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Inside the Hermit Kingdom: Football Stories from Stalinist Albania
Inside the Hermit Kingdom charts the history of Albanian football from 1945 to 1991, when the country was ruled by modern Europe's most brutal and oppressive regime.
The book features a chronology of Albanian football history interspersed with iconic games that shaped the nation's favourite sport. It details the matchday experience in Stalinist Albania, tells the story of a league footballer during the regime years and charts the growth of street football in Hoxhaist Tirana.
You'll read about the demise of 'The Party' and Stalinism in Albania and the effects their disintegration had on football, peering beyond 1991 into a future riddled with conflict, uncertainty and, oddly, hope.
The era is brought to life by the accounts of Albanians who lived through it, which capture the importance of football to a populace starved of any other source of communal enjoyment. The otherworldliness and innate cruelty of the Stalinist regime provide a terrifying backdrop to their tales.
The book features a chronology of Albanian football history interspersed with iconic games that shaped the nation's favourite sport. It details the matchday experience in Stalinist Albania, tells the story of a league footballer during the regime years and charts the growth of street football in Hoxhaist Tirana.
You'll read about the demise of 'The Party' and Stalinism in Albania and the effects their disintegration had on football, peering beyond 1991 into a future riddled with conflict, uncertainty and, oddly, hope.
The era is brought to life by the accounts of Albanians who lived through it, which capture the importance of football to a populace starved of any other source of communal enjoyment. The otherworldliness and innate cruelty of the Stalinist regime provide a terrifying backdrop to their tales.
288 pages, Paperback
Published July 2, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 18, 2024
A must-read if you have an interest in Albanian football and/or 20th century Albanian social history. A challenging read if you have neither 😊
It does suffer from endless names of footballers and teams, and reams of match results and statistics, a proof read wouldn't have hurt, and the author's obvious disdain for any brand of socialism comes through very strongly (albeit it's very hard to offer any justification for Enver Xoxha's unique implementation of this political theory).
But hidden in there are some very entertaining stories of some great characters who thrived despite poverty, suppression and political interference, and some barely credible tales of what the regime did to sway matches and championships towards their favoured teams, and the lengths it went to to protect and manipulate the overseas image of the 'Hermit Kingdom'. And it ends on a note of hope as Albania prepared to compete in Euro 2024.
It does suffer from endless names of footballers and teams, and reams of match results and statistics, a proof read wouldn't have hurt, and the author's obvious disdain for any brand of socialism comes through very strongly (albeit it's very hard to offer any justification for Enver Xoxha's unique implementation of this political theory).
But hidden in there are some very entertaining stories of some great characters who thrived despite poverty, suppression and political interference, and some barely credible tales of what the regime did to sway matches and championships towards their favoured teams, and the lengths it went to to protect and manipulate the overseas image of the 'Hermit Kingdom'. And it ends on a note of hope as Albania prepared to compete in Euro 2024.
May 23, 2025
A fantastic read.
Phil brings out the history of a country so secluded that this probably was an impossible mission in gathering information.
Yet, the details are so mesmerizing that they bring football, lives of those who played it and run it, and the other people who dictated these lives in the most ferocious ways.
A remarkable adventure to be lived on while reading it!
Phil brings out the history of a country so secluded that this probably was an impossible mission in gathering information.
Yet, the details are so mesmerizing that they bring football, lives of those who played it and run it, and the other people who dictated these lives in the most ferocious ways.
A remarkable adventure to be lived on while reading it!
October 14, 2024
Excellent book, also some good social history of Albania during those years showing where football fitted in.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews