The Pirate and the Swan: a salute to two of La Liga’s less-celebrated forwards | Sid Lowe

<p>Mallorca’s Vedat Muriqi and Osasuna’s Ante Budimir have 31 league goals between them this season, with three coming in a dramatic draw on Saturday</p><p>This is the story of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/article/2024/aug/19/mallorca-real-madrid-mbappe-muriqi-la-liga-blog">the Pirate</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/feb/17/osasuna-ante-budimir-real-madrid-bellingham-la-liga">the Swan</a>. When Vedat Muriqi was little, which he never really was, he couldn’t always find boots to play in. An adult and a giant before his time, working and shaving at 14, a striker starting out for KF Liria in Prizren, Kosovo, he was 6ft 4in, his feet were size 15, and back home back then you couldn’t get anything that big. Fortunately, one day an aunt in Finland came across a pair of European 48.5s and, pleased as could be, sent them his way. As he opened the box, Vedat realised they were made for rugby but he didn’t have the heart to tell her and, anyway, at least they fit.</p><p>They also <em>fit</em>. The man whose former coach had described him as “a strange, ugly beast” you would “cross the street to avoid” and who couldn’t help but agree, admitting: “If I saw me I’d cross over too,” wasn’t much good, or so he said. For a time they called him the Cannibal – a name he identified with, albeit “one that doesn’t eat children” – and soon they called him the Pirate, which he liked more, placing a patch over his left eye when he scored, but a <em>player</em>? That was something else. Someone else too: “I look at <a href="https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/37625379/espanyol-captain-mental-health-facing-barcelona-working-stress">Sergi Darder</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2019/aug/19/vicente-moreno-mallorca-eibar-la-liga">Dani Rodríguez</a>: if they’re footballers … what a