A small country’s first appearance in a major tournament is a football fairy tale: the ordinary kids who made it to the big time, with their whole country behind them.
But North Macedonia’s story, captured here in Matteo de Mayda’s photographs, is more complicated. Thrilling as its run to this month’s European Championship has been, culminating in last November’s 1-0 playoff victory over Georgia, the team very much does not have the country’s two million inhabitants behind it.
