Arben Minga

Arben Minga
Personal information
Full name Arben Minga
Date of birth 16 March 1959
Place of birth Tirana, Albania
Date of death 31 January 2007(2007-01-31) (aged 47)
Place of death Windsor, Canada
Height 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Playing position Striker
Youth career
1973–1975 17 Nëntori Tirana
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1975–1991 17 Nëntori Tirana ? (102)
1991–1992 FC Braşov 17 (1)
1992–1993 Dacia Unirea Brăila 25 (3)
1993–1994 Acvila Giurgiu
1994–1996 KF Tirana 55 (3)
National team
1980–1989 Albania 28 (2)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

† Appearances (goals)

Arben Minga (16 March 1959 in Tirana – 31 January 2007 in Windsor, Canada) was an Albanian footballer, who played as a centre-forward and a central defender.

He was known as Beni i madh (Big Ben). He was a six-time Albanian title winner.

Career

He began his career in Albanian Championship with KF Tirana, then known as 17 Nëntori, becoming well established by the 1977/78 season. Along with Agustin Kola, Mirel Josa, Sulejman Mema, Shkelqim Muca, Bedri Omuri and Millan Baçi, Minga was a member of the Tirana side of the 1980s that won four national championships and three national cups. In the early 1990s, Minga moved abroad to play in Romania in the 1992–1994, but came back to KF Tirana in the last two years.

International career

Capped 28 times by Albania,[1] he played 20 games in European competition. He had represented his country in 12 FIFA World Cup qualification matches [2]

International goals

Scores and results list Albania's goal tally first.[3]
#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1. 22 December 1984 Qemal Stafa Stadium, Tirana, Albania  Belgium 2–0 2–0 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification
2. 18 January 1989 Qemal Stafa Stadium, Tirana, Albania  Greece 1–0 1–1 Friendly match

Personal life and death

He subsequently went to Canada with his wife Nora Goxhi, a former professional basketballer, where they raised two sons, Grid and Jon "The King". It was there that he was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Minga died on 31 January 2007 of pancreatic cancer. Players in the 18th round of the 2006–07 Albanian Superliga games wore black armbands in his memory.

Ben Minga in memoriam video on YouTube

Memories of colleagues and coaches

His friend and fellow footballer Mirel Josa remembered that he had his Tirana debut in 1981 because Minga was suspended. Josa discovered he had no boots to play in, but recalled that "Beni gave me his boots and said 'put them on and be careful because they never stop running'."[4]

Shyqyri Rreli, his coach at KF Tirana called Minga: "The best captain and leader I ever had."[5] Team-mate Millan Baçi added: "His shot was like a bullet."[6] Meanwhile, his former colleague on the national side, Skënder Gega, labelled him "the hardest forward to defend against and the best person to have in your team". His one-time youth coach Fatmir Frasheri said: "I never heard him say 'I'm tired'. He would always be the first in for training and would give everything he had in every game."[7]

Goals in Albanian Championship

Season Team Goals
1976–77KF Tirana1
1977–78KF Tirana1
1978–79KF Tirana3
1979–80KF Tirana1
1980–81KF Tirana7
1981–82KF Tirana3
1982–83KF Tirana4
1983–84KF Tirana8
1984–85KF Tirana13
1985–86KF Tirana16
1986–87KF Tirana11
1987–88KF Tirana16
1988–89KF Tirana9
1989–90KF Tirana6
1990–91KF Tirana3
1990–91FC Braşov
1992–93Dacia Unirea Brăila
1993–94ASA Acvila Giurgiu
1994–95KF Tirana2
1995–96KF Tirana1
TOTAL105

Honours

Clubs

KF Tirana
ACS Dacia Unirea Brăila

Individual

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, April 04, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.