Rudi Vata: The streets were made of dirt. It's where I became a winner

THE voice is measured but there can be no doubt about its strength.

‘The streets where I lived and played were made of dirt. There were no cars, only bicycles. We were boys of five to age 10. 

This is where I had to learn to become a winner. I had to build my mentality against bigger boys. The competition, for me, starts as soon as you learn to walk.

‘I wanted to win. I lost so many times. I was crying with anger when that happened. But losing is part of life too. 

We used to play in bare feet. I had cuts and bruises, wounds in my leg, but I never remember complaining. I broke my leg at six years of age and then I broke my arm. But I always wanted to be out in the streets playing football.’

This was the reality of Shkoder, Albania, in the 1970s. The speaker is Rudi Vata, now 55, once a footballer in France, Japan, Germany and, most pertinently, with Celtic.

 The voice has the resonance of someone who has not only survived but triumphed. Vata was once accused of being a traitor to his country, was a refugee and became a nomad on the world football stage.

He opts for gratitude rather than any resentment at past slights. ‘The worst emotion you can go though is fear,’ he says. ‘That fear can create panic, can create diseases, can create disbelief.’

But Vata, a child in the repressive communist regime of Albania, chose to hope. He still does. ‘I live in hope and that kept me going then. 

Without hope you don’t have the purpose to live. If fear overtakes hope, you are lost.’ Vata found a new life after tribulations in his homeland.   

His father, Pjeter, was wrongly suspected as a traitor. Vata, too, was under scrutiny. Both were cleared. Vata, the son, walked to freedom on March 30, 1991, after playing against France in the Parc des Princes against such as Eric Cantona, Laurent Blanc and Basile Boli. 

He strolled from the dressing-room to the Metro. He found a police station and asked for political asylum. He was 21 years old.

His career took him to France, Cyprus, Germany and Japan. Crucially, it took him to Scotland where he signed for Celtic in 1992 and found his wife and established a home.

What would he have been now if he had never left his homeland?

‘I would have been ignorant, ill-educated,’ he says. 

Instead, he speaks several languages, has many business interests, including a football agency, and has watched one of his sons, Ruan, grow into an astute businessman and another, Rocco, leave Celtic to pursue his career at Watford in England.

‘I have lived two lives,’ he says. The first was under a totalitarian regime. The second has produced turbulence.

But the Vata mantra is that change is not only good but necessary. He writes in his autobiography: ‘It wasn’t your fault if you were born into a country under a dictatorship, but it was if you choose to accept it. 

It wasn’t your fault if you were born into poverty but it was if you chose to do nothing about it.’

This is why he picked up his bag on that night in 1991 and walked into the Paris streets, striding into the unknown.

IT is 3am and a lone runner pounds alongside a dual carriageway, passing lorries throwing mud into his face. It is April 1991 and the scene is a road outside a refugee centre near Nantes. Vata is running towards his future.

 ‘I trained like an animal,’ he says. ‘Every morning I woke very early and went on a 10k, 15k run. I was determined to be very fit because how otherwise could I face my challenges? 

I didn’t know how long it would take people to organise a trial with a club for me.

‘It is much easier to lie in bed and wait for that call. The body tells you: “Don’t worry, just leave it”. But my head knew it was wrong to stay in bed. 

I had hunger and determination. It is easier to give up, to lose touch with fitness, with your passion, You lose your future. I fought not to lose all those things. 

I had nobody to motivate me. But I had to hope because I had a purpose to play in a professional football league in Europe and was prepared to do anything to achieve that.’

Brief spells in France and a move back Dinamo Tirana when the dictatorship fell were followed by that switch to Celtic. 

He joined the club when it was mired in underachievement. He won a Scottish Cup in 1995. His spell imbued him with a love of Celtic and of the culture he found.

‘The major thing that I learned in Scotland was that the people were so friendly, the Glasgow people especially. I didn’t expect that. 

So kind, so helpful. I was a young man coming to a country I had no information about and straight away they were willing to help. 

That was so important at my stage of life.’

He also met his wife AnnFrances. Together they embarked on a football journey that included a spell in Germany, gaining promotion to the Bundesliga with Energie Cottbus, and playing in Japan.

‘Life is all about educating yourself and improving yourself,’ he says. ‘When I went to Japan I learned that the first four or five years of children’s life they are taught about the road towards morals. 

I was very happy to witness that. 

This is a country that teaches their children to become good human beings from early in life. Japan faces great difficulties — tsunami, tornado, earthquake — and they never give in, never complain. They rebuild life again.’

It is not difficult to see a resemblance to the Vata philosophy.

‘I like challenges,’ he says. ‘It is much easier when you settle in one country and build a good life and you are in that comfort zone. 

For me, to know more, experience more.’

This has been passed down to his sons.

THE view from his villa in Montenegro encompasses lush trees and the sea. It also holds scenes from the past.

Vata’s mother is from Montenegro and he bought a plot of land when playing and built a house on it. Rocco and Ruan spent their summers in it. ‘They played in bare feet, climbed trees,’ says their father. Rocco was a precocious footballing talent.

‘He was very active, very unique,’ says Vata of his 19-year-old son who left Celtic this summer to sign for Watford. Fellow holidaymakers would watch the young Vata star in kickabouts. His progression was seamless. 

At seven he was already on Celtic’s books and he has represented the Republic of Ireland (he qualifies through his maternal side) at under-age level.

Yet he moved on this summer.

‘Leaving Celtic hurt him,’ says his father. But Vata states the advantages of moving from a comfort zone. ‘It is the best thing for any child if they want to become independent, to become a strong man, to become free. 

It is good not to depend on mother’s washing, mother putting the food on the table,’ he says.

But he adds: ‘That was sad the day we left Celtic. 

I felt empty. Rocco felt sad and in the first two or three weeks in Watford he was not himself. 

He is now settling in well, he is maturing. That comfort zone can destroy you. It’s a killer. Some boys do not want to leave their environment. 

They are not prepared to leave, to fight and go through pain and make sacrifices. They don’t want to leave friends, girlfriends, the takeaways... It’s much easier to stay.’

He knows his experience with both Rocco and Ruan has offered lessons. ‘Being a dad is a very difficult job,’ he says. ‘I do not spoil my children. 

I like to show them the hard way. I want them to be strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men.’

Of Rocco, he says: ‘Football is a game of challenges. You have to win battles. Rocco has to build up the lion mentality if he wishes to play eventually in the Premier League. 

There will be elephants there. Big boys, physical. 

The elephant is 10 times bigger but the lion can eat the elephant. He will face big challenges but I hope he has the mentality to become a lion.

‘He has so much potential, I want him to make sure he doesn’t not waste it. God has given him something special and he should not settle for average.’

God plays a huge part in Vata’s life. 

His faith is not ceremonial or linked to traditional churchgoing. It is visceral. ‘I never complain about what God decides,’ he says. ‘Bad or good, it’s God’s decision. 

It is what God is asking us to go through. Complaining is for losers.’

He has gone through a storm in the past year with his father succumbing to illness after a brave struggle and his mother now needing support. 

Rocco’s transfer was also emotionally demanding.

‘God plans things for you,’ he says. ‘Things you don’t expect. You have to go through certain things.’

Vata chose freedom. He has always been prepared to pay the price for that.

* Rudi Vata: My Story is published by Pitch (£25)