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Aleko Pilika (born 29 May 1940) was an Albanian professional football player and manager. He played forKF Skenderbeu andDinamo Tirana before returning to KF Skenderbeu. After retiring as a player, he returned to KF Skenderbeu as manager of the club[1] and led them to their first ever European competition.
Aleko Pilika was born inTirana, Albania, in 1940 to Gaqo Pilika and Eleni (née Polena) Pilika, and he had two brothers, Angji Pilika and Zhani Pilika, and a sister, Fedra Pilika. His father's family was fromKorçë, the city, with his paternal grandmother Konstandina Floriri being native to the city. His grandfather, Giovani Pilika, was a lawyer who moved to Korçë fromAthens and comes from a nobleStradiote family that inhabitedCephalonia.[2][3][4] His mother's family has origins from a village in the Korça region known asPolene; his maternal grandparents were Perik Polena and Athina Polena. He and his whole family are of theOrthodox Christian faith. He and his family are ethnicAlbanians who speak theAlbanian language in theTosk dialect; however, his parents and grandparents also knew theGreek language. His father Gaqo studied inFlorina, and visited Thessaloniki. He was always passionate about football.
As a child, he started out as adefender; however, as he got older, he shifted into the striker position and remained as one for his whole senior career. He started his career at KF Skenderbeu, his local team in Korça and was in the youth ranks until he turned 18 which was when he was taken into the first team. During his youth career, he won the youth league ofKategoria Superiore in 1958 as a defender, centre back with KF Skenderbeu. This victory is what convinced KF Skenderbeu to put him into the first team. The first debut of Aleko Pilika was marked in the first week of the championship, on 22 March 1959, replacing Angjel Dvoran, in a match inElbasan. A week later, in Korça, Skenderbeu defeatedVllaznia with three goals scored by Gaqo Strati, Kosta Koça and Aleko Pilika, thus inaugurating his first goal for the club, which happened in the first minute.[5] His manager at the time was S. Qirinxhi, and he pushed Aleko to become astriker. Aleko stayed with KF Skenderbeu from 1958 until 1963 and from 1961 he was managed by M. Prodani. Aleko started every game for Skenderbeu and became a fan favourite of the time.
In 1963, Aleko joined Dinamo Tirana and left in the summer of 1965, during his two seasons with Dinamo, his team achieved second and third place in the league. His manager wasXhevdet Shaqiri, under his team at Dinamo, he made his debut for theBalkan Cup, during the1963–64 Balkans Cup[1] in which he played every game. Dinamo came third in Group A with only one win at home coming from a 2–0 victory overBesiktas[6] in which Aleko himself scored the first goal of the game in the 5th minute.[7] The game took place on 17 October 1963 atSelman Stermasi Stadium. In the summer of 1965, Aleko left Dinamo to return to KF Skenderbeu, even though there was no official transfer back nor did his contract expire. Aleko simply did not want to play for them anymore and for six months did not play football until KF Skenderbeu and Dinamo settled it.
Aleko played for KF Skenderbeu from 1965 to 1971 and was managed by M.Prodani once more until the summer of 1966, whenIlia Shuke became manager of the club. Aleko retired from football in 1971 at the age of 31 years old and left KF Skenderbeu once more, being a loved club favourite and top goal scorer for the club in certain seasons.[8][9]
From 1959 to 1963, he was selected for theAlbania national team but never started, due to personal political issues with thecommunist party of Albania, therefore having 0 caps.
During his time at Skenderbeu and Dinamo, Aleko did not win anysilverware, from 1971 to 1973, he was not participating in anything to do with football. In 1974–1975, he started training to be a manager. Aleko retired from football at 31 years old, having played professionally from 18. A 13-year career as a professional football player.
In 1975 Aleko Pilika returned to football as the new manager of KF Skenderbeu[10] at 35 years of age, after doing training to become a professional football manager during his retirement he was welcomed back into the club he so dearly loved, replacing Ilia Shuke as manager of the team. Aleko joined the 1975–1976 season for Skenderbeu inKategoria e Pare the second division in the Albanian football league. Aleko had a great first season taking Skenderbeu to the final of theAlbanian Cup1975–76 season. His team lost 4–1 on aggerate toKF Tirana then named 17 Nentori. However, despite the misfortune in the final he guided his team to be champions of Kategoria e Pare and got them promoted to Kategoria Superiore the top flight of the Albanian football league.[11]
The teams first season in Kategoria Superiore was very successful, in the1976–77 season they came second in the league with tied points with Dinamo Tirana, which was 28 points. Then in the final phase known as the championship round which is the top six teams continue to face each other only they came second place to Dinamo with 40 points a total of 12 more, making them runners up in the league under the coaching of Aleko Pilika.[1][12]
However, in the1977–78 Albanian National Championship they came last in the league, 12th place with 18 points which led to the relegation of Skenderbeu back into the Kategoria e pare.
The 1977–78 season for KF Skenderbeu showed that they qualified to compete in the1977–78 Balkans Cup which was the first time the club had competed in any European competition, showing that Aleko Pilika made history for the club as manager. Skenderbeu were in Group A againstAris Thessaloniki F.C. andHNK Rijeka, under Aleko they beat both teams at home winning 1–0 against Rijeka (Rragami 66) and 2–0 against Aris (Xhambazi 16, Muhaxhiri 25).[13] However they lost to them both away with the scores being 6–0 to Rijeka and 2–0 to Aris, this left them second in the table unfortunately not qualifying further.[14]
Aleko and the club, after the recent season, decided to part ways in the summer of 78, leading him to be replaced byKosta Koça. At 38 years of age Aleko officially left KF Skenderbeu and made European history for the club for the first time, the next time they qualified for Europe would be 2015, showing the rarity and difficulty for Skenderbeu to achieve it but under Aleko it was achieved. Another fact about Aleko and his team is that they were all from the city of Korça, not one person was from another city, which gave the team a big regional pride in Korça.
Aleko in the1996–97 Albanian National Championship returned as manager of KF Skenderbeu,[15] but with the team came 18th, last in the league with 14 points. Under mutual agreement, he left once more and retired from coaching.
Aleko married Miranda Vaso from Korça in 1966, the sister of Teodor Vaso, a fellow Albanian footballer. With Miranda he had three daughters, Gilda Pilika, Edlira Pilika and Berta Pilika. His sister Fedra Pilika marriedAgim Shuka, a famous actor in Albania. His nephew isOrli Shuka, a British-Albanian actor, son of Agim and Fedra. Aleko moved to Greece from Albania in 1990 to the city ofThessaloniki, where he lives now. He has five grandchildren in total. Aleko's Y-DNA haplogroup isR-CTS1221 under the R1a branch.
Dinamo Tirana
KF Skenderbeu
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