with virtual officials who, in a recorded polite voice, in English, beg me to look them in the eye. And all finished. And the visa, and my identification, all the checks and there I am already at the luggage line where I'm waiting for my suitcase.
The interior of Hamad Airport shines with luxury, like the most expensive shopping mall in London. There it is in the airport building and Harrods! I haven't seen it anywhere in Europe before, but I don't have time to dwell on it. I rush to the metro which takes me directly to Al Sadd, the center of old Doha. Another civilizational shock - the metro seems to them like the latest Boeing plane, in business class. Luxurious, impeccably clean, for every place. No crowds.
How can they not when each new composition is three minutes long. They have three lines, gold, green and red. And the subway is powered by technology and computer, not live crew. Everything is programmed and there is no human error. Again, my memory takes me back to the New York subway, the lack of air, graffiti, bags and trash, worn cars and seats. And only crowds. I wonder if in the powerful or once powerful West they see where this third world is going. Or at least some of his lands.
I arrive in about 20 minutes to Al sada and the apartment where Danilo, the editor of Sport u Vijesti, has been for four days. He says that we have dinner at the Mariott with Nebojš Jovović, the Montenegrin coach in Qatar, for three seasons now. 7-8 years ago, Nebojša left Budućnost for Kuwait to spend one season as an assistant coach to his friend from Podgorica, Mijo Radulović, the current coach. And he earns, as he vividly tells us, for another room, which would expand the already somewhat cramped space of the two-room apartment for his family of five. That excursion for a couple of months continued until today.
He went through all the countries of the Gulf, from Kuwait, through Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, to Egypt and Qatar. It is already there for the third season. A great success considering that the Qataris have a habit of changing coaches often. Many exciting stories of Jovović from that multi-year journey.
One episode from Iraq is the most memorable for me - Nebojša tells how in every club he practices a kind of ritual before a match, when he chooses one football player to read a motivational message to his teammates. Football prayer. In Iraq, it turned out to be a problem because only one of the team could read! The war around Saddam destroyed the country so much that during the education and growing up of that generation of football players, schools were not open! Years. And no one has acquired elementary education and literacy. And that's a football story, there.
On the way back from the hotel, we call Uber, a smiling face comes, originally from Bangladesh, the man with great skill leads us through the forest of skyscrapers of West Bay and Perla and drives us back - from New Doha to Stara. The driver tells us that he has been in Qatar for eight years and how happy he is. And with admission and earnings and life. Infantino was right when, on the eve of the World Cup, he taught a lesson to the Western media and their campaign against the organizers from Qatar. At the end of the World Cup, it will be shown that awarding the championship to this country was one of the best decisions in FIFA history. For all objective observers, by many parameters, it was the best championship in football history. I must not compare Qatar 2022 with Brazil 2014. It would not be fair. Not because of Pele who invented modern football, not because of Latin America who won this Cup.
First night in Qatar, and already a lot of impressions. The new day will begin in the same way. Somewhere around 4:XNUMX, with the first dawn and before sunrise, I am awakened by the first of the five daily prayers, from the Koran. Fajr. A wonderful voice from the neighborhood mosque. This ritual will be repeated every next day. In Qatar, it is not like in the neighboring Saudis - that everything stops when it is time to pray, but it is still observed here in a less strict and obligatory way.
The city is full of Croatian fans as well as Argentines - the first semi-final is in the evening. Can the Flames reach the final again like in Russia 2018 or will Messi continue to dream of the first "golden goddess"?!
Lusail is an arena that should answer the previous dilemma. In the carnival atmosphere of the practically new city built around the stadium, I meet two fans from Bahrain wearing Croatian jerseys. "Where are you coming from for Croatia", I ask them, and they say that they spent their summer in Dubrovnik and that they adore the Adriatic Sea. At the mention of Montenegro, they jump - "we were there too, in Kotor". A joint photo that will appear in half an hour on the portal of Večernjak in Zagreb with the title - co-owner of Montenegrin Vijesti cheers Vatrene in Qatar. That's the miracle of online journalism.
We go to the stadium, and then blinded by the golden lace of Lusaila, which symbolizes a lantern in the desert, I approach this pearl of modern architecture. Danilo says that it reminds him of a shell. From the outside, it seems shallow, but when you enter it, a deep bottom opens up, which can hold close to 90 thousand people.
You know everything else. How Messi passed and won the World Cup and how the Croatian brothers, after losing in the semi-finals, showed an astonishing mentality and won the bronze medal with their best match at the championship. Well done, Vatreni.
During those months, hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world could visit and see one serious country - Qatar. Which invests the most in knowledge and education. One of the eight magnificent stadiums, jewels of modern architecture, was named after the part of Doha where it was built - the Education Center. It is an endless, kilometer-long plain, once a desert, of course, and now a perfectly designed space with dozens of magnificent buildings that house universities, campuses, research centers, scientific laboratories, the IT Valley, the Academy of Sciences and similar facilities. When you turn to the other side, you see Doha made of glass and steel. A megapolis of skyscrapers, in a place where only 25 years ago there was a desert!
But the Qataris also know how to use the desert. The day before the bronze medal match, Fifa organizes a jeep safari through the desert.
A convoy of a dozen Toyota Land Cruisers, on a six-lane highway for village time enters the Selene desert. The first camels and horses appear. Motor-powered paragliders in the sky.
A prayer is heard on the radio. Third in line. The song in praise of Allah somehow matches the landscape of the desert through which our convoy rushes. On the horizon, the sun is slowly approaching sunset. The first stop - an incredible view where the Selen desert directly enters the sea of the Persian Gulf. On the side is the camp where we will end up for dinner in a few hours.
Driving jeeps through the desert is like bobsledding for tourists in the Austrian Alps. You go up - down, left - right, and then again straight and at high speed. Spectacle.
In the first darkness, the second stop, on the numerous surrounding dunes you can see small lusails - other convoys that resemble lanterns with lights from jeeps.
A colleague from Cairo, Said, takes out a small rug. Five reporters from various Arab newsrooms immediately approach him and in the middle of the desert, facing the West where the sun has just set, they begin to pray. Fourth in line. After the five-minute ceremony, Said explains its meaning to me:
"After sunset we have the Maghrib prayer. It is dedicated to Sura Fatiha from the Koran. With this prayer we thank God, Allah, for the universe he created".
As I mentioned, this unforgettable excursion ends under the tents of Qatari nomads. With songs, fireworks, local cuisine, and socializing.
For nothing tomorrow will be the magic of the final match, a million people on the streets of Doha, happy immigrants from Bangladesh and India dominate, everyone is cheering like us for Argentina, the spells of Messi and Mbappe in the final will be for nothing - the Selene desert, the prayer of Said in the middle of it and the sound of the wind whistling through your bones after a hot day, remains an equally unforgettable experience. But that is also thanks to football. Thank you Infantino, Salam Alaikum Qatar.
Bonus video:
