Former Malta international footballer JOE CILIA had lost his mother when he was still one and a half years old. That meant he had a tough life when he was young although his father did his best to bring him up as best he could. In fact, Joe used to ‘live’ at the Rabat club until his father returned from work in the evening. It was from there that his love for the game of football really started and, once he took it seriously, he never looked back as he became a top local footballer, becoming a Malta international and going on to win the Footballer of the Year award twice before leaving for an eight-year spell in Australia with Melita Eagles. Later he returned to Malta where he also had lots of successes in the coaching field. Here he tells his story to Henry Brincat
Joe Cilia of Rabat and Valletta fame used to hit the headlines regularly in Malta in the 1950s and early 1960s, first as a Rabat Ajax footballer and then as a Valletta FC centre half.
It is a well known fact that in those times, local footballers were ‘honoured’ to pay for their own kit to be able to play for their teams – quite a different situation to that of today where players are provided with everything they require.
“It is interesting to tell this story to the younger generation. I compare it to the story of Cinderella. And it shows how I managed to buy my first pair of football boots. The barman at the Rabat club had tried to help me because I used to lend him a hand with the washing of the glasses. He gave me a bottle of whisky and told me to ask members who frequented the club regularly to take part in a raffle. The bottle cost Lm1.50 in those days, but I managed to collect about Lm4.50. The barman only wanted the cost of the bottle so I made a profit of Lm3. Another friend then took me to Hamrun to Anglu taz-Zraben and there I ordered my first boots which I paid with those Lm3 I had earned from the raffle,” said Joe Cilia.
Joe, who showered praise on his wife Mary for being so patient with him throughout his long career, first as a player and later as a coach, said it was Rabat coach Paddy Sloane who had picked him after watching him play in a Colleges final. “I started playing with the Rabat seniors side when I was not yet 17. In my second year, I was even selected to play for the MFA Selection in my first matches against foreign teams, Akademisk and Vojvodina. In 1956-1957 I joined Valletta when I was only 19 years. Sliema also wanted me as Ray Edwards had left for Canada. But it was my wife Mary, who hails from Valletta, who convinced me to give first preference to Valletta. Then came the first international for Malta in February 1957. That was a wonderful day for me. I was the only player from Valletta in the side. The others hailed equally from Sliema and Floriana. We lost to Austria 2-3 but we played a great match.
“In those days we did not play many internationals. But a few years later, we beat Denmark 3-0,” he said.
Cilia’s long road towards success started in season 1958-1959 when he helped Valletta win the league title. “That was my first league championship win. Valletta had not won the title for 11 years. Later I also won it again the following year and in 1962-1963, following which I also played for Valletta in their debut in the European Cup, against Dukla Prague, who included the great Masopust and Kucera among their ranks,” he said.
Cilia won the coveted Footballer of the Year Award twice, first in 1957-1958 and then in 1963-1964. “I am very proud I won this award twice. In fact, I became the first player to have won it twice. Who knows, I might have won it a third time had I not opted to emigrate to Australia,” he added.
He considers the Valletta team of the 1958-1963 era as one of the strongest ever. “It included top players like Irish goalkeeper Tommy Taylor, Jackie Grech, Charles Mackay, Josie Urpani, Mario Azzopardi, Frankie Zammit, Alfred ‘Wanese’ Borg and all the others. I think all these players would find it easy to play Premier football today, but today’s players would find it difficult to make it to the starting line-up in a team of those days,” he said.
Cilia also recalled that he had been an influential member of the Malta Youths team that took part in a tournament in San Remo in 1956. “We lost 1-0 to Vienna suffering the goal from a penalty and then we obtained a creditable 1-1 draw against Carling Boys with our scorer being Paul Said. I was honoured to have been voted best full back (I played in that position) in the tournament, even getting a better vote than the more quoted Guarneri. For this tournament, we had to pay for our uniforms, except for the tie which was provided by the MFA,” said Joe.
He then spoke about his spell in Australia as a player coach with Melita Eagles. “It was in my second year that we won promotion with the help of former Austrian international Karl Jaros. I was honoured to have been voted Best Player of New South Wales (second division), but I was also voted twice as the Melita Eagles Player of the Year. They had a big following at that time with crowds averaging between four and six thousand. Another honour for me over there was when I was selected to play in a Foreigners’ team against the Australian Selection which had to take part in the 1974 World Cup.”
In Sydney, where Melita Eagles are still based today, there were also other Maltese players who played alongside Cilia. “These included Mario Azzopardi, a former team-mate at Valletta, Lolly Azzopardi, Alfred Chircop, formerly of Msida and Alfred Dayney, formerly of Sliema. Later there was also Freddie Falzon. To carry out my duties (as a coach and player) I had to travel 35 miles. However, a cartilage and hernia operation seemed to have cut short my career in Australia, as I had to stop for eight months. But I started again with Sunderland, though in 1972 I was back in Malta, where I continued my career with Valletta for another two years. Valletta had not taken part in a European club competition since 1964, but on my return, we qualified and we were drawn to play against the mighty Inter,” he said.
In the mid-1970s he had an offer to continue playing with St Patrick, but he decided to quit playing and turned his eyes on coaching. He started with Siggiewi. After that, he had spells with several clubs, among them Vittoriosa, Qormi, St Patrick, Floriana, Sliema, Valletta, Rabat, Birkirkara, Hibernians and Zurrieq, ending as a head coach of the latter club’s nursery.
During that career, he never failed. “I am proud to say that wherever I went, I always reached my goal, whether it was avoiding relegation, promotion or winning titles and other honours. I must also add that in 1962, while I was a player of Valletta in the first division, I also coached the Rabat team in the second division and I led them to win promotion to the first division,” he said.
He also had his number of disappointments. “The biggest two were those when I had an argument with goalie Jeff Wood when Rabat were playing at Porto in Portugal – I had to resign. The other was in season 1961-1962 when I was substituted by Valletta in a match against Sliema. I thought it was hugely unfair, and I still rank that as a black spot in my career,” he said.
Mr Cilia also described as a “big game” his contribution to the Under 23 side in a creditable 1-1 draw against Italy C in 1957 at the Gzira Stadium. “I had a good time against centre forward Virgili, then considered as one of the brightest prospects in Italian football,” he added.
Cilia played against several top European players of that era and those included Wagner of Austria, Vinicio of Napoli, Marcellino of Zaragoza, Virgili of Fiorentina, Zaravagos of Greece and Boninsegna of Inter. Among the locals he mentioned such greats as Tony Cauchi of Floriana, Jockey Xuereb of Sliema, Alfred ‘Steak’ Abela of Marsa and Charles Chircop of Birkirkara.
To conclude, Cilia also played for Melita FC in the Amateur League in 1956 and with the Salesian Youths of Gozo in April 1958. He also guested for Hamrun amateur club FC Thiene in the early 1950s.