Lolly Debattista

Emmanuel Debattista (born December 21, 1929 ), better known as Lolly Debattista , is a former Maltese football player in the position of defender . He was the first player to be voted Footballer of the Year in Malta in the 1954/55 season . After the end of his active career, Debattista worked for many years as a coach .

career

society

Debattista began his career with Floriana Ajax ; a youth team that was affiliated with FC Floriana in the 1948/49 season . After some of the young men were involved in two prestigious victories against Floriana's arch-rival Sliema Wanderers (including a 5-0), they made the leap into the first team permanently.

Debattista played during his entire active career, which he ended in 1967, at FC Floriana and won the Maltese football championship seven times and the cup competition nine times with the "Evergreens" .

National team

On June 28, 1962 Debattista played the very first international match of the Maltese national team in an official tournament: a European Championship qualifier against Denmark , which was lost 6-1.

Trainer

Debattista began his coaching activities in the youth division of his long-term club FC Floriana and later was assistant coach of the first team under the leadership of his cousin Lolly Borg , who was Footballer of the Year in Malta in the 1961/62 season .

1975 Debattista was head coach of the Ħamrun Spartans , with whom he immediately succeeded in promotion to the first division in the 1975/76 season. In December 1976 he was signed by Valletta FC , with whom he reached the cup finals twice in a row against his former club Floriana and won in both cases. He also won the championship title with the "Citizens" in the 1977/78 season .

He later worked as a coach for St. Patrick FC and Senglea Athletics . He also coached FC Floriana again and in the early 1990s the Ħamrun Spartans, with whom he won the Maltese Cup and the Supercup in 1992. Even in old age he worked as a masseur in the youth division of FC Floriana.

successes

As a player

• Maltese Championship : 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1958, 1962
• Maltese Cup Winner : 1950, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1961, 1966, 1967
• Malta's Footballer of the Year : 1957

As a trainer

• Maltese champion: 1978
• Maltese Cup Winner: 1977, 1978, 1992

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Profile at Scoreshelf.com ( Memento of the original from November 9, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

Web links

• The Story of Lolly Debattista: First player to be awarded the Footballer of the Year award by the MFA (article from October 18, 2005)
• Lolly Debattista in the database of weltfussball.de