Old School

BORA MILUTINOVIĆ, INTERCONTINENTAL FOOTBALL LEGEND
Raftsman from the Drina
The famous house on the rock in the middle of the river near Bajina Bašta is his cabin. That is where he always returns, for decades now. He is considered a historical person in China, he was awarded with the ”Aztec Sparrowhawk” order in Mexico and with ”Karađorđe’s Star” in Serbia. While his plane circled low over Costa Rica, people welcomed him by sending reflections of the Sun with mirrors. (…) Even now, in faraway lands, he is happy when he dreams about his Tara and the raft floating down the cascades. He is honorable citizen of Bajina Bašta. The local sports center is called ”The Milutinović Brothers” and the stadium after his famous brother ”Miloš Milutinović”

By: Svetlana Miljanić
Photo: Personal archive

Bora came to Belgrade from Bor. He played 210 games for ”Partizan” and scored 122 goals. He won two Yugoslav Champion titles (1963, 1965), and vice champion of Europe (1966). He also played in Switzerland, France, Mexico. As coach, he took five different national teams to World Championships (Mexico, Costa Rica, USA, Nigeria, China).
He is ambassador of the World Cup in Qatar 2022.
He spoke recently for National Review in Doha.

Bašta. I believe in fate which determined my place of birth and gifts of nature which directed me towards sport. I was born on September 7, 1944, in Bajina Bašta, in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. I am sure that Bajina Bašta is responsible for my two brothers and I becoming football players, later club and national team coaches. In my youth, the most popular person in our town was priest Beli. He, of course, buried, baptized, wed, but he was also the referee and local team coach. Beli was particularly respected because of football.
One can realize what Bajina Bašta is only if they live there, if they belong to it. They say that, when God created the world, he first gave air, then water and fire. We have all those God’s gifts: air is our Tara, water is the Drina, and fire is the temper of our people. For example, only in our lands we play double tablets. That’s a real game! When I say ”in our lands”, I’m thinking of the area around Užice. Those who can play double tablets will be successful in life. It’s a great mental exercise.
I have learned so much in Bajina Bašta, developed a passion for life, which one realizes already as a child, through playing games, running after a rag ball… Whoever rafted the Drina, when the Drina was the Drina, cannot be afraid of anything in life. I was happy when a reporter from the States, who wrote about me, compared me with a rafter who passed many cascades and succeeded in bringing the wood to calmer waters. That text provoked a storm of unerasable memories inside of me… I lived in Bajina Bašta only five years, because, after my mother passed away in 1948, aunt Draga and uncle Milan, who didn’t have their own children, took me to Bor. There I lived fifteen years.
We – four brothers, Miloš, Milorad, Velibor, Milan and sister Milena – lost our parents very early. Father Obrad was killed by the chetniks, and mother Darinka, as people used to tell, died of sorrow. Aunt Draga and uncle Milan already accepted Miloš and Milorad after my father’s death, and then me, the youngest one. Brother Milan and sister Milena stayed with my grandmother Darinka in Bajina Bašta.

Returns. Wherever I was working throughout the world, I visited Bajina Bašta at least once a year, the Drina, Tara, those gifts of God which gave me strength. However, whenever I come to my town, sad memories of the war, many deaths, exoduses when my sister Milena was carrying me, come to mind. All the neighbors from my street have died. I don’t know anyone except my family. My nephew has a boat we use to float down the Drina, but I also feel sorrow during the ride because I know how it used to be. The promenade is also gone, where children came to stroll and socialize.
My Bajina Bašta and my family there are the foundations upon which I last. The famous cabin on the rock in the middle of the Drina is ours. I don’t know anyone in Belgrade, only people from our embassy in Doha. I don’t have anyone from my football world, I’m not in contact with anyone from the Football Association of Serbia. That’s how it is. Only my fellow countryman Zvonimir Boban calls me – I say fellow countryman because we were born in the same country, former Yugoslavia. Out of respect for me and my work, he suggested me for the FIFA Technical Commission. I’m glad he remembered me. Being where I thought I should have been doesn’t mean anything, it’s important what others think. I’d have a lot to say about it, but… You’ll read my book, I’m still writing it.

Before. I started playing football in Bor. Then I came to Belgrade, where I played for OFK Beograd and ”Partizan” for ten years. I was in Partizan’s first team for six years. I was member of the famous team from the sixties called ”Partizan’s Babies”. We won everything. If I’ve ever penetrated the mysteries of football, it was in Partizan. Later in my career, I did mostly what I learned in Partizan. That generation of ours succeeded to enter the finals of the European Championship in Mallorca in 1966. We lost from Real Madrid.
Those were entirely different times. I wouldn’t like to compare football, football players, national teams, fields, stadiums. Being a football player in the past was almost shameful, it wasn’t praiseworthy. I was happiest when I went to trainings, because I could learn a lot and received a sandwich after the training. Today, being a football player is something very important, lucrative they say. Times have changed.

