Bosnian-born Filip now represents his new country

Filip Jojic is one of the 17 players in the national handball squad scheduled to play two games in the EHF EURO 2020 qualifiers next month.

The 32-year-old first moved from his homeland of Bosnia-Herzegovina to Klaksvík in 2011 to play for Team Klaksvík.

“After the first year in Klaksvík, I was told that the team couldn’t afford to have foreign players on the team, so they had to let me go,” he explains.

Home in Vestmanna

Filip was then contacted by a few of the other handball clubs in the country, and he says the offer from VÍF in Vestmanna attracted him the most.

“Signing the VÍF deal turned out to be a brilliant move for me because not long after I moved to Vestmanna, I met the woman who is now my wife.”

He has now settled down in Vestmanna with his wife and their two daughters, and a third child is on its way.

Faroese citizen

In parallel to his handball duties in Vestmanna, Filip has been studying at Klaksvík’s Sjónám maritime college, where he last year received his ship assistant certificate.

And this summer, he was granted citizenship of the Kingdom of Denmark, thus officially becoming a Faroese citizen.

The key to successful integration

He says that learning the Faroese language is a crucial factor for immigrants who want to settle and thrive in the country.

"Everyone in the Faroes speaks English, so it's not difficult to communicate. But when you're with a group of Faroese people, it feels strange always to rely on a translator. That's why I decided to start learning Faroese,” he explains.

“With a lot of help from my wife and other locals, along with not worrying about making grammar mistakes, the Faroese language eventually started to feel natural to me." 

Here is an interview in Faroese with Filip from this summer.

Translated by prosa.fo