Tirana, Albania, September 7, 2018. They are two of the most distinguished players of Albanian Volleyball. They are from two different generations, but they are united by one particular detail. The 59-year-old Lulëzime Duka of the golden generation of Dinamo Tirana and the Albanian national team from the 1980s and the 23-year-old Erblira Bici, who has just joined the 2017 Italian champions from Igor Gorgonzola NOVARA, have dared, despites the many difficulties that they have met in their careers, to successfully try their luck in different European leagues, such as the ones of Switzerland and Italy. Now that #EuroVolleyU19W is taking place in Albania, both players have an important message to the young and aspiring Albanian Volleyball players: to dare and try their luck abroad. 

“Of course, having the U19 European Championship is a great chance for them,” Duka says. “During the communist regime in Albania, we did not have the opportunity to go and play abroad for foreign teams, although we were performing excellent with our Dinamo Tirana team. We reached the final four of the European Cup, but we were denied the chance to play there.”

“We had great results with the National team as well, especially in the Balkan Championships, but the gates to the world opened a little too late for that golden generation. I did, however, try my luck in Switzerland and it went quite well actually,” adds the 59-year-old, who has, for the last several years, worked tirelessly in a Tirana suburb, to gather, select and train talented young girls, establishing a team named after herself, Duka Volley. In fact, during the last season this team took part in the Albanian U19 Women National Championship, making it to the play-offs in their maiden season.

“That’s why I tell my girls, I tell every young Volleyball player that I meet, that they need to aspire for greater things, to dream big and to chase their aims until the end. To challenge themselves, to do what, in the first moment, might appear impossible,” emphasises the former player and now coach Lulëzime Duka.

One of those to have chased their dream is Erblira Bici, who less than ten years ago was a teenage girl in the remote town of Gramsh in the south-east of Albania. After excelling with the capital teams of Tirana and Barleti Volley, and, particularly, with the Albanian women’s national team, in 2016, the 23-year-old moved to LPM Pallavolo Mondoví in Serie A2 in Italy. She had two great seasons with the team, being among the Top 5 performers of that league each season, thus securing a great move to Novara in the Serie A1. And she says she is a living proof of why you should chase your dream.

“I keep on telling to my teammates in the Albanian National team to work hard during the trainings, to play hard on the court, no matter if we win or lose the game,” Era says. “I tell them that the National team is a great window to the world of European Volleyball and their only chance to be noticed, as, unfortunately, the level of the Albanian National championship is not good enough yet. I could not have, neither in my wildest dreams, thought of reaching this far and that’s why I tell everybody to fight, fight, fight, for, in the end, somebody will notice them and they will be given a chance.”

To both Duka and Bici, hosting the 2018 CEV U19 Volleyball European Championship – Women in Albania, is a great opportunity for the whole Albanian Volleyball family. “It was a great chance,” Duka says,”for the young girls to see right in the front of their eyes some of the best European Volleyball players in this age group. And it was even a greater chance for the Albanian U19 National team to be on the court facing these players. I told them after each match, to just enjoy playing there, in what could be, the chance of a lifetime for them.”

For Bici, this European Championship is a historic undertaking. “Hosting #EuroVolleyU19W means that the Albanian Volleyball Federation has done a great job and has shown that we are able and capable enough to undertake the delivery of such an important event. In a few years, the players at this U19 European Championship will be the best ones in Europe, and why not, we will have an Albanian girl among them.”

“The key?”, concludes Erblira Bici: “Work hard and never quit searching for the maximum from yourself!”

To know more about #EuroVolleyU19W, click here.