Vata, Rudi

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Fullname: Rudi Vata
aka: ‘Holy’ Vata
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 12.05
Born: 13 February 1969
Birthplace: Shkodër, Albania
Signed: 18 August 1992
Left: 31 May 1996
Position: Defender, Right-back
Debut: Dundee 0-1 Celtic, League, 3 Oct 1992
Internationals: Albania
International Caps: 58
International Goals: 5

Biog

“I was just a young Albanian who walked into a big, massive club with a big reputation and big players everywhere and it was a great experience, just great, great, great… Every morning I would wake up happy, just looking forward to going to work at Celtic Park.” Rudi Vata

In March 1991, Rudi Vata sought political asylum from the harsh communist regime which then governed Albania. Feigning injury during a France v Albania friendly at Parc des Princes, he walked up the tunnel, and kept walking into a French police station, where he claimed and was granted asylum from the oppressive circumstances in his homeland. Six of his international team-mates did the same.

A year later, in the summer of 1992, Liam Brady signed the 23 year old defender, along with Andy Payton and £1.5m buy Stuart Slater. Some concerns were raised at the time, as the same summer saw the departure of Chris Morris and Derek Whyte, who had performed well the season before.

Rudi Vata – described by some as a “cavalier right-back”, and by some cynics as “dedicated but rubbish” – was the first Albanian to play for a British team, and debuted on Saturday, 3rd October 1992 in a 1-0 win at Dundee. Very little to say, as over his time he only played for the game in odd matches with little runs in first team, albeit he did end up playing in a number of games. Never wholly convincing to many and the club had bigger issues around the time of his tenure at the club, first due to the ‘Sack The Board’ events and then after being taken over by Fergus McCann with a whole set of restructuring under way across everything at the club.

Under Tommy Burns, there was the difficult first season of transition for Celtic and then transfers were brought in which didn’t help

He played 55 times for Celtic, scoring 4 goals, and was part of the Celtic side that won the Scottish Cup in 1995 which was the highlight of his time. He was never a regular starter, and used more ad hoc in matches, but he never complained and got on with the task in hand.

His personal highlight was when he helped seal a 3-0 victory over Rangers in May 1995, when he added to their misery by scoring from a direct free kick 25 yards from goal nine minutes from the end. He deserved the praise that he won for that moment, and helped set Celtic up for the key Scottish Cup final coming up.

Early in 1996, the club had planned to release the player. However, this was delayed at the last minute, due to the fact that this would have released a work permit (the league had 12 in total for non-EC players) which Rangers could have used to sign Brazilian hotshot Jardel from Gremio. In the end, Rudi Vata stayed, Jardel couldn’t get a work permit (none were available for him to apply for), so he signed for Porto where he impressed enough for Galatasaray to pay £18m for him. Celtic eventually released Rudi Vata in May 1996, but only after Jardel had signed for Porto.

Since being released from Parkhead by then manager Tommy Burns, Rudi Vata played football all over the world.

First was Apollon Limassol, where he won the Cypriot Cup. Then came Germany and Energie Cottbus, where he won Bundesliga Two, graced Bundesliga One, and was given the keys to the city for his sterling service. After a spell at Ahlen, he moved to Yokohama in Japan’s J-League. He was last seen plying his trade at St Johnstone predominantly as a midfielder. He retired in 2005 with KF Partizani Tirana to became a sports agent.

Rudi Vata attributes most of his subsequent success on his schooling at Parkhead.

“I was just a young Albanian who walked into a big, massive club with a big reputation and big players everywhere and it was a great experience, just great, great, great. I think just learning from the way players like that behaved, and lived their life was a great experience and a great benefit for me. I needed to come in and I needed to improve and I thought I did quite well. Every morning I would wake up happy, just looking forward to going to work at Celtic Park.”

His wife, Ann Frances, is from Hamilton; his sons, Ruan & Rocco, were born in Glasgow, a factor apparently designed to make sure that they are eligible both for the Scottish education system and the Scottish football team; and his brother, now a British national, at time of writing runs a pub in Wales.

Rudi Vata came back to Celtic Park to play in the Tommy Burn’s Tribute match, and later he was working as a Football Agent with Slaven Bilic being his most high profile client.

One big claim to fame was that he became close friends with Albanian President Ilir Meta, who became a very keen supporters & follower of Celtic, especially on social media.

A proud day on 8 July 2021, when his son Rocco Vata signed a 3 year professional contract with Celtic, and then more pride when Rocco Vata went on to make his competitive first team debut with Celtic in December 2022.

Playing Career

Honours with Celtic

Scottish Cup

• 1995

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Interview: Rudi Vata on his journey from Albania to Celtic

Albanian-Scottish link is still special for Celtic legend Rudi Vata 22 years on, writes Andrew Smith.

https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/teams/celtic/interview-rudi-vata-on-his-journey-from-albania-to-celtic-1-4797058

Playing for Albania at the Parc de Princes in March 1991, Rudi Vata feigned injury, ran down the tunnel, got changed, stuffed $50 into his pocket and made a beeline for a Paris police station where he approached the counter and asked to claim political asylum. The then 22-year-old had not a doubt that what awaited were the “opportunities”, adventures and “freedoms” denied to him in his oppressive eastern European homeland – even if he didn’t know precisely what form these would take.

