Arben Minga (16 March 1959 – 31 January 2007) was an
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
n professional
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...
, who played as a
striker and later in his final years as a
centre-back.
He was known as ''Beni i modh'' (Big Ben).
Club career
Born in
Tirana
Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...
, Albania, Minga began his career with
KF Tirana, then known as ''17 Nëntori'', at the age of 15.
He was well established in the senior squad by the 1977–78 season, making his competitive debut on 20 November 1977 in the match against
Shkëndija Tiranë,
while his first goal for the club came later on 2 April 1978 in the 3–1 win over
Luftëtari Gjirokastër.
In the following years, Minga was also named team captain.
In the 1980' Minga would be part of Tirana's golden generation along with players such as
Agustin Kola,
Mirel Josa,
Sulejman Mema
Sulejman Haxhi Mema (born 17 November 1955) is a former player and manager of Tirana Youth. He has also been head of refereeing at the Football Association of Albania.
International career
He made his debut for Albania in an April 1983 Europe ...
,
Shkëlqim Muça,
Bedri Omuri and
Millan Baçi
Millan Baçi (born 3 November 1955, in Albania) is a former Albanian football player.
Club career
He spent his entire career with 17 Nëntori Tirana. His main position was wing back, with the right wing as his favourite.
International career
B ...
, winning four championships and three cups. He also received offers from Dinamo and Partizani to join them, and also friends and colleagues tried to convince him.
Dinamo also offered him a very lucrative house which Minga turned down, saying: Thank you for evaluating me, but I cannot leave 17 Nëntori.
Minga was on top of his game during the
1985–86 season, netting 16 goals and helping Tirana to a third-place finish. One of his more notable games was the opening championship match against rivals of
Partizani Tirana
Futboll Klub Partizani, or FK Partizani for short, is an Albanian professional football club based in Tirana, that competes in the Kategoria Superiore. Founded in 1946, the club was historically affiliated to the Albanian army. Partizani's curren ...
on 22 September where he scored a hat-trick to give Tirana a 7–3 win, the largest ever win against them.
In the early 1990s, Minga moved abroad to play in
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
in the 1992–1994. With Brǎila he played in (and lost) the
1993 Romanian Cup Final. He came back to Tirana at the start of
1994–95 season, aged 35, also playing as a defender.
Minga excelled in playing in his new role in the final two years, helping Tirana to win the championship both times.
In April 2020, Minga was voted by the fans as KF Tirana Player of the Century as part of their celebrations for the club's 100th anniversary.
International career
Minga had a successful youth international career, winning
Balkan Youth Championship
Balkan Youth Championship was a competition held in the 1968-1981 period among youth team of Balkan countries: from 1968 to 1975 it was disputed among Under-23 teams, whereas, starting from 1976 until 1981, it was disputed among Under-21 footba ...
twice in 1978 and 1981.
Minga has been capped 28 times by
Albania senior squad,
earning his first cap on 3 September 1980 in the 2–0 home win versus
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
valid for the
1982 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign. He played 20 games in European competitions and 12
FIFA World Cup qualification matches He played and scored in the famous December 1984 home win over
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
and his final international was a March 1989 European Championship qualification match against
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
Personal life
After returning to Albania in 1994, and despite still a professional footballer, Minga begun working as a representative of
Gillette in Albania.
The business eventually collapsed in 1997 due to
Albanian Civil War.
Following that, Minga worked for a short time as a security employee at
Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza
Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza ( sq, Aeroporti Ndërkombëtar i Tiranës Nënë Tereza, ), often referred to as the Rinas International Airport, is one of the two main international airports of the Republic of Albania. It serves th ...
.
Canadian years and death
Minga subsequently went to
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
with his wife
Nora Goxha, a former professional
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
er, where they raised two sons, Grid and Jon. It was there that he was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Minga died on 31 January 2007 in
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the southe ...
of
pancreatic cancer. Players in the 18th round of the
2006–07 Albanian Superliga games wore black armbands in his memory.
Legacy
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'."
Shyqyri Rreli, his coach at KF Tirana called Minga: "The best captain and leader I ever had."
Team-mate
Millan Baçi
Millan Baçi (born 3 November 1955, in Albania) is a former Albanian football player.
Club career
He spent his entire career with 17 Nëntori Tirana. His main position was wing back, with the right wing as his favourite.
International career
B ...
added: "His shot was like a bullet."
Meanwhile, his former colleague on the national side,
Skënder Gega
Skënder Gega (born 14 November 1963) is an Albanian retired football player and current manager.
Playing career Club
Gega played the majority of his career at Partizani, an Albanian team, whilst also having a two-year stint with German side ...
, labelled him "the hardest forward to defend against and the best person to have in your team". His one-time youth coach
Fatmir Frashëri 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."
A street in
Tirana
Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...
is named after him. Minga has also won several accolades and awards, such as "Merited Master of Sport", Honor of the city of Tirana" and "Honor of Albanian Sport".
Career statistics
Goals in Albanian Championship
International goals
:''Scores and results list Albania's goal tally first.''
Honours
Club
KF Tirana
*
Albanian Superliga:
1981–82,
1984–85,
1987–88,
1994–95,
1995–96Arbën Minga
- RSSSF
* Albanian Cup: 1982–83, 1983–84, 1985–86, 1995–96
*Albanian Supercup
The Albanian Supercup is a single match usually at the beginning of the season between the winners of the Kategoria Superiore and Albanian Cup.
Supercup final was not played in the occasions when the champion team won the Double. However, after ...
: 1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...
;
Dacia Unirea Brăila
* Romanian Cup
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
*** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...
: runner-up 1992–93
Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...
International
Albania U21
*Balkan Youth Championship
Balkan Youth Championship was a competition held in the 1968-1981 period among youth team of Balkan countries: from 1968 to 1975 it was disputed among Under-23 teams, whereas, starting from 1976 until 1981, it was disputed among Under-21 footba ...
: 1978, 1981
Individual
* Albanian Superliga top goalscorer: 1984–85 season (shared with Faslli Fakja
Faslli Fakja is a former Albanian association football, football who played for Vllaznia Shkodër in the 1980s, where he was part of the 1982–83 Albanian Superliga, 1982–83 National Championship winning team playing alongside international pla ...
)
Orders
*'' Naim Frasheri Order'': Second class
* KF Tirana Player of the Century
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minga, Arben
1959 births
2007 deaths
Footballers from Tirana
Albanian footballers
Association football forwards
Albania international footballers
Albania under-21 international footballers
KF Tirana players
FC Brașov (1936) players
AFC Dacia Unirea Brăila players
Albanian expatriate footballers
Expatriate footballers in Romania
Albanian expatriate sportspeople in Romania
Albanian expatriate sportspeople in Canada
Kategoria Superiore players
Liga I players
Deaths from pancreatic cancer