The Great Albanian Goalkeeper, Qemal Vogli (1929-2004)!

Life sometimes brings you to come poor in this world, to have an extraordinary talent, on the basis of it you become someone famous, to want to enjoy life to the fullest, not to achieve this and to leave say that you are poor from this life!

In life, you will be known by having the foretold fate of being small but, thanks to passion for a short time, you will be the greatest and precisely because of the greatness of this little time, you will spend the rest of your life living in hell. For you feats are told and you become a legend, everyone knows your name and your story but few know you. You are there among them, but physically you are unknown and they often despise you, insult you, misbehave because… they only know that you are someone who has been in political prison, so they have no idea who they are talking to, who they are pushing beyond.

We are those children sitting on the stairs at the entrance of some building. It’s summer vacation and we’re drenched in sweat from the soccer game. The building echoes with childish screams. It’s that moment when everyone rushes to tell their amazing story. Every story cannot be other than a legend that, inherited by word , comes from a great football past, until the end of the 70s.

– Refik Resmja was the best scorer! Even whenever he wanted to shoot the ball, it went into the net! Fatosi shouted in an effort to make his voice heard by all.

Yes, yes – interrupted Jari, the eldest of us
– Loro Boriçi shot so hard that, once, he broke the goalkeeper’s stomach and then the net! Gimi, who had read all the books of this world long before his time, completely calm, without trying to impose himself on anyone, also told his story – no one could score against Qemal Voglit.

What you say, maybe happened to I don’t know which goalkeeper, but not to Qemal Vogli. He was so agile that he sat on the crossbar and when the striker shot he was so agile that he got down from there and catch the ball!

That’s why they called him “The Black Cat”!

I had nothing to say or add. I had often heard the name of Qemal Vogli, but from that moment on, my mind was full that one day I would become a goalkeeper and I would be as great as the legend Qemal Vogli.

From the next day, I never shot black cat with stones again! In fact, the epithet “Black Cat” has not been used much for Qemal Vogli. It was used more for Sul. Maliqati after the era of  Vogli. All over the world, goalkeepers at that time wore black uniforms to distinguish themselves from the players on the pitch. The same thing in Albania. If a goalkeeper started to stand out for his acrobatics, then the public immediately gave him the famous epithet.

Qemal Vogli rose so quickly as a name and from the technical side, he used his arms in such a way that it was quite normal for his teammates to be the “Black Cat”. The era of Qemal Vogli, the time during which he played with Dinamo and the National Team was not long.

From 1950 to 1956, only six years.

Coincidence or if you prefer, the great Alush Merhori, placed Qemal Vogli in the goal of Besa e Kavaja at the age of 15.

It is a match from 1944 and Besa plays with a mixed team from Tirana. It’s a friendly match, the war is not over yet and you can kill everything in Albania but not the passion for football! Without playing even once in goal, Vogli takes his place between the posts and…that’s how his path to glory begins.

After a year, he faced Vllaznia with big players of Albanian football like Loro Boriçi or Pal Mirashi and 0-0! He is only 16 years old, has only one year of experience and performed like he has a lot of experience of a confirmed goalkeeper!

After three years with Besa, he moved to Durrës with his family and became part of the local team. In three years in the formation, he played excellent matches and in 1947, after only two years in Durrës, he was called up to the National team. He hasn’t turned 18 yet! Precisely in the ranks of “Teuta” then the “Red Star” of Durrës, in a match against a military formation of the English mission in Albania, during the victory of “durresakeve” 4-0 denied his first penalty.  He is already a big name in Albanian football news!

It is the age to perform military service and in 1950, the newly created Dinamo exploits this. The history of the great Dinamo starts with Qemal Vogli in goal! Now he is also the goalkeeper of the National Team, more precisely, the indisputable player of the National Team and Dinamo. He is the best and in a short time, he will become the greatest goalkeeper in the history of our football. Together with Partizan, formed only three years ago, Dinamo will set the tone for a championship which is a matter for only two teams, but these two teams are actually two national teams of the same quality. To challenge the Partizan of Loro Borici, Refik Resma and Sulejman Maliqati required not only to have a very strong team but also to be an excellent goalkeeper.

It is one of the historical duels Dinamo – Partizani in “Qemal Stafa” more than full of spectators. It`s Refik Resmja with a pass to the right of the Partizan attack some 20m away from the Dynamo area. As soon as he gets the ball, he does what he wants the best, he launches a ground level projectile towards the goal. Vogli dives into the corner of the post on his left wing. It seems that his hand almost touches the post but the ball is in the net without understanding how.

