Behrami is taking his big chance

Switzerland midfielder Valon Behrami (pictured) began life in wartorn Kosovo. Had it not been for his ability with a football, the family's leave to stay in Switzerland would have expired and they would have been repatriated to a region they were so desperate to flee.

The teenager was playing for a youth side in Chiasso, a town on the Swiss- Italian border, when he was spotted by a scout who pushed the family's case to become Swiss residents.

Behrami said: 'If it hadn't happened we would have had to leave six months later and return to Kosovo.'

Behrami was five when his parents took the decision to try and secure a better life for Valon and his eight-year-old sister Valentina.

Behrami added: 'For my parents it was a big sacrifice because they knew they were leaving their family but they made a decision ultimately for our futures.

'They held degrees in Kosovo but that didn't count in Switzerland and they had to start again from scratch.

They took jobs as factory workers and a lot of the time that they were out at work my sister and I were left at home.'

At 18, though, Behrami was signed by Serie B side Genoa and had spells at Udinese and Verona before joining Lazio where he is now a regular.

Behrami steps out tonight for a Switzerland team whose boss Kobi Kuhn believes England were wrong to appoint Capello, saying: 'It's a surprise that a big footballing nation must take a coach from another country but that's the way it is in football today.'

Kuhn is hoping to bow out in style at Euro 2008, having announced that he will step down after the tournament, and he looks certain to be replaced by Ottmar Hitzfeld.

The German, who stands aside as Bayern Munich coach at the end of the season in favour of Jurgen Klinsmann, said yesterday: 'I assume that I'll sign with Switzerland within the next three weeks.'