From Albania to Montenegro, One Judoka’s Road Trip Hits a Powerful Milestone

For more than four years, Julien has been building an unusual kind of world tour, one driven by judo, not sightseeing. His mission is simple but ambitious: travel from country to country, step into local dojos, train with athletes at every level and show how deeply judo connects people across borders.

His latest stretch took him back to the Balkans after a short detour to Croatia. With Montenegro and Albania next on his route, he headed south and, this time, made room for something personal too. After years of constant movement, he invited his mother to join him in Bari before they crossed by ferry to Albania together.

The trip did not go smoothly. Cancelled boats, new tickets and a night spent sleeping on chairs turned the crossing into what Julien described as a true nomadic experience. Still, they arrived and spent time discovering Albania’s landscapes and history, adding a family chapter to a journey that is usually defined by packed schedules and long roads.

In Shkoder, Julien visited the first judo club ever established in Albania. Judo is still in a developing phase there, with fewer than ten clubs in the country, and this was the only club that had contacted him.

What followed became one of the most emotional moments of his trip. The club’s founder, Anton, first discovered judo after leaving Albania during the hardest years of communism and finding work in Italy, Greece and Montenegro. When the regime ended, he returned home as a police officer, and people began asking him to teach this unfamiliar sport. That was how judo began in Albania.

Anton’s story did not stop there. In 2000, while preparing for the Olympic Games, he lost the use of his legs in an accident. Doctors gave him only months to live. Nearly 30 years later, he remains active and inspiring, while his sons now lead the club.

Some journeys are measured in medals, others in the people who refuse to give up.

Julien then crossed into Montenegro, where he worked with the national team and several clubs in Podgorica. The system there is more developed than in Albania, but the community is still small. He highlighted the work of coaches such as Ilija, who handles everything from “baby judo” to hobby groups to elite seniors, carrying responsibilities that are often split across multiple people in larger Western European structures.

Another memorable stop came in Kotor, where local coach Dejan Popovic had long encouraged Julien to visit. His dojo, set inside a small school amphitheatre, may be modest in size, but Julien found a strong atmosphere inside it. The students were disciplined, motivated and ready to learn.

The visit quickly grew beyond one club session. Dejan reached out to nearby teams, leading to a joint training with the Tivat club and an open seminar that brought together around 50 judoka.

In small dojos, the energy can feel enormous.

Montenegro became Julien’s 60th country on this judo journey, a milestone that says a lot about the scale of what he has built. Soon after, he returned to France for his birthday and to film the third episode of his series on the French performance system, a sharp contrast after training in much smaller spaces across the Balkans.

Now he is preparing for Spain and Portugal. Without a primary sponsor this year, he says every step needs more planning than before. Even so, the core idea has not changed: keep moving, keep adapting and keep discovering the world through judo.

Source: IJF.org

Image source: IJF / International Judo Federation