Dode Tahiri (1918-1988) | The Guards of the Albanian Gate!

Dode Tahiri, the Old Legend!
Successful Albanian Goalkeeper before WW2!

Dode Tahiri is the portrait of an outstanding athlete but also of a brave, generous, handsome, humane, loving and very fair patriot.

He was born in Pecaj of Dukagjin on November 27, 1918, his mother died at a young age, and he remained an orphan. Doda’s father, Tahir Xhuri, as an anti-Zogist oppositionist, is forced to flee politically, where he settles in Montenegro together with his two minor children. Little Doda in Podgorica was given the opportunity to continue the High School in Cetina and to constantly engage in sports.
The boy enjoyed an exemplary physical structure that distinguished him from other peers, thanks to these parameters, talent and passion, the big dream of life to become a footballer began to take shape.

Tahiri has developed sports activities in Podgorica, Cetina, Dalilograd, Split, Ljubljana, Tivar, Lazarovec. He knew the Serbo-Croatian language very well, Doda was a man of humor and song. Dodë Tahiri, as a sportsman, is a product of the well-known Yugoslav football school, where for several seasons he played with the youth of “Bashlij”, the Royal Montenegrin team, the sworn enemy of “Budučnost”, which was considered a left-wing team “In the year 1935 was carefully observed by the prominent Montenegrin coach Millan Rajčević, who noticed a young man with great talent who played with the “Bashliq” team.

He was young, skinny … Tahiri trained regularly as a goalkeeper, wore a cap on his head, which he never took off, even in the goal. The discoverer and hunter of patents Millan Rajčević managed to get Doda for himself to play with “Budučnost”. Doda grew up, was educated and became a footballer in Montenegro, but throughout his life he remained a devout Albanian, connected to his homeland.

In August 1938, after a friendly match between “Kotorri” vs Shkodra, Tahiri fell in platonic love with “Vllaznia”, where after the meeting he took the “sinful” courage to tell “Vllaznia” that I love you, which soon becomes the greatest love of his life. However, until 1943, he remained loyal to “Budučnost”, while this year he is celebrated with “Vllaznia”. The first official match with “Vllaznia” was played against KS “Tirana” in 1943 where “Vllaznia” lost 1:4, but Doda showed outstanding skills as a goalkeeper.
During the years of occupation, football activities in both Albania and Montenegro did not have a dynamic intensity or a functional organizational structure, therefore during this time Tahiri stood between the two loves “Vllaznia” and “Budučnost” playing at times the next. After the liberation, he removes the cartridge necklace and partisan “opings” from his belt and puts on his sports shoes and Vllaznia’s jersey.

In our sports fields, he earned the name of an invincible mammoth because for 900 minutes, no Albanian boy was found to open his goal, which he defended like Heracles. Only in the last minute of the penultimate game of the 1945 Championship, Vasfi Biçaku would score a goal, killing his proud goalkeeping career dream of not conceding a single goal during a championship.

“Tahiri is a good goalkeeper, even very good with 3-4 saves in the final matches, they were among the great goalkeepers”. Tahiri set a special record for Albanian goalkeepers for a full 900 minutes without touching the net” was written in the press pages at the time.
Dodë Tahiri was an indomitable fighter who converted talent, training, discipline, grit, ambition, why not luck into spectacular successes.

Within a short time, he won everything for Vllaznia in the first two post-war championships with the 1945 and 1946 “National Army Cup”, which was the experiment that preceded the Albanian Cup that would start a year later, in 1947.

The newspaper “Sporti” of August 15, 1945, on the eve of the championship, published the headline:
“The people of Shkodran have a name in the records”! “The Shkodran team achieved a special record, played 6 matches without conceding a single goal, scored a full 24, won with Prizren 3:0, with Pristina 6:0, with the 46th Yugoslav Division 2:0, and now wins in Shkodër against Tivar 6:0, beat Pristina again 2:0, Budičnost and Potgorica 3:0, the second match with Yugoslavian Division 46 3:0, so it is not an easy task, 540 minutes without conceding a single one and scoring a total of 24 goals !!
The 2:1 victory over “Hajduk” of Splid, played on February 1, 1946 in Shkodër, was called the legendary victory of the time for the Shkodra team. 21 wins, 2 draws and only four defeats achieved with big names in European football.”

