Aleko Pilika (born 29 May 1940, Tirana) was an Albanian professional football player and manager in Albania. He played for the teams KF Skenderbeu and Dinamo Tirana and then returned to KF Skenderbeu, where he retired as a football player. He then returned to KF Skenderbeu as a football manager of the club[1] and led them to their first ever European competition.
Early life and origins
Aleko Pilika was born in Tirana, Albania, in 1940 to Gaqo Pilika and Eleni (née Polena) Pilika, and he had 2 brothers, Angji Pilika and Zhani Pilika, and a sister, Fedra Pilika. His father's family was from Korçë, the city, with his paternal grandmother Konstandina Floriri being native to the city. His grandfather, Giovani Pilika, was a lawyer who moved to Korçë from Athens and comes from a noble Stradiote family that inhabited Cephalonia.[2][3][4] His mother's family has origins from a village in the Korça region known as Polene; his maternal grandparents were Perik Polena and Athina Polena. He and his whole family are of the Orthodox Christian faith. He and his family are ethnic Albanians who speak the Albanian language in the Tosk dialect; however, his parents and grandparents also knew the Greek language. This is due to the fact there were only Greek schools in southern Albania until 1908 with it being the lingua franca and also his paternal grandfather and father having lived in Greece. His father Gaqo studied in Florina, and visited Thessolaniki. He was always passionate for football.
Club career
KF Skenderbeu
As a child, he started out as a defender; 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 of Kategoria 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 March 22, 1959, replacing Angjel Dvoran, in a match in Elbasan. A week later, in Korça, Skenderbeu defeated Vllaznia with 3 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 a striker. 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.
Dinamo Tirana
In 1963, Aleko joined Dinamo Tirana and left in the summer of 1965, during his 2 seasons with Dinamo, his team achieved second and third place in the league. His manager was Xhevdet Shaqiri, under his team at Dinamo, he made his debut for the Balkan Cup, during the 1963-64 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 over Besiktas[6] in which Aleko himself scored the first goal of the game in the 5th minute.[7] The game took place on the 17th of October 1963 at Selman 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 6 months did not play football until KF Skenderbeu and Dinamo settled it.
Return to KF Skenderbeu
Aleko played for KF Skenderbeu from 1965 to 1971 and was managed by M.Prodani once more until the summer of 1966, when Ilia 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]
During his time at Skenderbeu and Dinamo, Aleko did not win any silverware, 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.
Managerial career
KF Skenderbeu
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 in Kategoria e Pare the second division in the Albanian football league. Aleko had a great first season taking Skenderbeu to the final of the Albanian Cup1975–76 season. His team lost 4–1 on aggerate to KF 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 the 1976–77 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 6 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 the 1977-78 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.
Balkan Cup
The 77–78 season for KF Skenderbeu showed that they qualified to compete in the 1977–78 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 against Aris Thessaloniki F.C. and HNK 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]
Resignation
Aleko and the club, after the recent season, decided to part ways in the summer of 78, leading him to be replaced by Kosta 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.
Short return
Aleko in the 1996–97 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.
Qualification for the 1977-78 Balkan Cup, the first time the club was ever in a European competition
Personal life
Aleko married Miranda Vaso from Korça in 1966, the sister of Teodor Vaso, a fellow Albanian footballer. With Miranda he had 3 daughters, Gilda Pilika, Edlira Pilika and Berta Pilika. His sister Fedra Pilika married Agim Shuka, a famous actor in Albania. His nephew is Orli Shuka, a British-Albanian actor, son of Agim and Fedra. Aleko moved to Greece from Albania in 1990 to the city of Thessaloniki, where he lives now. He has 5 grandchildren in total. Aleko's Y-DNA haplogroup is R-CTS1221 under the R1a branch.
