A mural depicting Novak Djokovic has been vandalized less than a year after it was painted in Orahovac, Kosovo. During the night, the face of the world leader was covered with paint, but the residents of the city managed to save the painting, reports Kosovo Online.

​The mural appeared in the city in March 2022 as part of the “Color in the Air” project, and many feared that it would soon be destroyed.

“The hooligans of Kurti (Albina, Prime Minister of Kosovo) destroyed the mural dedicated to our Novak Djokovic. Hatred of extremists will never be able to destroy neither the successes of the Serbian champion, the best tennis player in the world, nor his love for Kosovo” – Petar Petkovichhead of the Serbian government office in Kosovo.

“This is just another incident in a series of attacks on Serbs, shootings, thefts and others. We also had new robberies in the village, the police came, but nothing was revealed. We have reported the incident to the police, there are cameras, but we don’t expect anything to be resolved. I don’t see why anyone should be bothered by an athlete who is the best in the world, he is not a war criminal, but someone should be bothered by the fact that he is the first in the world and that he is a Serb” – Marko Stashychmember of the Provisional Government in Orahovac City Hall.

The mural depicts Djokovic with a message written next to it in Italian and Serbian: “Never turn back, even to gain momentum.”

In recent months, the EU and the US have invited Serbia and Kosovo to reach an agreement on the normalization of their political and civil relations. Djokovic has not commented on the matter, and it is not yet clear whether he intends to do so.