The stadium with a second delay erupts “Goool! The referee points his hand from the center. Although Qemal Vogli and other revolted Dinamo players complain, it is 1-0 for Partizan and with this result the match ends.

The truth was that Vogli did not complain in vain! The net that connected to his left post was loose and open enough for a soccer ball to pass through in it and that’s exactly what he was complaining about…

It’s around 07:30 and a light knock is heard at the door from the table where he was eating breakfast and opened the door, with a ball in his hand.

– Come with me to the stadium and I will tell you that the goal was not valid, you will admit that it was not a valid one ! – insists Vogli.

Between the laughs, Resmja tries to change his mind again, but it was in vain.

Okay, I’m not spoiling it, let’s go – he agrees.

After many shots, Resmja is forced to stop. Exhausted and full in sweat he didn’t manage to beat Vogli

Meanwhile, Vogli sets another record that will not be broken any time in the future. He concedes only five goals during a championship! Also, another record at that time was 840 minutes without conceding a goal or two months, from January 21 to March 23 in 1952. It is the same time when the National team, although for a few games, only 11 will benefit from the services of its goalkeeper best of all time.

Starting from 1949, the National Team plays several matches around Europe. It is a kind of experimental tournament which would precede the European Football Championship. The first meeting, in Bucharest with the Romanian representative. Draw, 1-1. The Romanian press cannot fail to mention “Goalkeeper Vogli, the most excellent of the 22 players who were on the field, with his wonderful receptions he attracted the attention of the public” .

Then in Poland, in Lodz and Albania beat Poland 0-1 with a goal by Teliti. The Polish press also wrote with for Qemal Vogli “The Albanian gate was an impassable barricade which was protected by a black man (because of his uniform) who with his expectations became impassable”.

The tournament ends in Bulgaria where Albania draws 0-0 against the local representative! 

International matches continued with the arrival of the representative of Moscow in “Qemal Stafa” stadium in 1951, and it`s scoreless, 0-0. In the same year, “Vashash” team of Budapest also arrives. It includes several players from the great Hungary of the 50s, theoretically the greatest team of all time in the history of football.

The Albanians win 3-1 and it’s the day when Qemal Vogli saw Anton Mazreku shedding tears of joy! In 1952, the return match against Poland takes place in Tirana. Albania wins 2-0! This time the compliments for Vogli come from the coach of Poland “The gate of Qemal Vogli is an impenetrable fortress”!

In 1955, during another friendly tour, it was the time when we were dealing with a kind of united Eastern Europe or, that part of Europe that joined the Warsaw Treaty, the National Team, in Poland will beat the Czech representative in Poznan 2-0 and in Lodz Poland 3-0.

Then in Prague they beat the Czech representative again 3-2. the last match is a friendly of honor reserved in Moravo-Stravo. In that city, no foreign team managed to get even a draw. The national team ends the match in a 2-2 draw and the excited Czech press will comment “We couldn’t win because we couldn’t beat the giant Albanian goalkeeper Qemal Vogli”!

Of course, one could also mention the biggest loss of the national team against the great Hungary, 0-12, but, apart from the indisputable level of the Hungarian team, it is a national team psychologically weakened by the escape of two of its members and physically exhausted by the journey of long by steamer. On the other hand, the beautiful opposite of this is the friendly tournament that Dinamo of Tirana holds in the Soviet Union, in Moscow.

Impressed by Vogli’s appearance, the great Lev Yaschin invites him to conduct a training session together. Impressed by albanian keeper level, Yaschin “baptizes” him amicably as Albanian “Black Tigre”! 

If the world’s greatest goalkeeper of all time puts such an epithet, then, this is the greatest assessment in Vogli`s career ……

There, near Laçi, on the national road that leads to Shkodër, work is being done at a high pace to dry the marsh. It is one of the great works of Albanian socialism.

Draining the large swamp, the drying of which will create a large space for the next construction. Many political prisoners work in forced labor.

Among them is Qemal Vogli. He knows very well that in a little while the Partizan bus will pass by to play the championship match in Shkodër against Vllaznia. This is why it is found near the road. When the bus passes by, the Partizan players with captain Lin Shllaku have taken care to place themselves near the windows. They greet Vogli with their hands from the windows. Vogli leaves the shovel down the road and greets them too. It is just a fragment from the window, just as a sign or a bridge passes.