Foreign Lands. When I turned twenty, with the experience I gained up to then and my passion for football, I set off to foreign lands. I got to know teams and football players, ways of playing, built in my player’s experience and set strategies as club and national team coach.
Switzerland was first, Winterthur, a club from a town with a same name. Then came France, one-season contract with Monaco, then Nice and Rouen. It was followed by Mexican club Pumas Unam. I ended my player’s career in Mexico, in the university professional club Universidad from Mexico City.
Then I became coach. A year later, my team made extraordinary results. I won all possible titles with Universidad. There were as many as seven of my players in the Mexico national team in 1976. They started playing football with me. That year Mexico made a historical result; they didn’t succeed in anything similar both before and after.
I continued my coaching career in the national teams of Costa Rica, USA, Nigeria, China, Honduras, Jamaica. The national teams of five countries I coached made it to the World Championship: Mexico (Mexico, 1986), Costa Rica (Italy 1990), USA (USA 1994), Nigeria (France 1998), China (Japan 2002). Four national teams passed the first round of the competition, only with China I didn’t succeed in it.

Brothers. My two older brothers, Miloš and Milorad, were real football players. I tried to come close to them, but I didn’t manage it. Miloš, called ”Blue Spinning Top”, was one of the most popular and, according to many, one of the best Yugoslav players, later great club and national team coach. Two Milutinović brothers were at the World Championship in 1958. I don’t know if it ever happened again in football. The three of us were national team players. At the celebration of the 25th or 30th anniversary of Partizan, the club awarded plaques to deserving players. My and Milorad’s plaque was silver and Miloš’s was golden. Then I jokingly asked: why? They replied: ”Do you know who Miloš is?!”
My brother Miloš was national team coach in 1984/1985. Unfortunately, he didn’t make a good result. The bitter experience he had then helped me survive being outside of my country as a coach. I have no regrets. I simply didn’t have the possibility to work in my country’s national team. What’s done is done.
Wherever I was, I enjoyed what I was doing. God gave me the feeling to recognize if someone is talented or not. I had very young players in all national teams I coached. They later grew into great players and became very important in their countries.

The Aztec Sparrowhawk. Before the beginning of the World Championship in 1986, where I took the national team of Mexico, they called me from the Mexican government and asked me if I would accept to become Mexican citizen. I thanked them and said that I am good in my job as a Yugoslav as well. I didn’t accept, that’s how I was brought up. Then we made that great result, so the same minister called me again. He asked me if I’d accept the ”Agila Azteca” medal (”The Aztec Sparrowhawk”). It would be a pity not to accept, he said, because it was the highest medal for foreigners who did something for Mexico. There were only three of us then who were awarded the medal.
Then I, jokingly, told him that was why I didn’t accept to become a Mexican. If I became citizen of Mexico then, I couldn’t receive the ”Agila Azteca” order.

Coach Bori. When Chinese president Xi Jinping was in Mexico at a congress, he told the hosts: ”You and we have a common friend we appreciate and who unites us. It is Milu.” All of a sudden, silence, confusion, no applause. What is this about? Mexicans didn’t know that the Chinese called me Milu. When they realized it was Coach Bori, as they called me in Mexico, they were so happy.
I worked in Mexico for a long time and afterwards I was coach in the USA. They didn’t have a football league at all. During the three years I was there, the Americans advanced a lot. We made a great result at the World Championship in 1994, even managed to be equal with the Mexican national team, the biggest team at the time. The Mexicans then asked me: how come, Americans and me? I’m a coach, that’s myjob, I said. I later returned to Mexico and went to the Olympic Games in Atlanta with the Mexican national team.

Tears. The first time I cried was in Iraq, when I was saying goodbye to a team. I was with them only three weeks, I was leaving to Qatar, but the memory of Baghdad is still very vivid in me. I remembered the war years. They gave me two soldiers so that I could walk through the city and record with my camera. One on one side, the other on the other, they were protecting me. They asked me to wear a very heavy bulletproof vest made of lead. I refused. If something hits me in the head, I’ll be done anyway. No use wearing a vest. The Iraqi team left a good impression at the World Cup in South Africa in 2010. The guys played well, it was a good team. Oh, Iraq!...

