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| With Alex Duric ar the Coffee Bean at the Forum Shopping Mall. |
The
changing tides of Aleksandar Duric
by rick olivares
"Can I sail through the changing ocean
tides? Can I handle the seasons of my life?"
The lyrics of the Fleetwood Mac classic, ‘Landslide’, are apropos for Aleksandar Duric. “I am old like the song, yeah?” he joked.
The lyrics of the Fleetwood Mac classic, ‘Landslide’, are apropos for Aleksandar Duric. “I am old like the song, yeah?” he joked.
Singapore’s great striker sat in a
coffee shop along Orchard Road sipping some cappuccino. A few youngsters
entered rather noisily chattering about the things that occupy the minds of
kids these days. Duric couldn’t help but notice that one wore a shirt of AC
Milan while another had the colors of English club Chelsea.
“That’s the problem of kids today,”
pointed out Duric. “They have been seduced by the English Premier League, the
Serie A and other big leagues of Europe that they do not recognize their own.
Since the days of my youth, I have only rooted for one club – Red Star
Belgrade.” Duric, who plays for the Tampines Rovers in the S League, pointed
out how the internet, video games, and technology have made many Singaporean
youth less athletic or interested in sports. The S League which used to be
packed with crowds is nowadays lucky to pull a couple of hundred during
kickoff.
That evening, Tampines took on Japan’s
Albirex Niigata in the second leg of a quarterfinals series of the Singapore
Cup. There were a little over 200 fans in the stands. “You hardly see Singapore
youth wearing shirts of teams like Geylang, Gombak, Armed Forces…,” he
complained pointing out to the stands where some fans wore the colors of Real
Madrid and Chelsea as he made his way off to the dugout.
In a few weeks’ time, it will be the
20th anniversary of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. It is a significant
date for Aleksandar Duric who competed in the kayak event under the flag of the
newly born state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Yugoslavia was then disintegrating
in a horrific series of wars of secession and Aleksandar Duric, an ethnic Serb
who was born in Doboj, Bosnia, chose to represent the country of his birth. It
wasn’t a popular decision as Duric’s friends joined the Yugoslav and Serbian armies
that laid siege to Bosnia that was once the site of the Winter Olympics.
After the Olympics ended, Duric made
another life-changing decision, this time it was to switch from kayak to
football. The reason behind the decision was simpler: “There’s a better future
for me in football,” Duric said with a smile at a memory long unearthed. “The
war in my country scarred so many people myself included. That is why I hate
war and politics. They make life more complicated. Sometimes it’s more simple
to settle a matter with a ball and your boots.”
It seemed logical that Duric started
out as a goalkeeper as he stood at six-foot-four. “But it was boring,” he
stated and soon as to move to a field position where he was a defender. His
coaches noticed that he had a penchant for scoring goals and he soon moved to a
forward position. “The knock on me is I cannot shoot with my right.” But what a
powerful left foot! Since 1992, he has scored over 500 goals.
Duric bristles at the criticism that he
is nothing more than a highly paid mercenary for Singapore who was naturalized
to beef up the country’s national squad. In 1999, after a stint in Australia,
Duric’s agent asked if he was interested in playing in Singapore. He had been
to this country before but never thought that they had a football scene. Intrigued,
Duric briefly suited up for Tanjong Pagar United before returning to Australia.
However, he had impressed Singaporeans with his game that he was once more
offered another contract. He had enjoyed his brief stay in Southeast Asia and
going back wasn’t a difficult decision. This time around, Duric suited up for
Home United before moving over to Geylang United for a lengthier spell and
where his goal-scoring prowess was on full display. It was during this period
where his two children were born in Singapore. He personally sought citizenship
for his family but he was twice denied by immigration. “My family loves living
in Singapore and the S. League at that time was booming as we played to large
crowds,” he recalled. “Making a life here was a no-brainer.”
As he switched clubs to the Singapore
Armed Forces in 2007, many wondered why the S. League’s most lethal scorer –
and one who had lived there for quite some time already -- couldn’t suit up for
the country. “A journalist wrote about my situation and about a few days later,
I got a call from immigration that they would finally process my papers,” he
chuckled.
Duric never got any favors on
Singapore’s national squad even if it was coached by Serbian Radojko
Avramovich. “In my first game with the team, I was told that I had to earn my
place no matter what I had done in the S League. I was behind two players in
the order. A day before Singapore’s World Cup Qualifier against Tajikistan,
those two players got injured so I was told that I would start. I scored the
match’s two goals to give Singapore the victory. The rest as they say, ‘is
history.’”
“I don’t like being called a
foreigner,” he pointed out. “Yes, I am from Bosnia but I am also Singaporean.
Tell me who isn’t? This is a country built from many cultures Asian and
European. There are many immigrants here – Filipino, American, Japanese, Malay,
and others. If they look to Singapore to make their life and fortune then how
different are they from me?”
Duric admitted that his footballing
days are almost done. “But I will give you a scoop. I have not told this to any
journalist from Singapore but I will play one more year with Tampines then I am
done.” Duric is 40 years old and many of those he played alongside with have
retired. He has kept in marvelous shape by eating the right food and staying
away from vices. “In football, to be successful, it doesn’t just take hard work
and skill but also a little bit of luck. I think you also need a lot of
discipline.”
As his great career winds down, just
as it was all those years ago in the Balkans, Duric is thinking about his
future. In the last few years, he has gone into the logical next stage of his
career – coaching.
“Football has been good for me so it
is time to give back to the sport. Singapore has been good to my family and I
so it’s time to give back as well.”
As Duric entered the Coffee Bean shop
at the Forum Shopping Mall along Orchard Road, the baristas greeted him with
broad smiles and man hugs. Some of the patrons glanced up. One young Indian lad
in the table next to me paused from sipping his cold beverage and exclaimed,
“That’s Duric!”
His father looked up from his morning
paper and proclaimed, “Yes, and he is one of the world’s best strikers.”
Duric heard it and smiled. “It’s good
to be recognized because they know me as a national player. But what about the
others who are not on the national team? There are many good players in
Singapore. Now, we are thinking of ways to promote the S League. You know,
raising its profile. It’s a huge battle and I cannot be alone in this. Others
should help.
And once more Aleksandar Duric from
Singapore by way of Bosnia, is sailing through the changing tides.
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Have another piece this time with Duric's views on Philippine football. Watch for that.
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Have another piece this time with Duric's views on Philippine football. Watch for that.
Hurry up with the next piece Rick :-)
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