- Dragoslav Šekularac
-
Dragoslav Šekularac
Драгослав Шекуларац
Personal information Full name Dragoslav Šekularac Date of birth November 8, 1937 Place of birth Štip, Kingdom of Yugoslavia Playing position Attacking Midfielder Senior career* Years Team Apps† (Gls)† 1955–1966 Red Star Belgrade 153 (32) 1966–1967 Karlsruher SC 17 (2) 1967 St. Louis Stars 8 (1) 1968 OFK Beograd 1968–1969 Independiente Santa Fe 1969–1970 Millonarios 1971–1972 América de Cali 1973 Paris FC 1975–1976 Serbian White Eagles National team 1956–1966 FPR Yugoslavia 41 (6) Teams managed OFK Mladenovac 1984–1985 Guatemala 1986 Footscray JUST 1989–1990 Red Star Belgrade 1990–1991 Club América 1996 Busan Daewoo Royals 1998–2000 FK Obilić 2006 Serbian White Eagles HonoursMen's Football Competitor for 
YugoslaviaOlympic Games Silver 1956 Melbourne Team European Championship Silver 1960 France Team * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).Dragoslav Šekularac (Serbian Cyrillic: Драгослав Шекуларац) (born November 30, 1937 in Štip, Vardar Banovina, Kingdom of Yugoslavia is a Serbian former football player and coach.
Known locally by the nickname Šeki, he was quick and crafty with the ball, displaying creative skills that turned a lot of heads. Possessing supreme self-confidence along with impeccable technical ability, he was one of the biggest showmen and crowd draws in the history of Yugoslav football. His enormous popularity throughout FPR Yugoslavia during early 1960s transcended sports as he easily became one of the most recognizable individuals in the country.
Šekularac is considered one of the most important players in the history of Red Star Belgrade, he is one of only five players to have been awarded the Zvezdine zvezde.
Šekularac is also remembered as the perpetrator of an infamous on-pitch incident in fall 1962 when he assaulted a referee in the middle of the league match. He ended up serving a year and a half long suspension.
In addition to the swelling of praise and accolades for his skills, he also attracted criticism over lack of team play and overall attitude on the pitch that some found to be disrespectful to the game.[1] Others point to his lack of effectiveness and a seeming disproportion between his talent and his overall career statistics.[2]
Contents
Early life
Šekularac was born to Serbian father Bogoslav hailing from Vasojevići clan in northern Montenegro and mother Donka from Macedonia. His father was a lawyer whose job took him to Štip where he got married and started a family. Dragoslav was an infant when the family moved to Belgrade due to his father getting a job at the Ministry of Justice.[3]
He took up football very early, right after World War II ended, and came up through the Red Star Belgrade youth system.
Club career
Red Star Belgrade
Šekularac made his senior debut at only 17 years of age on March 6, 1955 during the latter part of Red Star's 1954/55 league campaign under head coach Milovan Ćirić. The youngster would record only one more league appearance by the end of that season.
However, the next season, 1955/56, signaled immediate breakthrough. In addition to establishing himself as the first team player, he also became an integral part of the squad that won the Yugoslav league title in convincing fashion. He contributed to the cause with 7 goals in addition to many eye catching midfield displays that would soon become a staple of his game.
By the start of 1956/57 season, Šekularac already had a senior national team debut under his belt. And in November and December he represented FPR Yugoslavia at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Despite added pressures and responsibilities, he turned in another stellar league season helping Red Star to another title. He also played an important part in Red Star's European Champions' Cup campaign that ended at semi-final stage versus AC Fiorentina.
All the success led to coach Ćirić receiving and taking SS Lazio head coaching offer. In his place came Miša Pavić who previously mentored Šekularac in the club's youth setup. The season was not much of a success, however, either team wise or for Šekularac individually. Increased opponents' defensive focus multiplied the number of hits and knocks he was forced to endure during games. He battled injury problems that caused him to miss almost half of the season as Red Star quickly fell out of title contention.
Though the next 1958/59 season brought continued injury issues, Šekularac, by now a bona fide star across the league, managed to lead his team to league-cup double, both at the expense of arch rival FK Partizan.
He ended up playing 375 official competitive matches (156 of those in the league) for Red Star and scoring over 119 goals (32 league goals). He later played for Independiente Santa Fe in Colombia for five seasons, before transferring to Millonarios from Bogotá and ending his playing career in the German Bundesliga with Karlsruher SC.
At only 18, he made his national team debut on September 30, 1956. He was on the national side that won the silver medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, and also participated in the World Cups of 1958 and 1962. He went on to make 41 senior international appearances, scoring 6 goals.
As a coach, he was in front of several clubs in Colombia, Australia, Serbia, Mexico, and Spain. Between 1984 and 1985, he coached the Guatemala national team in the 1986 World Cup qualification process.
Along with Serbian, English and Spanish, Šekularac also speaks conversational Portuguese.[4] Šekularac retired in 2007 and lives in Belgrade, Serbia.
In popular culture
- Šekularac was probably the first sports superstar in Yugoslavia whose fame transcended sporting bounds. The popularity he enjoyed during his playing heyday was such that he even starred in a 1962 full-length comedy feature Šeki snima, pazi se - a football-related movie built around his public persona.
- Being a superstar in Yugoslavia, the trappings of sudden fame didn't pass him by. He dated models and actresses and often aggressively displayed his status in public, all of which Yugoslav sports figures seldom engaged in up to that point. He once famously wiped his own shoes with dinar bills in public.[5]
- In 1959 after winning the league and cup double with Red Star, Italian industrialist Gianni Agnelli spared no expense in order to bring 21-year-old Šekularac to Juventus. The transfer was reportedly stopped by the highest echelons of communist nomenclature in FPR Yugoslavia, with even the interior minister Aleksandar Ranković commenting that Šeki is needed in the country to "entertain the working class".[6]
- In 2006, a biography of Šekularac titled Čovek za sva vremena (The All-Time Man) by Dušan Popović was published in Belgrade.