Magical China. They tell me: ”Bora, you’re not in the mood?” Yes, I’m sad. I can’t go to China, because the pandemic measures are still in force. China is magical. I’ve known China since 1977. However, this present China is completely different.
First time I went there, I didn’t know a single word in Chinese or the name of the city I was going to. Now they are the only ones I’m in contact with, even my apartments in Doha and Belgrade are designed in Chinese style.
China had never participated in the football World Championship before. We made a historical result with the very fact that we had qualified for the Cup. Even not scoring asingle goal at the Championship didn’t reduce the feeling of triumph and national pride. About 500 million people watched the last qualification match, which decided our rankings for the Cup. About 170 million new TV sets were purchased. Although mass gatherings were forbidden, a million people gathered spontaneously in the streets to celebrate our trip to the World Championship. At the 60th anniversary of modern China, based on a poll, a list was made of 60 peoplewho had the biggest influence on its development. I was also part of the list, as the only foreigner. I’m not bragging, that’s how it is there.
A monument in the shape of Latin letter V was raised in Xi An, reminding that that’s where we played the qualifications game for the World Championship. Although we didn’t have much success there, as I said, a great energy was initiated. Later, under the leadership of our Serbian coaches, previously faltered Chinese football was reborn.
When Wang Yi, Chinese minister of foreign affairs, visited Belgrade in 2021, they asked me to come as well. They love and appreciate me, remember the achievements with the Chinese national team, and I’m proud of it.

From Clown to Miracle-Worker. I spent only 60 days with the Costa Rican national team before the World Championship, but Costa Rica made a historical result. Another country which has never participated in the World Championship before.
When we set off to the World Championship from Costa Rica, a text was published in a local newspaper entitled: ”Poor is a country with a clown as a coach.” It was because I was doing everything different from what was expected and from their previous approach. When we achieved good results, they wrote: ”Ermago (Miracle-Worker) is coming back with his heroes”. Better than if it were the other way round.
We made a circle above Costa Rica in a plane, and people below welcomed us with mirrors directing rays of Sun towards the plane. It was a wonderful feeling. It was a festivity for them which they still remember. After that, Costa Rica made good results.
As a poor country, at the World Championship in Italy, Costa Rica did not provide a third set of jerseys, and they were supposed to play with the host country, who had jerseys with the same color. I saw that we were lacking the third set of equipment. I said, it would be good to have black and white jerseys and use them against Brazil. The president of Juventus was a man named Polipert. I went to him to Torino to ask for jerseys. He asked how many I needed: two-three? He was surprised when I told him I needed twenty-two. I explained that we’d like to play in black and white jerseys because I’m a fan of Juventus and was a player of Partizan. He gave me the jerseys. When we came out to the field, everyone chanted against Brazil: ”Ju-ve! Ju-ve! Ju-ve!”...

Ambassador. I was lucky to work here, in Qatar. I was coach of the ”Al Sad Doha” team. Many young players became very good. They offered me to stay, to be ambassador of the 2022 Football World Championship. I’m proud of it. I don’t know how much I helped them, but it’s good that Qatar won the organization of the World Cup.
Serbia is playing at this World Championship. Four teams which I took to World Championships are playing as well. I hope that they will all be successful,meaning that they will pass the first part of the competition.

Both Heart and Technique. The victory our boys, the Serbian national team, won in the crucial game for entering the World Championship in Qatar is both heart and technique. One doesn’t go without the other. I watched them carefully. Their attitude towards the game was on a very high level. The entire team and coaches were perfect, players were inspired. I knew that we have high-quality players, responsible and disciplined, experienced in good teams.
It’s now important for the team to make a good result at the World Championship, which the nation expects. The fact that the first game of our team is against Brazil is a challenge and should give strength to our boys. Our eagles can spread their wings.

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Clubs and National Teams
Velibor Milutinović played for Bor (1954–1958), OFK Beograd (1958–1960), Partizan (1960–1966), Winterthur (1966–1967), Monaco (1967–1969), Nice (1969–1971), Rouen (1971–1972), Pumas Unam (1972–1976).
He was coach of Pumas Unam (1977–1983), Mexico (1983–1986), San Lorenzo (1987), Udinese (1987), Veracruz (1988), Tekos Uag (1988–1989), Costa Rica (1990), USA (1991–1995), Mexico (1995–1997), Nigeria (1997–1998), Metro Stars (1998–1999), China (2000–2002), Honduras (2003–2004), Al Sad (2004–2005), Jamaica (2006–2007), Iraq (2009).

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Luck and Sharpening
People tell me all the time, and I believe it too: I was lucky in my career. Many times my instinct helped me, united with dedication and knowledge sharpened already in Partizan, until the end of my sports career.

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Awaken
God gave me the gift to see and, as people joke, return from the other world.
I was little, about three or four years old, when I leaned over the window and fell on my head. They took me to the hospital in Bajina Bašta. The doctors told my family that it’s better to take me home to die than in the cold hospital. I was in a coma for a few months and then Milorad woke up his little brother. He probably got very dirty while playing, and our grandmother beat him up. He cried so much that I woke up from the coma and said: ”Give me some water!” There’s a trace left – a scar above my right eye hidden by hair.

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Hanging Up the Boots
All officials, including president of FIFA Giovanni Infantino, came here to Doha to make a team of football stars. They wanted me to be the referee. I didn’t accept. What do you mean, referee, I want to play! They were astonished, probably because of my age, but I played the entire game.