The tall striker Arben Minga (1959-2007), top scorer of the Albanian Championships!

Intro
Arben Minga dhe Agustin Kola, was undoubtedly a combination and the most found attack duo not only for “17 Nentori” of Tirana but also of Albanian football in general.

During the 80s they were the “goal twins”, they were almost like Vialli and Mancini at Sampdoria. A pair of strikers that cannot be found in other teams from time to time, by their scoring ability in the first place, but also by other elements that distinguished them.

Finding each other at the right moments, during the match, their location and positioning at the right time and moment, the passes, crosses, decisive combinations and finishing, often left no way for the opponent to hinder them.

In every match, on every field and against every opponent, almost all the goals of “17 Nentori”, would be scored by this unparalleled pair of strikers.

Minga in an air flight in the match against “Tomorri”, after the winning goal at the “Qemal Stafa” stadium in Tirana!

Minga and Kola…
Yes, undoubtedly, they, together with Shkelqim Muca, were the success of “17 Nentori” and the three essential elements of the ensemble of this team found and built quite beautifully by the two coaches of that time Fatmir Frasheri and then after Enver Shehu.

Thus, Minga without Kola and vice versa, Kola without Minga had no meaning in the attack of “17 Nentori” which was like an equation with the common denominator of these two names.

In addition to the year of birth (1959), what was common and quite similar for both was their technical and tactical skills, the ability of scoring goals, headers and shots in the finalization of actions.

Therefore, they can be considered the “goal twins” in Albanian football, although in the activation with the Albanian representative, precisely this attack duo did not seem to show 100% of their skills as they did in the championship or cup! Some consider them as club players!

And if this is true, then again, we are not exaggerating here as we make the comparison with Vialli-Mancini of the 80s at Sampdoria, the “goal twins” of Serie “A”, but who with the great Azzurra National Team, they never reached that height level as they did at their club.

Minga and Kola!
However, there was something that made them stand out as different!
While one with a troubled soul (Kola), often fell into the trap of provocations, was more hot-blooded, the other (Minga) has been a model footballer. The fact that his entire career does not know a red card and only one yellow card, shows his fair play on the green field. He knew how to wait patiently for the moment when he could use the instinct of a cold-blooded “killer”, and not falling victim to nerves and having a self-control to be appreciated!

Not in vain, Kola, from a disciplinary point of view, was the player most punished with red cards, although this did not take away his value as one of the best strikers in Albanian football, and we will talk about him in a separate article.

1.
Minga was born in Tirana on March 16, 1959, to a family of Korçë origin, and was captivated by the passion for the sport at a very young age. Like some of the young people who had started playing football and who stood out as promising players in the 1970s, Minga was destined to become part of the Partizani team. It seemed that everything was going to go well, since Minga’s father was also a long-time Partizan fan. His father wanted Minga to wear the red jersey of the Partizani team at all costs.

But things began to take a completely different direction, with the insistence of the coach of “17 Nentori” Fatmir Frasheri who persistently asked Minga to become part of the Tirana club.
And so it happened, he became part of Tirana at the age of 15, and around 1974-1975 Minga would be activated with the first team at the age of 17.

The young Minga received his first football lessons in the sports classes of the “Alqi Kondi” school from the teacher Robert Roshi. After four years immediately moved to the Tirana youth team, to fall into the hands of Fatmir Frasheri.

Meanwhile, in the late 70s and early 80s, a group of young and talented footballers arrived in Tirana one after the other.
Another white-blue “revolution” was being prepared after the one of the 60s and 70s. One of them would be the young Minga. He would be surrounded and supported in his powerful game by Mema, Muça, Kola, Baçi, Naçi, Bimo, Liti, Hodja, not to mention all of them, who together would form a brilliant ensemble.

His immense joy, when he first wore the Albanian champion’s medal around his neck in 1982. Meanwhile, two years earlier, in 1980, coach Konçi would call him to the National Team to entrust him with the red and black jersey in a match against Finland. These successes would further enrich the sports biography of this footballer. The chest of the strong boy, year after year, would be adorned with numerous medals of trophies won.

Tirana, or “17 Nëntori” of those years, would almost be identified with the tall striker Minga, whom the opponents found almost impossible to cope with.

Arben Minga was one of the most prominent footballers of “17 Nentori” Tirana in the 80s. Thanks to his skills, he managed to win the national championship title 6 times with this team (seasons 1981-‘82, ‘84-‘85, ‘87-‘88, ‘88-‘89, ‘94-‘95 and ‘95-‘96).

Also with “17 Nentori”, Minga has won the Albanian Cup 4 times (1983, 1984, 1986 and 1994) as well as the Super Cup in 1995.

Among his personal achievements was the title of the best scorer of the Albanian championship in the 1984/85 season together with the Vllaznia player, Faslli Fakja, with 13 goals scored.
As a scorer, his goals in the Champions Cup remain unforgettable.
Thus, we can mention the decisive goal in the 1982/83 edition of this competition, achieved in the return match of the 1/16 finals against “Linfield” in Belfast, which ended in the score board 2-1. In the previous meeting in Albania, “17 Nëntori” had won the match 1-0 with a goal by Kola, earning the right to advance to the next round after the goal in the opposing field.