The players then settle into their seats and for several minutes no one speaks. This is forbidden, but they want to greet Vogli. On the side of the road, Vogli, lowers his head and resumes his work. It’s a moment that lasts a lifetime. It is a moment that brings him back to life. This is forbidden for a prisoner, but he wants to greet the Partizan players, his former colleagues from the National Team.

September 3, 1956. Berlin, the eastern part of the city. In a sports center near a park, Dinamo of Tirana, located in East Germany, has been accommodated for a friendly tournament.

Afternoon.

Vogli together with Skënder Bageja spend the afternoon in the park near a lake. There are two girls, one of whom is bathing and the other is sitting on the grass. Vogli starts talking to her, but suddenly, Colonel Gani Kodra, the special escort of the team next to the Dinamo appears.

Angry, Vogli leaves. A little later, he makes his way to the rest of Berlin, alone, although he was last seen accompanied by a woman…

Things do not go as he had imagined. Initially, he manages to get into the “Munich 1860” team, but then the ordeal of investigations begins. He is questioned by the bodies of the Federal Republic of Germany. They later surrender him  to their French masters (according to the post-war convention, the French had their control over West Germany).

They hand this case over to American espionage. The Americans were only interested in the part that had to do with obtaining information from all the other fugitives of the communist bloc and the endless propaganda war against communist Albania. Thus, from Berlin he is found in Frankfurt and after a few days, in Nuremberg and in the Oleruten camp where he starts again from the beginning, answering many questions about the communist regime down to the last detail.

Fed up with this and completely disappointed, but mostly with the dream of being active in the Italian championship, he tries to sneak from Austria to Italy, but he can’t do it. In Austria, he find the great Hungarian National Team, which was there to play a match.

He asks them to take him with them to Hungary and the Hungarians who knew him well  treat him with brotherly love. He is with them at banquets, they introduce him to their wives as the goalkeeper of Albania and even he shares the room with the great Sandor Kocish and Zoltan Cibor.

The idea of a career abroad ended in great disappointment. The fear for his people in Albania, together with the disappointment, convinced him to appear at the Albanian Embassy in Budapest and ask to return to Albania.

Marton Bukovi himself, the famous trainer of the great Hungary, accompanies him to the Embassy. Through the Embassy, he is promised that, upon returning to Albania, there will be no consequences for him. They pay for the accommodation and food for several days in the luxury “Margit Siget” hotel and even make it available to accompany the unforgettable Sabri Peqini, including everything.

The continuation is familiar! Vogli got off the plane with a bag over his shoulders and handcuffed!

Shortly afterwards, for the sake of historical truth, Pushkash, Kosic, Hideguti, Boszik and Cibor sought political asylum in Spain. Hidegkuti and Boszik, like Vogli returned to Albania, they too also returned to Hungary. After their return, their treatment by the Hungarian state was quite different from the treatment that the government in Albania gave to Vogli.

People flock to the old field in front of the former Dinamo stadium. For the amateur football championship between Tirana’s work centers, the Bus Park team is preparing to play the next match. The news has circulated throughout Tirana. Goalkeeper Q. Vogli, now 32 years old, will play with “Bus Park” Team. People increase so much that at one point, the police arrive and disperse the crowd and the match will not take place for security reasons. Long ago, the Party took care to make it clear to Q. Vogli that he is not allowed to practice sports!

Eventually, from the 15 years in prison that was claimed, due to his good behavior, Qemal Vogli is released from prison early, serving only five years. He is 32 years old, five years without football, physically tired, psychologically tortured but ready to play football. Football was life for him.

From Flamurtari, a request has been made to Hysni Kapo as a men from Vlora, where Qemal Vogli to be reactivated in football and the Flamurtari team was ready to welcome him. Anyway he never get back in the fields of football or any other sport. 

Vogli, managed to live at least some days during a dmocratic changes in Albania after 90-ties. He was given all the sports titles he deserved.

In fact, he got the biggest title from Lev Yaschin that summer afternoon in Moscow, “Albanian Black Tiger” 

 … He played only 11 games with the national team. He left this world not rich and at the moment he died, he was wearing the jersey of the goalkeeper of the Albanian National Team! A gift from the Albanian Football Federation, with the number 75 stamped on the back, as many years as his life and with the name Strakosha.

by Arian Muraj

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Sports Vision+ / The Hour of The Champions – since 2013

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