Rudi Vata

A new football season has begun, and so I think I will write a few words on Rudi Vata. The Albanian from Shkoder, played for my favourite team and in fact married a Scottish girl, and I believe they still live in Scotland, with their son.

Glasgow Celtic are my football team, and in fact probably my first ever realization of anything Albanian was the signing in 1992 of Rudi Vata for Celtic. Following a France- Albania football match in 1991, he and some other players left the stadium and went to police station and claimed political assylum.

Rudi played 55 times for Celtic, sometimes in midfield , but mostly at right back. Unfortunately, his career was not helped by breaking his wrist. Rudi then struggled to get back into the team.

Celtic by that time were under the management of Tommy Burns, and were pushing for their first trophy in 6 years. Rudi made it back into the team just before Celtic's semi-final.With the game at 0-0, Celtic scored late on from a header from a Rudi Vata free kick. It was probably just what he needed and he kept his place for the final. Celtic won the final 1-0 against Airdrie.

What will I remember Rudi for?
Maybe , for him running around the pitch celebrating the cup final win with a massive sombrero Mexican hat.
Or, maybe for a rather cruel comment in the fan magazine NTV, that said the following year that Rudi would get a good run in the Celtic team as soon as he got a decent haircut!
But, probably I will remember Rudi Vata for one of his four goals for Celtic. The one against Rangers, from a free kick in a 3-0 win for Celtic!

No matter who you are, or how many games you play for Celtic, you are always a hero if you score against Rangers!

Think you're fast?

Can you beat the Bolt?

Try here.

Shkoder welcomes its team

Here is a video of the fans welcoming the teams.
Unfortunately the result was not what we were wanting.

If you want to see the goals of the Vllaznia-Napoli game( including the world's worst ever goal celebration, you can see them here.)

Vllaznia 0 Napoli 3

Vini, Vidi, Vici!

It all proved too much for Vllaznia, and they lost 3-0 to Napoli.
The opening of the game was very positive from Vllaznia and for the first 20 minutes they were the better team and causing the Italians some problems down the left side, but then with their first chance of the game napoli scored.
The game totally changed and the Italians gained in confidence.
We hoped the second half would be different and that Vllaznia would get back into the game, but immediately, Napoli scored again.
There followed Vllaznia's best spell of the game.
They missed their best chance, with a clear strike on goal, had a shot tipped round the post for a corner and then had a shout for a penalty. The referee was unimpressed and booked the Vllaznia player, which resulted in the crowd throwing some water bottles onto the pitch. The game was delayed to clear them off the pitch. Hopefully, this will not cause any problems for Vllaznia as they could easily be fined for this by UEFA.
Towards the end of the game, Napoli scored again.

The most annoying thing is that Napoli scored 3 out of their only 4 clear chances.
The Vllaznia keeper did not save anything. They would have been better with a more experienced keeper for the game.
Vllaznia missed their only real scoring opportunity.

3-0 was probably a little harsh on Vllaznia, but then they were up against a Serie A side.

Vllaznia - Napoli #3

Apparently, you can watch this game live on the internet here.

There are 2 problems.
1) You may need to subscribe
2) You can't watch it on the internet if you live in Albania, Italy or the USA.
( However, if you go here and enter the name of your site, i think you might be able to bypass the proxy server.)

Sorry, but I can't find a better site.

Vllaznia - Napoli

Hoping to take 2 of my boys to see this game.

Apparently demand for tickets has been quite high.

There are SO many emigrants here at the moment.
I drove down to Fushekruje yesterday and it took half an hour longer than I expected for a trip that usually takes just over an hour.
I counted 50 cars coming in the opposite direction, 30 had Albanian number plates and 20 had foreign number plates....so I guess there is at least 50-66% rise in cars on the road due to visitors.

I would imagine many of the visitors would like to see Vllaznia - Napoli.
There is a big support base for Italian teams amongst the Albanians, so I am expecting the stadium to be full.

Hopefully Vllaznia will make a game of it, and give the fans something to shout about!

Albania Olympic team

Erkand Qerimaj
( watch out for him on the 13th August)

The Albanian team for Beijing includes 11 athletes competing in swimming, weightlifting, wrestling, shooting and judo.

The athletes are
Wrestling - Said Prizreni and Elis Guri, (Aug 19th)
Shooting - Lindita Kodra, (40th in 10m - should be on today in the 25m event)
Athletics - Klodiana Shala and Dorian Collaku who run track and field,
Weightlifting - Romela Begaj( very good display. Hopefully a video will appear on the blog. 4th in the snatch, 7th in the jerk, 6th overall), Gerti Trasha( did not finish) and Erkand Qerimaj( Wed 13th August)
Swimming - Rovena Marku ( Womens 50m Freestyle Fri. Aug 15th)and Sidni Hoxha (Mens 50m freestyle Thurs.14th)
Judo - Edmond Topalli ( beaten today by Joao Neto from Portugal on preliminary mat 2)

You can see the video of Romela Begaj here,( including the handstand!) as I am having problems posting it.

Good luck to the competitors. Some, like Romela Begaj( age 21), and Erkand Qerimaj(who had his 20th birthday on the 10th August and is from Shkoder) are still quite young, so are good prospects for the future.