References
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ Slao sam bekove „u jagode“, Blic, March 29, 2009
- ^ Vujčić (2006-10-05). "Serbian White Eagles 2006 CSL Quarterfinal". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wMI2cmHp_k. Retrieved 2011-06-10.
- ^ SRPSKI FUDBAL - Od Montevidea do Dejana Stankovića;Press, 26 December 2010
- ^ SRPSKI FUDBAL - Od Montevidea do Dejana Stankovića;Press, 26 December 2010
External links
Yugoslavia squad – 1956 Summer Olympics Silver Medalists Antić • Biogradlić • Koščak • Krstić • Lipošinović • Mujić • Papec • Popović • Radenković • Radiljević • Radović • Šantek • Šekularac • Spajić • Veselinović • Vidinić • Vidošević • Coach: Ćirić
Yugoslavia squad – 1958 FIFA World Cup 1 Beara • 2 Krivokuća • 3 Šijaković • 4 Crnković • 5 Tomić • 6 Zebec • 7 Miloš Milutinović • 8 Krstić • 9 Boškov • 10 Šantek • 11 Popović • 12 Petaković • 13 Veselinović • 14 Milorad Milutinović • 15 Šekularac • 16 Pašić • 17 Rajkov • 18 Lipošinović • 19 Ognjanović • 20 Irović • 21 Radović • 22 Jerković • Coach: TirnanićYugoslavia squad – 1960 European Nations' Cup Runners-up Yugoslavia squad – 1962 FIFA World Cup Fourth Place 1 Šoškić • 2 Durković • 3 Jusufi • 4 Radaković • 5 Marković • 6 Popović • 7 Anković • 8 Šekularac • 9 Jerković • 10 Galić • 11 Skoblar • 12 Krivokuća • 13 Svinjarević • 14 Šijaković • 15 Matuš • 16 Mujić • 17 Melić • 18 Kovačević • 19 Stojanović • 20 Nikolić • 21 Stipić • 22 Ivoš • Coach: Lovrić & MihajlovićGuatemala national football team – Elliott (1935) · Carrera (1946) · Cevasco (1948) · Palomini (1950) · Aguirre (1953) · Cuevas (1955–57) · Cevasco (1960–61) · Geronazzo (1961) · Viccino (1965) · Amorín (1967) · Viccino (1968–69) · Ausina Tur (1969) · Faraone (1971) · Geronazzo (1971–72) · Amorín (1972) · Valdez Moraga (1972) · Amorín (1976) · Cavagnaro (1976) · Wellman (1976) · Romero (1979) · Amorín (1980) · Cavagnaro (1983) · Šekularac (1984–85) · Cortés (1987) · Roldán (1988) · Amorín (1989–90) · Cordón (1991) · Brindisi (1992) · Roldán (1995) · Verón (1996) · Cordero (1996) · Brindisi (1997–98) · Bilardo & Manera (1998) · Monterroso (1999) · Miloc (2000) · Cortés (2000–03) · Aguado (2003) · Maradiaga (2004–05) · Gómez (2006–08) · Maradiaga (2008) · Monterroso (2008–09) · Almeida (2010–) Red Star Belgrade – managers (c) caretakerGlišović (1946–48) · Tomašević (1948–50) · Broćić (1951) · Mihajlović (1952–53) · Sekulić (1953) · Broćić (1953) · Ralić (1953–54) · Ćirić (1954–57) · Pavić (1957–64) · Toplak (1964–66) · Miljanić (1966–74) · Mihić (1974–75) · Ćirić (1975–76) · Zec (1976–78) · Stanković (1978–81) · Ostojić (1981–83) · Zec (1983–86) · Vasović (1986–88) · Stanković (1988–89) · Šekularac (1989–90) · Lj. Petrović (1990–91) · Popović (1991–92) · Živadinović (1992–94) · Lj. Petrović (1994–96) · V. Petrović (1996–97) · Lazarević (1997) · Kosanović (1997–98) · Lazarević (1998–99) · Ostojić (1999) · Radić (1999c) · Muslin (1999–01) · Filipović (2001–03) · Muslin (2003–04) · Lj. Petrović (2004) · Rajevac (2004c) · Dostanić (2004–05) · Zenga (2005–06) · Bajević (2006–07) · Đurovski (2007) · Kosanović (2007) · Janković (2007–08) · Zeman (2008) · Janevski (2008–09) · V. Petrović (2009–10) · Dostanić (2010) · Kristić (2010) · Prosinečki (2010–)
Categories:- 1937 births
- Living people
- People from Štip
- Serbian footballers
- Serbian football managers
- Red Star Belgrade footballers
- Karlsruher SC players
- OFK Beograd players
- Millonarios footballers
- América de Cali footballers
- Paris FC players
- 1958 FIFA World Cup players
- UEFA Euro 1960 players
- 1962 FIFA World Cup players
- Olympic footballers of Yugoslavia
- Olympic silver medalists for Yugoslavia
- Footballers at the 1956 Summer Olympics
- Yugoslav footballers
- Yugoslavia international footballers
- Yugoslav football managers
- North American Soccer League players
- Saint Louis Stars players
- Macedonian people of Serbian descent
- Red Star Belgrade managers
- Club América managers
- Serbian expatriates in South Korea
- Expatriate footballers in Germany
- Expatriate football managers in South Korea
- Guatemala national football team managers
- Romani footballers
- Olympic medalists in football
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