Besa Kavajë

The town waited more than eighty years for a major trophy, and finally got one in 2006/07, when Besa beat Teuta 3-2 in the Albanian Cup final. Three years' worth of near misses came earlier, in the 1960s and 70s, all lost — to Partizani, on penalties to 17 Nëntori, to Dinamo, and again on penalties in a final that had finished 2-2. The Supercup followed the same pattern that same year: a 2-4 defeat to Tirana. In the league itself, Besa never climbed higher than second, back in 1957/58.

Besa's academy has sent more players to the national team than its trophy cabinet might suggest. Andi Lila captained the side that reached Euro 2016, having come up through the club before more than 150 appearances in Greece with PAS Giannina, and Sokol Cikalleshi made the same tournament after his own start in Kavajë. Further back, Altin Rraklli left home to become the first Albanian to play in the Bundesliga and finished his international career as the country's record scorer, with 11 goals.

None of them are the name people in Kavajë reach for first, though. That's Kamil Teliti, who played for Besa at the end of the 1930s and scored the winning goal for Albania in the 1946 Balkan Cup final — the one result from that era the town still talks about.