He doesn’t need to be here.

He doesn’t need to return to the monotonous travel, the ardous training, the inescapable stress and pressure of elite competition but it’s what he loves the most. He is Marco MADDALONI. A judoka turned reality TV star turned judoka, MADDALONI, made a surprise return to the top-level judo on Friday was he ended a four-year lay-off to represent Albania at the Budapest Grand Prix. The long-time Italian international, who held European u23 Championships titles in 2004 and 2005, has rose to stardom in his homeland in recent years after proving to be a major hit on reality TV shows Isola dei Famosi and Pekin Express. MADDALONI faced long-time rival, 38-year-old UNGVARI Miklos (HUN), on his return and gave a good account of himself as he narrowly lost in the closing seconds with a last-gasp waza-ari score from the Hungarian ending the former’s day by 11am.

“I have not been in this environment for four years, but this is where I belong and this is who I am, I am a judoka,” he told the IJF Media Team in the warm-up area after giving a pep talk to 21-year-old Giovanni ESPOSITO (ITA) – who also hails from Naples - who had just lost out to living legend EBINUMA Masashi (JPN). “Four years ago, the situation was out of my hands, it was matters off the mat, and I’m here to fight and I’ll be the one to decide when my career ends. “I have a gym business at home, I have had a good time doing reality TV shows and now I have nonstop offers for work and appearances. “I owed it to myself, and to my love for judo, to put my judogi back on and to return to the mat because this is my first passion.

“I turned down a lot of opportunities to be here and it was an easy decision. For me judo is the perfect sport. I’ve experienced first hand and all of may family have as well, how this beautiful sport can change societies, can give opportunities to people to turn their lives around and to live out their dreams. “When I left to go to Honduras for a three-month stay on an island for TV, the last thing I said at the airport to my wife was, please, my only hope, is for you to take our daughter to judo every week while I’m away.”

MADDALONI, the younger brother of Sydney 2000 Olympic champion Giuseppe MADDALONI, 43, who is in Budapest as an IJF Referee Supervisor, put his body and mind through a new challenge in his latest TV show as his body weight went down to -63kg. “On this island we only had 20 grams of rice and I lost so much weight. It was a different kind of challenge but a valuable one for me. “I’ve been back in training for this event for two weeks and I feel that was the difference today against UNGVARI who is a great champion. I didn’t have the right feeling, the right sensation in the closing seconds when he scored against me. “I’ll work hard to get this back but I’m pleased to be back and I’m looking to compete now at the Zagreb Grand Prix, the World Championships and to be in my absolute best condition by the time of the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam in October.” The return of MADDALONI captured the attention of all of the fans and the media in the building and watching around the world but raised a few eyebrows as he did so under the flag of Albania. “Albania is very close to me, I’ve been there a lot and I feel a lot of similarities with Scampia.