Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama at the ceremony for the conferral of the Doctor Honoris Causa degree to coach of the national football team, Gianni De Biasi:

“I’ve missed more than 9 thousand shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

These are the words of a great champion, Michael Jordan, and I chose them to open this speech, because they came to my mind just while I was thinking about what I could say about Gianni, who is today is at the height of his career. As a fan of the Italian football, I have known Gianni since the beginning of his previous career, and I know that he had to do and lose many battles in order to be where he is today.

Albania is a country with rare natural beauty, with a dignified history, if we take into account the fact that it is a small country, but also the enormous challenges that Albanians have faced over the centuries; its culture has been passed on from generation to generation, who have made extremely laborious effort to survive. This country has known many wars which were never started by Albanians, it has never the occupations that has suffered, and has never agreed quietly on them, it has been subject to tough regimes, even to a fierce dictatorship heavy, but it has always been able to survive stifling challenges, and to be reborn.

A beautiful feature of Albanians is the fact that even in the worst evil, even in the most difficult moments, even in the deepest loss, they have always lived their lives with adrenaline.

And obviously football is a metaphor of the way Albanians live.

I will continue with Michael Jordan, who said: “Be true to the game, because the game will be true to you. If you try to shortcut the game, then the game will shortcut you. If you put forth the effort, good things will be bestowed upon you. That’s truly about the game, and in some ways that’s about life too.”

I believe that we are here today to celebrate this fact, more than anything else. The truth of a captain who took over a team, and taught it first of all to be true to the game and made it possible for the game to be true for the team. He also taught this team to ask every time more from the game, so that the game can give every time more to the team.

I believe that the fact that we have today a national team that makes us all proud, it is not simply because, unlike previous times, this team has achieved results unknown until now, but because these results are due to a new philosophy, the philosophy of being a team and living the game in a real way.

This is so true that even when we didn’t achieve any results, or when our expectations were betrayed at the last moment, as happened in the last game, we have been again grateful to the team, all together and without any hypocrisy. This is a special achievement of our coach, who has conveyed also to the public this big change, showing that the national team can win, can tie, can lose, but in any case it is true to the game, and therefore the game is true to it.

Since I was invited here as Prime Minister, but also as a former athlete, and since I used to play basketball and football, I will continue to quote Michael Jordan, because I again find a correspondence in one of his quotes: “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” Actually, I find these words very similar to what Gianni once said: “Who hesitates is lost.”

And the philosophy of my life, of Gianni’s, but also mine in this case, is that we must always try and improve what depends on our will. And in line with this philosophy, Michael Jordan has said: “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.”

All these do really make us feel today privileged, and I am convinced that Henri has privileged me as Prime Minister, for had he to pick a former athlete, he would have made a much better choice. But, since he was afraid that I wasn’t going to accept the invitation as Prime Minister, he added “because you are a former basketball player”.

However, this has given me the privilege to be here and pay my respects, not because I have to say the beautiful words required by this occasion, but the occasion was given to us to say the right words for a man who has made a difference not just on the football field, but has made a difference in our society, and gave us an indisputable proof that nothing is impossible where there is a leader, where there is a strategy and where there is a team.

In a letter that Gianni addressed to the boys of our national team, he writes: “You may be the first in the history of this nation, of your nation, of the nation of fathers and your mothers to qualify for a world championship. I have started to feel part of this nation was well. I am confident and I’m there with you.”

But, on the other hand, on the eve of a crucial match, I want to go back to the philosophy of Gianni de Biasi, according to which we can accept failure, but we can never accept not to try success.

The match with Serbia is obviously crucial to qualify, but it is also crucial for another reason, for making a difference in the game, for making a difference on the steps of the stadium. For making a difference not only to respect the coach and the boys in the field, but also to respect all those mothers and fathers which Gianni does never forget to remember to his boys, who deserve that not only the boys give their best in the field, but also those who will follow the match on the steps of the stadium must do their best to prove that we are different, and that we know how to respect not only our players, but also the opponent, that we can sing our anthem while respecting that of the opponent’s, that we are  that we know to face challenges with all our strength, while joining our efforts. And, no matter the outcome, after every showdown we have come out with dignity just as every mother and father of this nation would want us to, and just as the fathers who gave their lives for this nation would want us to. One nation around a national team that maintains its dignity in victory, tie or loss.

As Gianni does always say to his boys in the most difficult moments, in line with what Michael Jordan says: “Just play, have fun, enjoy the game.”

Gianni, I thank you from the heart. I want to thank your best part, your lady, because behind every successful man stands a great woman. I hope your daughter will keep up with you and your wife. Meanwhile, along with the minister we have started to think how to make it possible to convince your wife and your daughter to get an Albanian passport.

Thank you!

 

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The coach of the national football team Gianni De Biasi was honored today with the Doctor Honoris Causa degree. The tile was awarded by the European University of Tirana, approved by the Commission for the Assessment of Academic Titles of the Ministry of Education and Sports, with the motivation: “For extraordinary merits such as creativity, research, tactical discipline and hard work for the launch of our national Albanian team, perhaps the most successful one in the history of our football. For the special role that together with the national team, through his international successes, has qualitatively affected the image change of Albanians worldwide, by strongly contributing to the creation of a national feeling in different generations of Albanians at home and abroad, mainly among the youth, by bringing them closer to sport, and taking them away from the vices of the time we live. For his perseverance and trust in the boys of our national football team, and for having rediscovered through them the deep and beautiful sense of national pride. For creating the team spirit, with his talent and artistry, with a successful model of cooperation which does strongly rely on this spirit, which is in fact, the best model for the Albanian society itself.”