The victory came from the feet of Met Vasija and Hamdi Bakalli who scored those two impressive goals, it came from the feet of Slave Llambi, but it was also saved by the safe hands of Dodë Tahiri”.

The famous “Spartacus” of Moscow arrived for a friendly tour in Tirana, the first meeting was held with the “Representative of the North” on April 28, 1946

“… Dodë Tahiri, the guardian keeper of the North, although he conceded three goals, stood out for his brave expectations in the face of the excellent and classy game of the Soviets who dominated everything, especially in the first half. In the 31st minute Doda, is forced to punch away the fatal danger… In the 37th minute, Solnikov delivers a terrible bomb at the North gate. Doda cuts with rare skill. Not even a minute passes and Doda is again facing a strong shot from Konov”
(Anton Mazrreku “Sporti” Albanian Newspaper April 28, 1946)

Dodë Tahiri was part of the victorious Eagles of the Tirana Balkaniada, where Albanian football, since that distant day of October 13, 1946, has never repeated another brighter success. That Balkan Cup was the fruit of the pride, fighting and manly spirit of Doda and his fellow red and black legionnaires who have gone down in history as the constellation of fathers of our national football.

The gun of enmity drove him away from Albania, “Vllaznia” and the National Team in 1947. The gun for cedar and national pride in Germany almost drove him to the abyss, but fortunately the tide of a pampered fate brought him to the shore of the blessed land.

In 1981, with the Albanian immigrants in Detroit, he created a football team called “Vllaznimi”.
He came and went like a meteor in the Albanian football arena. Among the great football champions, Dodë Tahiri was probably the most “adventurer”, a suggestive name that belongs to those privileged names, endowed with a permanent youth.

Here’s what they said about him:
“…The fate of determining the title of champion would be determined by the middle line and goalkeeper Dodë Tahiri. a loyal keeper and expert of the net…The Shkodran goalkeeper has been in a brilliant form in this tournament…” – Anton Mazrreku 

“…Being like a tall oak, it completely blocked the gate, so much so that the gate before the opposing attackers looked like a needle’s hole. Come and see this colossus in the goal…a good sniffer, mature, prudent and perceptive of the time and sequence of the opponent’s attacks” – Ismet Bellova

Dodë Tahiri was not a simple sportsman, but above all persistent for victory and a skilled leader of the team and especially a strategist I would say in defense – Bimo Fakja

Dodë Tahiri was born to play football; therefore he deserved to be the champion of Vllaznia and the National Team, goalkeeper of “Cetina”, “Buduçnost” and “Hajduk”.
– Paul Mirashi

“Doda has a chance to show the public that it is in excellent shape and the impenetrable wall of the Shkodran gate. Doda stood out for his wonderful receptions, Gjeloshi in particular for the correct game and Smajli”. – “Albanian Sporti”, August 27, 1946.

“In the match against Bulgaria, in the 44th minute, the footballer Leskov, at a distance of 20 meters, shoots hard, Doda with a really beautiful throw, the ball almost touched the net”. “Sporti” , October 9, 1946.

On September 30, 1946, the athletics championship takes place in Tirana, in which the “Vllaznia” team, represented in several competitions by Dodë Tahiri, also participates. In this participation, Tahiri stands out above all the participants and is declared the champion in the shot-put competition. That’s why the historian studies it, the patriot praises it, the brave honors it, the football specialist appreciates it, the generous appreciates it, the rhapsody sings it, and the sports lover never forgets it!

Dode Tahiri passed away on May 28, 1988

Note: Excerpted from some writings of the publicist, Mr. Prel Milani and adapted for the site “Sports Vision + / The Hour of The Champions in August 2014