News | Sunday, 22 March 2009

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Malta’s ‘football gentleman’ given rousing send-off

Thousands gathered on Thursday to pay their last respects to Victor Tedesco, the emblematic former president and benefactor of Hamrun Spartans, was laid to rest in his home parish of San Gaetano after passing away on Tuesday at the age of 91.
Few names are as synonymous with local sports as Tedesco’s. He will be remembered mainly as the architect of Hamrun Spartans in the 1980s and 1990s, elevating his hometown’s humble club to become one of the best-known and most successful football teams in Maltese sport history. For a time he was also president of Msida St Joseph, and an inspiration to all Malta’s clubs.
Despite failing of late to recapture its former glories, Hamrun Spartans nonetheless remains in fifth place among Maltese teams for the number of honours and titles won: these include no fewer than seven Premier League championships, six FA trophies, and five Super Cups.
Under Tedesco’s presidency the club attracted some of the best players of its time - including the Refalo brothers, Alex Azzopardi, Joe Galea, Joe Brincat, Michael Degiorgio, Stefan Sultana and Ray ‘il-Mundu’ Vella. But Tedesco’s main ambition was for the Spartans to have a stadium of their own: a dream which many at the time considered unrealistic.
But the Victor Tedesco Stadium in Mile End nonetheless became a reality, attesting not only to the determination and honesty of a gentleman who was known to always keep his word; but also to the man’s ability to overcome hurdles and make the seemingly impossible come true.

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