The voice is measured but there is no doubt about its strength.
‘The streets where I lived and played were dirt. There were no cars, only bicycles. We were children between five and ten years old.
This is where I had to learn how to be a winner. I had to develop my mindset against bigger guys. For me, the competition starts as soon as you learn to walk.
“I wanted to win. I lost many times. I cried with rage when that happened. But losing is also part of life.
We used to play barefoot. I had cuts and bruises, wounds on my leg, but I never remember complaining. I broke my leg when I was six and then I broke my arm. But I always wanted to be outside playing football.
Rudi Vata (left) is greeted by his Celtic teammate Paul McStay
Vata celebrates after Celtic’s 1994-95 Scottish Cup Final victory over Airdrie
This was the reality in Shkoder, Albania, in the 1970s. This is Rudi Vata, now 55, who played for France, Japan, Germany and, most pertinently, Celtic.
The voice has the resonance of someone who 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.
Opt for gratitude instead of any resentment over past slights. “The worst emotion you can experience is fear,” she says. “That fear can create panic, it can create illness, it can create disbelief.”
But Vata, a child who lived under Albania’s repressive communist regime, chose to have hope. And he still does. “I live with hope and that kept me going back then.
Without hope you have no purpose to live. If fear overcomes hope, you are lost. Vata found a new life after the tribulations in his homeland.
His father, Pjeter, was wrongly accused of treason. Vata was also investigated. Both were acquitted. Vata, the son, was released on 30 March 1991, after playing against France at the Parc des Princes against players such as Éric Cantona, Laurent Blanc and Basile Boli.
He walked from the locker room to the subway. 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. Most importantly, it took him to Scotland, where he signed for Celtic in 1992, where he found his wife and set up a home.
What would have become of him now if he had never left his homeland?
“I would have been ignorant and rude,” he says.
Instead, he speaks several languages, has many business interests, including a football agency, and has seen one of his sons, Ruan, become a shrewd businessman and another, Rocco, leave Celtic to pursue a career at Watford in England.
“I have lived two lives,” he says. The first, under a totalitarian regime. The second, full of turbulence.
But Vata’s mantra is that change is not only good but necessary. He writes in his autobiography: “It was not your fault if you were born in a country under a dictatorship, but it was your fault if you chose to accept it.
It wasn’t your fault you were born into poverty, it was your fault you chose to do nothing about it.
So, that night in 1991, she grabbed her bag and set out to walk the streets of Paris, heading into the unknown.
It’s three in the morning and a lone runner is racing along a motorway, overtaking trucks that throw mud in his face. It’s April 1991 and the scene is a road outside a refugee centre near Nantes. Vata is running towards his future.
The defender is followed by PSG star Patrice Loko during a UEFA Cup clash
Vata made over 50 appearances during his time at the Parkhead club.
“I trained like an animal,” he says. “Every morning I would get up very early and go out for a 10 or 15 kilometer run. I was determined to be in really good shape because otherwise, how would I be able to face my challenges?
I didn’t know how long it would take for people to organize a tryout with a club for me.
‘It’s much easier to stay in bed and wait for that call. Your body tells you, ‘Don’t worry, just leave it. ‘ But my head knew it was wrong to stay in bed.
I was hungry and determined. It’s easier to give up, to lose touch with fitness, with your passion. You lose your future. I fought to not lose all those things.
I didn’t have anyone to motivate me, but I had to have hope because I had the goal of playing in a professional football league in Europe and I was willing to do anything to achieve it.
Brief spells in France and a return to Dinamo Tirana when the dictatorship fell were followed by a transfer to Celtic.
He joined the club when it was in the throes of underperformance, winning a Scottish Cup in 1995. His time there instilled in him a love of Celtic and the culture he found there.
“The most important thing I learned in Scotland was that people were very friendly, especially people from Glasgow. I didn’t expect that.
Very friendly and helpful. I was a young person arriving in a country I had no information about and they were willing to help me from the first moment.
That was very important in my stage of life.”
He also met his wife Annefrances. Together they embarked on a footballing adventure that included a season in Germany, promotion to the Bundesliga with Energie Cottbus and playing in Japan.
“Life is about educating yourself and improving yourself,” he says. “When I went to Japan, I learned that during the first four or five years of life, children are taught the path to morality.
I was very happy to witness that.
This is a country that teaches its children to be good human beings from a young age. Japan faces great difficulties (tsunami, tornado, earthquake) and they never give up, they never complain. They rebuild their lives again.
It is not difficult to see a similarity with Vata philosophy.
“I like challenges,” he says. “It’s much easier when you settle in a country and build a good life for yourself and you’re in that comfort zone.”
For me, knowing more, experiencing more.’
His son Rocco now plays for Watford after recently joining from Celtic.
Vata meets his son Ruan and his wife Anne France at the launch of his new book
This has been passed on to their children.
The view from his villa in Montenegro encompasses lush trees and the sea. It also contains scenes from the past.
Vata’s mother is from Montenegro and he bought a piece of land when he was playing and built a house there. Rocco and Ruan spent their summers there. “They played barefoot, they climbed trees,” says their father. Rocco was a very talented footballer.
“He was very active, very unique,” Vata says of his 19-year-old son, who left Celtic this summer to join Watford. Other holidaymakers watched the young Vata shine in matches. His progression was seamless.
By the age of seven he was already in the Celtic squad and has represented the Republic of Ireland (he qualifies through his mother’s side) at lower levels.
However, this summer it went ahead.
“Leaving Celtic hurt him,” says his father. But Vata highlights the benefits of leaving a comfort zone. “It’s the best thing for any child if they want to be independent, become a strong man, be free.
‘It’s nice not to depend on Mom to wash up or put food on the table,’ she says.
But he adds: “It was a sad day when we left Celtic.
I felt empty. Rocco was feeling sad and in the first two or three weeks at Watford he was not himself.
He’s adjusting well now, he’s maturing. That comfort zone can destroy you. It’s a killer. Some guys don’t want to leave their environment.
They are not willing to leave, to fight, to go through pain and make sacrifices. They don’t want to leave friends, girlfriends, takeaways… It’s much easier to stay.
He knows that his experience with Rocco and Ruan has served as a lesson. “Being a father is a very difficult job,” he says. “I don’t 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 develop the mentality of a lion if he wants to play in the Premier League.
There will be elephants there. Big, physical boys.
The elephant is ten times bigger, but the lion can eat it. He will face great challenges, but I hope he has the mentality to become a lion.
“He has a lot of potential and I don’t want him to waste it. God has given him something special and he shouldn’t settle for something mediocre.”
God plays a very important role in Vata’s life.
His faith is not ceremonial or tied to traditional church attendance. It is visceral. “I never complain about what God decides,” he says. “Bad or good, it is God’s decision.”
That’s what God asks us to do. Complaining is for losers.
He has been through a storm last year: his father succumbed to the disease after a brave fight and his mother now needs support.
Rocco’s move was also emotionally demanding.
“God has plans for you,” he says. “Things you don’t expect. You have to go through certain things.”
Vata chose freedom and was always willing to pay the price for it.
* Rudi Vata: My Story is published by Pitch (£25)
