From Vepror Hasani
Second part
Memorie.al / We had let him meet in one of the bars in Korça. I saw that he was coming with his “Cadillac”, (that’s what he called the bike), which he goes out with every day…! After we ordered, “Honored Master of Sports”, Teodor Vaso, decorated with the ‘Gold Medal’ – for outstanding merit in sports -, football player from 1957-1973 and coach from 1973 until today, started to tell me. Recounted one of his football stories: “Everything about my stay in the ‘Partizani’ team or not, was left in the hands of the generals…” he began to tell me.
Continues from last issue
The confession of the “Merited Master of Sports”, the football legend, Teodor Vaso
“Finally I was back in Korça…! During the time that I studied in Tirana at the professional school of Labor Reserves, I played with the “Dinamo” team and with the youth of “17 November”. I was already expecting to participate in the first match with the Korca team. “Skenderbeu” would face the Polish team “Odra Opole”. It was December 13, 1959. I wasn’t sure if I had done the right thing by leaving “Dinamo”, but whatever it was; “Skenderbeu” had remained a big dream for me.
However, I felt some anxiety and worry. I wanted to know what my first introduction to my hometown team would be like. Would we be able to steal the victory from even the biggest teams of the country? While I was thinking about all this, I didn’t know that it would be “Skënderbeu” who would be the reason for the punishment of “Partizani” so that its players would return to Tirana on foot, because they had lost the match with Korça, as if I didn’t know that a few years later, I would become part of the great team of “Partizan”.
Concern
The match with the Polish team had started and “Skënderbeu” played with three reinforcements: Lin Shllak, Stavri Lubonja and Teli e Lushnja, who would replace the Korça goalkeeper Raqi Pisku in the second half. The game was going well. Three goals were scored one after the other. The Poles were able to touch the net only once. However, the coaches took me out for warm-ups. They took me out for warm-ups, but they actually forgot me there at the basketball court, which was located near the steps of the stadium, right at its entrance.
Almost 30 minutes passed and I was back there warming up, dressed in uniform, ready to go into the game. The score would continue to be 3-1 for Skenderbeu and that’s how it would end. Two goals were scored by Lubonja and one by Kosta Koça. Anyway, I couldn’t understand when they had no intention of putting me in the game, why did they take me out to warm up? At that moment, a deep sadness came over me. Had I made a mistake by leaving “Dinamo” and returning to my city? Were they right who said that real football is played only in the capital? Tirana had been very warm for me, while it was quite cold here in Korça. For the first time I seriously asked myself: “Vaso, you were not wrong to leave Tirana”?!
Everything that was happening to me seemed unbelievable. Only three months ago, in the strong match “Dinamo” – “November 17”, the innovative coach and moderator Mysliam Alla gave me the role of left defender, where I played alongside the starters of the national team: Skënder Halili, Fatmir Frashëri, Pavllo Bukoviku, etc. ., whereas here in Korça they took me out for a warm-up and forgot about me! The two big military teams “Partizani” and “Dinamo” were undefeated. Whenever it happened that these teams lost, the concern reached the dome of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior. Everyone was alarmed. This would also happen when “Partizani” would lose to “Skënderbeu”.
Return to Korça
But I had returned to Korça because I loved my city. As I continued to warm up, I started to remember the moment of parting with “Dinamo”. I met all my old friends. Thanking Master Zini Gjinali, I told him that I was leaving for economic reasons. He looked at me thoughtfully and then said, “However, I believe we will have other connections in the future,” and he shook my hand, as if to say, “The capital will not be left for long in your city of birth”.
My arrival in Korçë was conditioned by another event: on March 16, 1958, the day when the “Dinamo” – “Skënderbeu” match was to take place, I happened to be at the Korçë stadium. I watched that match with great sadness. When the match was about to end, the referee Izet Cani gave a penalty in favor of the “Dinamo” team. Everyone in the stadium was surprised. The decision he had made was extremely absurd. There had been no foul play and no physical contact between the players. However, the penalty was awarded. The players of “Dinamo” took the ball, placed it at the penalty spot and shot it…!
The match was cancelled, but I was lucky enough to see the replay of the canceled match as well. Again I suffered a great disappointment. The match ended with the score 5-0. “Dinamo” won. Maybe it was this moment, when I had made the decision to play with “Skenderbeu”. However, since I was becoming part of the “Skenderbeu” team, I began to discover that among the players there was ambition, jealousy, grudge and other trifles that had done nothing but obscure the brilliance of the team’s mosaic. Such phenomena had never happened with the age teams, while a different spirit had appeared among the adults…! The quarrel, which had left behind a visible crack, was what had happened after the match with Kuçova.
