Star, lots of money and little shine

Golden Eagle Ylli has aimed for great success, the championship title, on the 50th anniversary of its founding as a basketball club.

There were many prerequisites for such a thing. Plenty of money, many representatives in the squad, expensive and experienced foreign players and equally expensive and experienced foreign coaches. Moreover, with Scott Bamforth, the Suharek club had perhaps the best player in the Super League.
This, however, was not enough. 

The star stopped in the quarterfinals of the playoffs. It did not come close to its great goal. The many Kosovo representatives in the squad, the many foreign players and also the many coaches, were not enough. 

In the quarterfinals, Ylli was eliminated by Peja. The Peja team won on Saturday night in Suhareka to advance to the playoff semifinals, where they will face Trepça.

It is precisely the numerous changes that are considered to have hit Ylli the hardest. Greek Fotis Takianos was the first coach of Suharekë for this edition. He resigned and was replaced by Croatian Jeronimo Sharin, who knows the Kosovo league very well. But it did not work. Sharin was temporarily replaced by Endrit Elshani. After Elshani came the expensive Spaniard, Paco Olmos. But the team did not feel comfortable with the Spaniard either. He was also fired and Elshani again took responsibility for leading the team in the final phase of the championship.

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And the end came much earlier than hoped – in the quarterfinals.

"We apologize to the fans because this is not what they expected and what we wanted. I believe we will come back even stronger in the next championship, as title contenders," said Elshani after the elimination. 

Foreign players were also changed frequently and a lot at Ylli. There were also many quality and quite expensive players who did not shine. 

The main trophies of Kosovar basketball were missing for Ylli, but not the money. Last year, Ylli was the club with the highest income based on the law on sponsorships in the field of culture, youth and sports. Ylli had a total of 1 million and 242 thousand euros in income during 2025 based on sponsorship agreements. Consequently, the Suharekë team had the luxury, albeit with money from the state budget, to allocate large salaries to foreigners and locals, and also to make numerous changes in search of the "formula for success". But they could not find the formula.

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In the Cup race, Ylli also stopped in the quarterfinals. They were eliminated by Trepça, although they won the first match in Mitrovica.

“Consolation” for the Suharekë club could be the triumph in the Unique League. In the final of the rather weak edition of the Unique League, Ylli defeated Peja. The fact that the final took place in Albania and when Kosovo was at its most important moment in football history, made that triumph pass without any fuss. In general, Ylli has not been distinguished by a large fan base in recent years. And the jubilee edition and with great goals did not have any change in terms of support from the stands.