Amateurs loyal John Delia passes away

Melita’s list of honours includes the names of some of the greatest amateur personalities in the history of Maltese football.

Gianni Bencini, and his sons Karl, George and Victor, Joe Griffiths, Victor Vassallo, Lewis Spiteri, Salvu Borg, Ronnie Tabone and Peter Galea were among those who donned the Melita colours.

Yesterday, the famous amateur club lost another of its loyal sons when the death of John Delia was announced.

Delia who was born in 1939 and played for Melita between 1959 and 1973 when he was forced to retire after sustaining an injury.

During this period, Delia played 330 matches for Melita and scored 85 goals.

He started playing in 1946 at St Aloysius College where he be-friended Frank Bonello who at the time was a Floriana footballer.

Bonello persuaded Delia to sign for the Greens and in 1954-55, he made his debut for the first team at outside right.

Delia was later converted to centre-half with much success. During his first season with Floriana, he was selected to play for the MFA U-20 XI on seven occasions.

By 1956-57, Delia had established himself as a regular at Floriana, winning a coveted FA Trophy medal.

The Fifties were troublesome years for Maltese football though.

Violence was ripe at the stadium and, at one time, things got so bad that Delia’s parents stopped him from playing football.

This seemed to be the end of Delia’s career. However, in June 1959 he signed for Melita on amateur forms. At the time, the Ama-teurs were languishing in the Third Division. This, however, did not stop Delia from giving his whole-hearted support to the team.

In 1961-62, Melita won promotion and followed that with another up to the First Division.

Delia had a fine season in the top flight even though Melita were relegated. He finished as the club’s top scorer with 12 goals.

During this period Delia was at the peak of his career. He was approached by more glamorous clubs but never succumbed to the temptation.

Ever loyal to Melita, he kept up the good work until he suffered the fatal injury which forced him out of the game at the age of 34.

Delia was the perfect amateur. Unselfish and loyal, he went on to break every record in Melita’s history books.