“Skenderbeu” had lost 3-2. Everything had happened because of the delirium that gripped the team in the 1957 championship, when “Skënderbeu” would take third place. That’s the only thing I would ever wish for my team. My physical and moral commitment was total. With the training education that I had acquired in the clubs of the capital, I continued to stay in charge of training, and I was even one of the rare ones who worked individually. I had also received this work education during the time when I was training with athletics. I dreamed of a big team. However, I was waiting for the first activation with my hometown team.
The players
However, the decade of the 1960s and 1970s would bring a representation of a new performance of the team’s values. In fact, the new trends took place during 1959. The footballers were selected from the youth team of “Skënderbeu”. The year before, in 1958, they had won the championship title. Aleko Pilika, Maksim Tuxhari, Dhori Dhami, Vangjush Samarxhi, Vangjush Bicolli etc. had already joined the “Skënderbeu” team. Aleko Pilika had played center back with the youth of Korça, while with the adults, he would play center forward. Such a center forward for Korça was coming after 20 years.
No one had been able to take the place of the famous center forward, Teli Samsuri, who played 20 years ago. Those who had seen both were delighted to say that Pilika was a likeness of the great Aristotle Samsuri. In the book “History of the championships of Albania”, (book 5, pg, 166-167), Besnik Dizdari writes: “At the same time, two big firms of the future make their baptism: Fatmir Frashëri of “17 November” and then the defender emblem of the capital club and of the Albanian national team, as well as Aleko Pilika of “Skënderbeu” of Korça, undoubtedly one of the most outstanding talents of Albanian football.
The first debut of Aleko Pilika was marked in the first week of the championship, on March 22, 1959, replacing Òngjëll Dvoran, in a match in Elbasan. A week later, in Korça, “Skënderbeu” defeated “Vllaznina” with 3 goals scored by Gaqo Strati, Kosta Koça and Aleko Pilika, thus inaugurating for the first time, the touch of the net in a championship match. And in the book “History of the championships of Albania” (page 181), Besnik Dizdari writes: “Football, through the Korça victory, had once again confirmed the talent of the 18-year-old center forward Aleko Pilika, who scored in the first minute.”
It was the 2-1 victory in Korça, against Kavaja. Pilika ended the 1959 championship again with a goal, scored in the last game in Vlorë, where “Skënderbeu” was defeated 4-1. Eventually, Pilika became the starter of the Korça team and remained so until the end of his career, after 13 years of activity as a player. In 1962, Pilika went to play with the “Dinamo” team. Among the scorers: G. Strati, Xh, Mborja, K. Koça, E. Dvorani, Z. Çela and M. Tuxhari, Pilika is the best scorer.
“Skenderbeu” team
In April 1959, another talented striker appeared in the “Skënderbeu” team: Maksim Tuxhari. Played for the first time in the match of the third week in Kavaja, where Korça surrendered with the result 2-0. After an injury, Tuxhari would return to play in the 11th team in Tirana, against “17 November”, on November 8, 1959. The match ended 2-0 for “Tirana”. Maxim started his game with the seniors as a winger. In the first game of 1960 against “Traktori” of Lushnja, in the qualifying phase for the first category, Petro Milo, who had been separated in 1958, after that game in Kučovo, resumed as a center back.
So for me, the coaches found my transition from defender to midfielder as a way out. After four games, Petro Mile left due to knee injuries. In the other matches of the championship of 1960, the captain of the team, Xhuvi Mborja, would play in the center of the defense, which would end his football career that same year. He was the model man of the collective. Deftly solved the deadlock created for the role of the central defender. Although the Korça team had many defenders, none of them were suited to play in that role. It was at this time, at the beginning of the 1960s, that the following players left “Skënderbeu”: Raqi Sholla, Gaqo Strati, Raqi Topuzi, Raqi Pisku, Xhuvi Mborja, Zhani Pilika, Maqo Prodani and a little later Aleko Deli, Niko Kole, Petraq Toshi, Viktor Prodani, etc.
The match with Lezha
I played the first match outside Korça in Lezhë, right after what happened with this team in Korçë. I had never played in midfield. Practiced as a defender (center) I had to adapt to new requirements. Physical preparation allowed me to perform a large volume of work in support of attack and defense. In fact, with special tasks, I was required to strengthen the defense in the center, but also to support the attack. Since the defender is mainly prepared for the destruction of stocks, the opposite was needed in the new role. In this aspect, I saw that I had to increase the technical level.
