The Observer.

Hi, I'm Ada Burume, and you're listening to the slow newscast from The Observer.

This week, a story about a sports star and his fractured homeland.

There is a checkered history of elite athletes turning to politics as a career move

as they age out of their competition years. Imran Khan, a former captain of the Pakistan National

Cricket team, launched his own political party and went on to serve as the country's prime minister.

Now he's in prison, serving 14 years on corruption charges.

And then there's George Weyer, the footballer who had spells at Man City, Chelsea and PSG,

before turning his force as a striker into a successful political career as the president of Liberia.

Often it's their hero status, representing their country on the pitch or the court that propels them into positions of political power,

a seamless translation of popularity into electoral heft.

Amongst the high rises of Belgrade, my colleagues Francisco Garcia and Camilla Bell Davies, have gone in

search of Novak Djokovic, or rather his future. As Djokovic heads towards his 40s, he's

approaching the end of his professional playing career, and there are plenty of Serbians who would

like to see him lead the country as its president. Serbia is at a critical point in its history,

politically pulled east and west

and racked by protests that have been going on for nearly two years.

Reading the tea leaves of its future

might mean taking a closer look at its most famous export.

Over to Francisco.

The brutalist city within the city was built in 1950s.

It's this enormous,

...