1947! The 3rd Albanian National Football Championship!

Year, 1947

Along with Vllaznina, 17 Nentori, Flamurtari, Ylli i Kuq of Durres, Union of Elbasan, Dinamo of Korce, Shqiponja of Gjirokastra and Tomori of Berat, a new member of parliament, the Partisan of the “People’s Army”, who in friendly meetings has won a convincing victory against the champions of Shkodra and Tirana.

And he will prove this in the best way during this championship.

Vllaznia exploded from the beginning with a fast pace: they scored 9 goals in Berat against Tomorri and the same in Gjirokaster against Shqiponja. And when they beat in Shkoder Partizan 2-1, it seems that they aim to be declared national champions for the third time in a row.

Partizani, one of the first formations of the creation of this team, representing the People’s Army!

17 Nentori starts so badly that there is nowhere to go for a contender, when it loses 5-1 to Flamurtari and even more further defeated in Korce 6-0. The Korcars have reawakened, and this year they play under the name Dinamo. They win 3-1 against Flamurtari, draw 1-1 with Partizan, beat Shqiponje 9-0 and, as we said above, 6-0 in Korce on 17 Nentori.

Between the breaks of the championship, Partizan won twice in Tirana against the well-known team Partizan of Belgrade (1-0 and 4-2), the Yugoslavian team that includes famous football players in Europe.

In the other weeks, Vllaznia took two points against “Ylli i Kuq” in Durres (1-0), beat badly 17 Nentori in Shkoder 6-0, (another negative result for Tirana), tied with
Dinamo Korce 0-0 and leads the table of standings followed by Dinamo and Partizan, and with a significant separation from the other teams.

Now let’s stop at the last stage of this championship.

Vllaznia, Dinamo Korcare and Partizani have 26, 24 and 17 points, respectively. Vllaznia, the match played in Gjirokaster against Shqiponje, wins 2-0. At the moment, it becomes uncatchable by Dinamo, which loses against Partizan 1-3.

However, Vllaznia is still not the champion. Partizan, who defeated Vllaznia 2-1 in the return match, has 17 points, yes, due to the international matches, there are 6 more games to play, so 12 possible points, which can lead to the quota of 29 points. ,

Actually it seems that Partizan is going to be on the champion’s pedestal.

And so it happens. Partizani bursts into a sprint in the last kilometers of the championship: defeats consecutively 17 Nentori, 8-0; “Ylli i Kuq” of Durres 7-2; Flagurtari of Vlore 3-0; Shqiponja 6-0 in Gjirokaster.

Thus, Vllaznia has 28 points, Partizani 27 points, but there is also a match against Shqiponje, this time in Tirana. Gjirokastrites, anticipating that they would lose against Partizan and so they do not show up at all,….

thus Partizan, suddenly, winning this match for the opponent’s non-appearance, is declared champion for the first time, stealing the cup from the hands of Vllaznia, who remain stunned by this surprising epilogue.

Champions!

But who was “Partizani” team, this newly formed team that managed to become the champion of the country?

After a large number of friendly meetings that he held during 1946 in Tirana and later in other cities, Partizani waited for March 16, 1947 to make his debut in official activities:

The National Championship.

Some circumstances caused the team not to hold the meeting in the first year of its creation (where the lot was so tight against Vllaznia and even more so in Shkoder).

So his first match was the one  week later, in the capital on the “Shallvares” field  with the representative of Berat, Tomori. Partizan in its composition that day and later activated skilled footballers such as: B. Fagu, I . Pelingu, Xh. Demneri, H. Sakici, T. Baci, Mr. Gjinali, H. Bakalli, H. Tafmizi, Mr. Lisi, etc.

It was a quite hit football complex. The strength, style, harmony and especially the efficiency of which all the teams in the competition proved one after the other. It was only the reigning champion Vllaznia that achieved a victory (Partizan’s first and only loss), and Dinamo Korce that managed a draw. Other matches (14) were victories, even most with high numbers: historic and indelible ones against 17 Nentori , 8-0, against Shqiponje, 6-0, etc.

Thus, Partizan crowned the first step in its sports life with complete triumph. He would take the second step in the following championship in 1948, where the formula was changed again, and which we will talk about in the following article , 4th Football Championship”.

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“Sports Vision +/ The Hour of Champions

Sources: “History of football” / “8 Nentori” – Tirana, 1978 / S. Kellici / p. 72-73-74 & “Sporti Popullor” , July 30, 1985 / p. 3