He is one of the best football players in former Yugoslavia, born in Shtip from a Macedonian mother and a Montenegrin father, constantly promoting his birth town and country. He played his last match in Shtip where he managed to bring a number of football stars, and for this reason, people decided to initiate a procedure to place a monument for Dragoslav Sekularac-Seki, daily Dnevnik reads.
Shtip has produced Olympic athletes, winners of medals at top European contests, most often in wrestling and karate, but it has also yielded famous football players, and surely, the most famous among them is Dragoslav Sekularac Seki, who has left permanent mark in the world football in the last century. Sekularac was born 77 years ago in Shtip. The most known information is that Seki played his final game in Shtip in 1978 and that he always said positive things about his town and country of birth.
Six months ago, when Sekularac in a worsened health condition ended up in the hospital in Belgrade, where he lives and where he received two stents, several initiatives were launched by the residents of Shtip, to place a monument dedicated to Seki near the highschool. These days, at the book promotion of the Bregalnica football club, written by journalist Kiril Manev, it was suggested that Sekularac should be declared an honorary resident of Shtip. Artist Metodi Andonov prepared a draft version of the creative solution on the appearance of the monument, which also features and old ball which was used to play football before the War, while the initiative was announced on the social networks.
He scored his first goals by the Otinja River
"Seki, even when he was at the peak of his career, didn't forget to proudly say where he came from, but in Shtip, only one barber shop bearing his name serves as a reminder. The town should show him respect. I had the privilege to meet him during high school. We went to the same high school with his first cousin Ljubinka Korunovska. Several months after the World Championship in 1962 in Chile, at which Seki was the best player, Ljubinka told us at school that they were expecting Sekularac to come to visit them that afternoon. The entire class went to her house. Then I made a caricature portrait of him that I keep until this day, but I have also had it displayed at exhibitions," Andonov says.
In the book "I, Seki", published three years ago in Belgrade, Sekularac extensively speaks about his child days in his birth town. He was born in 1937. His father Bogosav was a Montenegrin from Berane, but he finished law school in Belgrade, and looking for job, he arrived in Shtip, where he met, fell in love and married Shtip-born Donka Markovska. Several months after little Dragoslav was born, they moved to Belgrade and then Coka, and in 1948 they returned to Belgrade again, where they stayed.
Recent image of one of the most famous football players on the Balkans, Dragoslav Sekularac -Seki. Photo:vebidoo.com
"I started getting to know my birth town of Shtip after the War, when I was around seven or eight. While I was in primary school, I would spend the summers in Shtip, visiting my grandmother Dragana, who besides my mother, I loved most in the world. My uncle Nikola Markovski passed on his passion for football. I loved to play the most along Otinja banks, which went dry during the summer time. I will always remember the residents of Shtip and the Macedonians as hardworking, modest and honest people. I feel nostalgic every time I remember those dear people, or if I'm in a restaurant I call for Macedonian songs. The ones I met later around the world were much more closed and selfish. I am happy that when I became a big name in football world, the residents of Shtip proudly pointed I was born there and that my mother was Macedonian," Sekularac tells in "I, Seki".
In the book, but in the numerous interviews he had, Sekularac regularly went back to the farewell game he played in Shtip on September 20, 1978, when he brought the New York Eagles, the club he was coaching at that time, as well as Eusebio, Edu Rildo and the Yugoslavians Caic, Cantrac, Klincarski… Seki then officially said goodbye to his long-running career, which saw 460 games played for Crvena Zvezda, eight years spent in Columbia, and ten years playing for the Yugoslav football representation.
Football players had to buy tickets
"I wanted to find a way to pay back my birth town. That was a football spectacle which Shtip has never seen before and it was the only thing I could do for my birth place. I paid the plane ticket and the hotel accommodation for all the football players and state officials who came. I expected to cover the costs with the sale of the tickets but it didn't turn out that way. I had to pay extra. In fact, I hardly do well with money and it's a good thing I became a football player, and not an accountant in a firm, or god forbid, a governor. But I don't feel sorry, a record number of people filled the Shtip stadium who still remember the great spectacle," Seki says.
"We can't forget that match. We knew it was organized and financed by Sekularac, so all of us from Bregalnica who played against the New York Eagles, boosted with world-rank football stars, bought tickets. Seki was a great name, the "White Pele", as he was called, and plus a Shtip-born, so all football players were rushing to take pictures with him, forgetting about the other stars. Me, as a resident of Shtip, I would feel so happy if the legendary Seki has a monument dedicated to him in Shtip, in the place where he played his first football steps," says Boris Cekov, who played for Bregalnica.
Until his mother died 12, 13 years ago, Seki often knew to come to Shtip to visit his relatives.
Coach Sekularac and Dragan Stojkovic. Photo: krajinaforce.com
Seki: Euzebio, the best football player in the world was born here
Besides being a famous football player, Sekularace was also known for his high spirits and temperament. There is an anecdote he tells in his autobiography and in a number of statements in January, when the great football star Euzebio died.
"Privately, Euzebio and I didn't spend much time together. We knew each other, respected ourselves and we were in good terms when our paths would cross. While he was still very famous, he came to play at my farewell game in Shtip. We went up the fortress, on the hill from where the entire town can be seen. I told him: "Euzebio, the best football player in the world was born in this town." When he looked at me with wonder, I calmly told him that Sekularac was born in Shtip", Seki tells.
- See more at: http://www.independent.mk/articles/12732/Stip+to+Honor+%22White%22+Pele#sthash.ICCgdq6J.dpuf
