WELCOME

The idea of bringing the sport of padel in Kosovo started as an idea between Besim Shulemaja (Chairman of Padel Kosova) and Jusuf Kika (Secretary General of Padel Kosova).

Besim lives in Sweden and is a successful businessman. He owns some companies and does a lot of sports. One of his favourite activites to do during the week is without a doubt the sport of padel. He plays it a lot and he had the idea about having the opportunity to bring this joy to his country, Kosovo.

Here in Kosovo the idea was welcomed by another sports athlete. Jusuf is a sports science student and also a UEFA Certified Football Coach.
Jusuf already heard about the new sport sensation of padel and immediately together both of them started the journey to bring padel in Kosovo.

Within not even a year, they established the Kosovo Padel Federation, created first padel clubs in the country, hosted one tournament and the 2nd is going to take place this spring. They promoted the sport of padel in the social media, TV and also by attending to the most prestigious Padel events around the world, such as World Padel Tour, Padel FIP, World Padel Championiship, etc.

On August 28th 2021, the Kosovo Padel Federation was created and on 2022 the first padel courts will be built around Prishtina and other
cities.

People welcomed the idea of a new sport and they already love it without even playing it. No wonder they will be addicted to this sport.

Padel is a great social sport that lets you meet and interact with new people in a short span of time.
No wonder it is a sport that has become a social phenomenon.

This is so because learning the game is very easy and most players tend to grasp it within the first 20 minutes of play.
While you stretch your muscles, there’s also a lot of fun and thrill for you in the process.

This “social component” stands out among the many attractions that draw health-conscious and even athletic people to Padel.
It provides a fun and relaxing mood to the player. We all know the feeling of wellness we experience when we are being able to play sports and commit ourselves to do it regularly.

Other people in the modern world say they could not live without a mobile phone, but many in Europe and Latin American today express that they could do without a mobile phone but not without Padel! All because Padel enables people to not only develop their physical dexterity, but also enhances and improves their social communication skills.

As a team sport, Padel makes people hone values like overcoming desolation, team building, comradeship, and achieving personal maturity. It improves self-control and concern for others. The compact size of the court makes player conversations an integral component of the game.

Padel is great for players of all ages and skills because it is both easy to pick up and is less physically demanding than similar sports like squash or tennis. Most players get the grasp of it within the first 20 minutes of playing and achieving a higher level of proficiency is so easy. The reason is that the game is not really about brute strength and technique. Unlike in Tennis, Padel players are allowed only one style of serve which is delivered underhand.

At present, there are an estimated 20 million people in 30 countries across 5 continents that play Padel.
The figure is growing as more and more people discover how easy it is to master the game and how much fun it can be!

From the niche to a mass phenomenon

If a few years ago people described it as a niche sport – or a “vip” one – now padel practitioners are  hundreds of thousands.

There here are currently more than 400,000 padel players in Italy: 620% more than in 2018,
when it was still considered a side sport. A surge in players also linked to the boom in gaming facilities,
up 60% compared to 2018, with more than 2000 courts used in early 2021.

On the other hand, padel has become the sport that  has grown more than other athletic activities during 2020 in Italy, while in Spain, in 2020, it’s the second national sport for practitioners’ number.
It earns not only the sport itself, but also the manufacturer brands.

Padel brands are already active companies producer in tennis, such as Head, Wilson, Babolat or adidas, and even for them, the padel has started to record an increase in sales, so much so that for some, it has balanced the revenue of tennis. With numbers like this it is logical to think that this sport, after the pandemic, can only grow further, among other things at the expense of other activities such as tennis or soccer, which risk losing popularity (and sales) due to the sudden national popular success of the padel (here its history).

So the question is: why did everyone suddenly start playing padel?

Padel is stimulating, it is practical, and it is full of fun. On the one hand, in fact, there is the competition of points and the challenge that enhances its pleasant appearance, on the other there is sociality: you necessarily play in pairs and as in other team sports you also improve by exploiting the game with your partner. As the former AC Milan player specifies, the padel is also succeeding because all age groups participate in it (most would be over 40) and allows to label this activity with very inclusive age limits. This also explains why it has
also begun to be followed by sports entrepreneurs, who have guessed how, economically, it can be more fruitful than other activities.

For example, one comparison that has emerged lately is that of futsal. In the space of a single futsal field,
three padel courts can be built, which economically, in one hour of play, translates into three times the revenue.

A game of padel costs (on average) ten euros per person for an hour of play, and for a plant manager,
three padel courts carry a total of 120€; a five-a-side football field, on the other hand, with an expense (on average) of six euros per person, allows revenue equal to half. With a hypothetically more fruitful economic flow, many sports entrepreneurs are investing in padel fields, whose average growth in Italy is four new units per day.  

Paradoxically, the success of the padel has increased (in part) also thanks to the pandemic, which has led many curious people to take an interest in it and to buy its products (precisely because in Italy, in the orange zone and in the yellow zone, it is the only sport activity practicable in company, while in the red zone it is possible only for Fit members).