Vata is the closest thing to an Albanian-Scot in the footballing sphere that will see these two countries meet for the first time tomorrow, in the Nations League at Hampden. His wife, Anne Frances, and children Ruan, 16, and 13-year-old Rocco – a highly-regarded prospect in Celtic’s academy system – might all be native to his adopted land. However, as Vata features in Albanian television’s coverage of the game, there will be no conflicting loyalties…even if he concedes the night will be “weird” and “strange” for him. “One hundred million per cent I want Albania to win,” he said of the country he represented 59 times across 11 years.Indeed, despite the utter contempt for his country’s rulers that drove him from it – “It might have changed but it suffers from weak government because you can only be a politician if you are corrupt” – he flew the flag for Albania on a football field as no-one had before him. A regime change allowed Vata to return to the international fold 18 months after he had holed up in France playing for lower league Le Mans and Tours. He did so having initially had his asylum bid rejected because as a footballer he wasn’t considered to have been “badly treated, discriminated against or tortured”.

A man-of-the-match performance against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin in 1992 led then Celtic manager Liam Brady to bring him to Glasgow. A period of financial convulsion at the club might have followed, but, in 1995, under Tommy Burns’ management, he featured in the club’s Scottish Cup final success. A triumph that not only lifted a weight for the club following six seasons without silverware, it lifted Vata to a stature beyond any previous Albanian as he became the first player from his country to win a major honour in a western European league.“I don’t know what it meant to anyone in my country, but I know what it meant to me,” he said. “I didn’t expect things to happen so quickly for me, but I signed for one of the biggest clubs in the UK, the first club to win the Champions League [then European Cup] in the UK, and then I won the cup. What happened to me, what I achieved as an Albanian at that time came out of a situation that made it seem almost impossible.”

The right-back remembers only the good times, he says, from any point in his career: it is how he is. That can’t be easy when reviewing his four years at Celtic. He was never a regular, and nothing was regular at the club as it was under the yoke of Rangers, and almost went bust before Fergus McCann’s 1994 takeover.“I wasn’t aware of quite what was going on until I began to learn the language. But as managers came and went I could understand things were not stable, not right in any sense. Rangers were then signing players for so much money, [Brian] Laudrup, [Paul] Gascoigne, and they looked dominant but we can see now and understand how they paid to do that.”

Vata cashed in every ounce of his talent to later win the Cypriot Cup with Apollon Limassol, before a successful spell with German side Energie Cottbus, pictured far left, helping them earn promotion to the Bundesliga. He also had the joy of living in Tokyo with Yokohama in Japan’s J- league before a short spell at St Johnstone and a stint back in his homeland with Partizani Tirana ahead of him becoming a sports agent.

“I was serious about what I did, I was disciplined, played by the rules, did what was asked of me and worked harder than anyone else. In Germany, that was the ethic, a fantastic people, and I had to work 30 per cent more than any home-based player because why else would they play an Albanian? In Japan the work ethic was even more incredible. And Tokyo, a city of 20 million people and no crime? How can that be? Because it is unlike anywhere else in the world, so modern, so clean, so amazing, with people who will work from the very earliest hours till late at night, and show you every respect, show you the best manners. I know many other players find a country to resettle in and stay there for their career because they can’t cope with constantly adapting to new cultures, new languages. But for me doing so just kept opening my eyes.”

Vata is caught between two worlds in seeking to educate his children. They can’t fully appreciate the sacrifices he made for his football career, and his family. “You must be prepared to suffer, my friend,” he said. “Give more than you think you can give. I didn’t want to party, I didn’t want to abuse my body and still would never do. You train, you work, you train harder. But young people have it too easy.

“I say to my sons I had to provide not just for me but for my mother and father, for my brother. I had to arrange their visas, their travel, buy them their homes, make sure they were OK. All my sons have to think about is themselves.”

Vata for now pours his emotion and his energies more into their well-being than his footballing agency – which in the past helped broker the deals that took Garry O’Connor and Aiden McGeady to Russia. He went down the route of acting for players after his one representative sold him short for personal gain, blocking moves he could have made from Celtic to Marseille and AEK Athens because he could receive a bigger cut by moving him to Cyprus. “It left me with heartbreak, destroyed my feelings, even if it ended up a successful time and the money was good. If you have money, it can only make you happy for a few days. If you think you are at the wrong club, money, however important, can’t overcome that once those few days have passed. I wanted to put players first. I wanted to put what was best for them above all else. So many football agencies are businesses run by people who have no interest in football or in their players. Their only interest is how much money they can make.”

The interest the 49-year-old takes in football is inspired by the talents of his son Rocco. With the right attitude, the right application, the heights his youngest can reach in the game he considers unlimited. “I don’t think he can make it all the way, I know. Others think he can and tell me so. Celtic get so much right now about how they develop their young players with the school system at St Ninian’s. He leaves at 7am every morning and returns at 7pm every night but that is not a big sacrifice. He should want to make any and every one he can. Look at [Cristiano] Ronaldo. At 33 he signs for Juventus for all this money because he has worked harder than any player in history, and keeps doing so to even when he is a multi-millionaire and has achieved it all. He wasn’t even put up as one of the absolute top players of his generation in Portugal to begin with.”

Vata is damning about how few accomplished performers will be on show at Hampden. He doesn’t pretend to know how the game will pan out this evening – “People keep asking me to predict the score but I’m not a magician” – but feels it might come down to basics. He maintains his country’s stunning breakthrough in qualifying for Euro 2016 should not disguise the need for further progress.

“Albania aren’t the worst and Scotland aren’t the best. It will be about who is organised, works harder and makes fewest mistakes.”

No surprise that Vata should zero in on his guiding principles.

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