Minga also left his mark in another major challenge in the Champions Cup, in the 1989/90 season, when in the 1/8 finals he scored the only goal of “November 17” in a 2-1 defeat to Bayern Munich at the “Olympiastadion” stadium.

Meanwhile, in the return match, the white and blue team were defeated 0-3 at home by the German giants.

Minga has also made a very valuable contribution to the National Team, where he played from 1980 to 1989.

Arben Minga can be considered a club player. While with “17 Nentorin” in national activities he showed 100% of his skills as a complete player, with the Representative (Adult National Team) it was completely different. Perhaps burdened by the emotions and responsibility of the red and black jersey, he seemed to have dulled the display of his skills in the international arena.

D. Bajaziti, A. Minga and in the background A. Kola, from the “Shpresa” Under 16 Team!

This detail is also confirmed by the numbers recorded by him with the red-black jerseys. In his 28 appearances where he has held the captain’s armband several times, Minga has scored only 2 goals, where undoubtedly one of them stands out, the one scored in a spectacular way against the great Belgium of Guy Thys with the stars Scifo, Ceullemans, Gerets….

In 1991 he transferred to “Dinamo” Bucharest in Romania. But the tall striker could not adapt to the game of “Dinamo”, whose managers thought of loaning him to the “Brasov” team. There he found two more compatriots, Bozhiqi and Canaj, thus forming the Albanian “colony” of Brasov.

Minga played two more seasons in Romania with other teams of this country. Suddenly he realized that age was taking its toll and it was time to say “Enough” to football.

He decided to return to his homeland, to his beloved team, FK Tirana (17 Nnetori), which raised him and made him a man. He returned to the white and blue team and found his friend, Sulejman Mema, as a coach.

Many of his teammates had long since said goodbye to football. But Minga was a professional, had experience and would not lack the physical strength to face the green field. He would play two more seasons, win two championship titles, to end his rich sports career, with the triumph of the 57th national football championship…

Like all people, Arben Minga would devote himself to daily life, his profession as a “Mercolog” and family life. There, in Tirana, a few years ago, he had met and married the famous basketball player Nora Goxhi, who had also given him a son, Gridi, who would now feel more of his father’s warmth, who would have more time to spend with him.

For several years he worked near the Rinas customs point, which also became a meeting point for his friends, the footballers, who moved from one place to another. But fate brought it about that exactly a decade later, the Minga family emigrated again. In search of a better life, Arben, together with Nora and Grid, like many of his compatriots, headed for distant Canada.

He settled in the city of Windsor, very close to Detroit, where the car manufacturing industry is thriving. Of course, as everywhere, the beginning was difficult, but Minga managed to adapt quickly to Canada, the life of an immigrant, also due to the fact that there he found a community of Albanians of about 3,000 people, many of whom knew this outstanding footballer. Jordi, his second son, was also born there.

But this happiness, this family life was not meant to last long. In 2005, a serious illness took hold of him. Neither the surgeon’s scalpel, nor the latest medical technology, was able to remove the evil from this indomitable, smiling and friendly man.

In the early hours of dawn on Wednesday, January 31, 2007, the heart of Arben Minga, this master of Albanian football, stopped beating…
Minga has been considered one of the “star players” in the history of “FK Tirana” (yesterday, 17 Nentori), since the creation of this club in 1920.

Arben Minga’s name will forever remain alongside the legends of the past of the white and blue team, along with those of Adem Karapici, Selman Stërmasi, Riza Lushta, Naim Kryeziu, Sllave Llambi, Skënder Halili, to name a few and among those who will come in the years to come.

Meanwhile, the fans in the club’s anthem in the ’80s would sing these lines: “Minuta e dytë, stadiumi pse heshti gjuan Arben Minga tundet Bukureshti. Topin e ka Baçi bukur e kroson gjuan me kokë Kola ene gol shënon. Kush po i lesheon kto predha, kush po i bo kto xhibla, osht lojtari jone pesmdhetkatshi Minga”.

Numbers and facts from the career:

Date of birth – 16.03.1959
Place of birth – Tirana
Height – 1.85 cm
Marital status – Married/2 children
Spouse – Nora Minga (Goxhi)
Position – Forward / Center Forward
Teams – “17 Nëntori”, “Brashova”,
“Dacia”, “FK Tirana”

Titles
6 times Albanian Champion
(1982, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1995, 1996)
4 Albanian Republic Cups
(1983, 1984, 1986, 1996)
1 Super Cup, (1994)

Top scorer
1985, with 13 goals alongside with Faslli Fakja (Vllaznia)

International Matches
European Cups: 18
National Team: 28
Goals with the National Team: 2
Goals in European Cups: 3

Exclusivity on this page is dated November 4, 2025
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Sports Vision +Plus in activity since 2013

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