ΦΚ Εγνατία
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Wikipedia - KF Egnatia
Klub Futboll Egnatia is an Albanian professional football club that plays its home matches in Rrogozhinë. The club competes in the Kategoria Superiore, the top tier of Albanian football. The club plays at the Demrozi Stadium, which has a capacity of 4,000 spectators.
The club was founded on 15 September 1934 under the name 22 Shtatori Rrogozhinë, and in 1991, the name of the club was changed to Vullneti Rrogozhinë, before renaming to its current name KS Egnatia Rrogozhinë in 1998.
History
The passion and desire for the game of football was integrated into the hearts of local citizens and patriots since the early years of World War I. Rrogozhinë being neighbours to Kavajë, a city with a long tradition in football on a national level knew how to use this experience to its own advantage by forming initially an amateur level team which would later go on to compete in the second division of Albanian football. The very first match in club history was a friendly between Besa in 1934 which ended in a 1–7 loss. Mustafa Cara, a student of agronomy in Bari, Italy who had returned home for vacation (he was a player for Fidelis Andria, a Serie B club in Italy at the time), scored 5 goals for Besa.
Following the liberation of the country after World War II, the league structure changed by allowing only district level teams to compete in the top two divisions. This made it difficult for Rrogozhinë, a locality at the time, to compete on a national level.
Egnatia had one season in the top tier of Albanian football after winning promotion in summer 2004. They were only relegated on the first attempt, with Alfred Ferko succeeding Hysen Dedja and Petrit Haxhia as first team coach during the season.
Recent years
Egnatia were promoted back to the top flight of Albanian football, the Kategoria Superiore, for the second time in their history on 2 May 2021, following a 1–0 victory over local rivals Besa Kavajë in the Promotion Round of the 2020–21 Kategoria e Parë. Under head coach Gugash Magani, they finished top of Group B during the regular season and qualified for the Promotion Round, where they also finished top, securing their place in the championship final held on 21 May 2021 against the winners of Group A, Dinamo Tirana, where they won 1–0 through a stoppage-time winner from Ndriçim Shtubina.