In the second game, in 1960, in Lezhë, after conceding the goal, the coach charged me with the task of eliminating the influence of the Lezhë striker Kraja. The newspaper “Sporti Popullor” dated February 14, 1960, wrote: “Kraja, who stood out in the first half for scoring the equalizing goal, is taken out of the field for not being good at all against Vaso.” The match ended 1-1. We qualified for the playoffs. We would play two matches with Lushnja in the respective fields. The half-goal scored in the first match of my career with the adults of “17 November”, was followed by the first goal with “Skënderbeu”, scored in the first match with Lushnjë in Korça. Lushnja surrendered in both matches: the first ended 2-1 and the second with the result 4-0 in Lushnja.
I played the first international match with Korça against “Admiraltejec” from Leningrad. Friends won in Korça 1-0. For this match “Sporti Popullor” writes: “Shyqëri Reli (midfielder), had come as a reinforcement together with coach Zihni Gjinali, both of “Dinamo”, with the two defenders and especially Vaso and Zhani Pilika, are always ready and careful “. The Soviet coach at the AFL, M. M. Lukshinov, in November 1960, in the “Sporti Popullor” newspaper, says: “The joyous thing about Albanian football is that it has produced many young people: Halili, Pano, Bushati, Frashëri, Dingu , Pilika, Vaso, Mema, etc., which are a good future for your football”.
He had seen my matches as a midfielder with “Admiraltejec” and a match with Berat in Korça. In “Sporti Ppopullor”, it is written: “In the 5th minute it is the Korčari who attack again, but from the left, the local footballer Vaso, suddenly shoots 30 meters away, but Karaj is sharp again and with a beautiful shot in possession of the ball”. (Dated May 4, 1960)”.
“Skenderbeu” with the greats
If in the years 1945-’57 it was a big event to get a point with the greats of Albanian football, in the years ’60-’63, “Skënderbeu” also wins in Tirana. The era begins, when “Skënderbeu” constantly takes points from the teams of the capital. During the 1947 championship, Korça, under the name “Dinamo”, had two draws: 1-1 with “Partizani” in Korça and 2-2 in Tirana with “17 November”. A clean victory with “Dinamo” is the first victory since the year of creation of “Dinamo” in 1950. “Dinamo” – “Skënderbeu” match. “Dinamo” has a chance to equalize, but cannot reach the goal…. because Vaso, Leno, Dhami, the bridge-connection between defense and attack and all the others engage a lot and have a more practical way of hitting the ball in the mud than the locals” (“Sporti Popullor” newspaper, dt. 13.02.1963).
The match ended 1-0. It was the turn of “Partizani” to lose. Skifter Kelliçi in: “Historia e Futbollit”, (pg. 105) writes: “And here, on the 13th day, the Korcars unceremoniously steal 2 points from the champions”. Score 1-0. This surprising result created a legend. It became a legend, because the narrators of this event became many. “Partizani” lost the match in Korçë, the same year when they became champions in 1957, but “Partizani” lost 1-0 in Korçë and in 1963 as champions of the previous year. The strange story says that passers-by had seen the players of the glorious “Partizani”, walking on the national road Korçë – Tirana.
Other witnesses say that they saw the “Partizani” team running as punishment after the match. Exactly on the national road Korçë – Maliq, where the Sugar Factory stood, which was located at the exit of Korçë. The confusion that this event brought, forced the head of the Ministry of Defense, General Petrit Dume, to issue this order: “The team should leave on foot from Korça”! This legend became even more reliable sometime later, when during the national championship of 1965-’66, friendly matches were played in Kavajë. They left with the score 3-0. The loss increased the concern even more. It was one of the worst matches with the Albanian teams.
Upon arriving in Tirana, they found the order of General Petrit Dumes: “The team is to go to work in the Sauk tunnel”. The next day the team left, but only the soldier footballers. The next story is about the match in Korça with “Partizan”, on April 20, 1963. That year, “Skënderbeu” takes three points from the team that becomes champion in 1962-’63, because in the second week of the first stage in Tirana, ends the match 1-1. The “Sporti Popullor” newspaper (dt. 02.10 1962) writes: “We are not dealing with coincidence at all, not only the victory against “17 November” in Tirana in June 1962, but also the victory over “Dinamo” in February of the year 1963, these are some victories and draws with the capital’s teams”.
Ultimately, absolute superiority was left in history. However, from 1961 to 1963, invitations from the capital’s big teams would not be lacking. Everything would be resolved at the end of August 1963, when I left to perform military service in department 3700 in Tirana. After that I would be a player of the “Partizan” team, concludes a part of the story from his sports life, “Deserved Master” of Sport, Todo Vaso. Memorie.al
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