The status of a "drowning man" and a convulsive fight for survival was predicted for Kom at the dawn of the 2025/26 season in the Meridianbet 2nd Montenegrin Football League.
With a monthly salary budget of only 5.500 euros, and the fact that the club from Zlatica is far from the municipal budget and the state "manger", what else can you expect? However, Ivan Milić's team will enter the 15th round of the championship, on Sunday, away to Berane, with only one point below the play-off zone for the strongest domestic league.
Kom is the absolute hit of the second four-round cycle with all five wins and a goal difference of 15:2.
- We are definitely a team that has the quality to play more than equally in this league. I say play, because football is a game and we stick to that postulate. We don't fight, we're not in the trenches, although the league as a competition also requires a competitive approach. But we play without pressure, tension. They say football is the most important secondary thing. Still secondary, and far from the importance of some life events. Football is also the most beautiful game and many players are in Kom for love, trainings are organized according to the work schedule of team members or the coaching staff, and each one is a joy. Matches, on the other hand, are eagerly awaited holidays. With our salary budget, no one is in the team for the money, often people from the team help the club from their personal income from work. Our league is professional, but we operate on a kind of, so to speak, amateur principle - says Milić.
Modest and unobtrusive, during his best playing days at the beginning of this millennium when he worked tirelessly for the team in the First League of the State Union. With Kom, he previously won participation in the SCG elite, duels with Red Star, Partizan... After his playing career, Milić decided to dedicate his free time after his job as a lawyer to football, and in 2019 he was named the best coach in the Association of Clubs of FSCG - Center. The following year, he decided to come from OFK Titogard to help his club.
- The plan is important, it was made on time and that's how we avoided the problems from last season, because when I arrived, the team hadn't even been formed. Before the season, we took youth national team players and scholarship holders - from Buducnost three young men born in 2007: Lazar Martinovic, Dragutin Šaranovic and Luka Kruščić, and from Mladost Lob.bet their peer Andrej Božović and a year older goalkeeper Ognjen Milović. Along with our youth players Marko Pejović and Stefan Mijović, they are the mainstays of the game. We also have several more experienced players, who help out out of friendship because of our captains Luka Mihaljević, Boško Ljumović and Marko Burzanović. We were also lucky to keep Luka Silij from Subotica due to the foreign player limit in the regulations, who confirms with his goals his attacking potential worthy of the First League. We have put together a team that is a combination of youth and experience - explained Milić.
Kom won five points in the first seven rounds, and after the 14th round they have 23 and are one point behind third-placed Rudar, whom the Zlatičani team beat on their last away match 3:0. Where did such a rise in results come from in the second cycle of the championship?
- There are two decisive factors. In the 9th round before the away game against Otranto, I could not count on two of the main players because of the yellow cards, we could not have faced the objectively best team and the richest club in the league without them, and I decided to give a chance to the players without minutes. We did lose, but we played well and got five players who showed with their play that they can help the team and significantly increased our roster. The second detail is from the last second of the 8th round match against Lovćen, which we won with a direct kick from Burzanović from a corner and won points in our worst game of the season. Those details are very important, our new goalkeeper from Japan, Shunzuke Ozawa, saved a shot right at the start in Pljevlja, giving the team security, and details are crucial in this fairly even league - concluded Milić.
Bulatović and Knežević confirmed the quality of the Koma football school
Have Kom's ambitions changed after a great series of games and results?
- Of course they are. The main goal is survival, but the team has realized that I was right in telling them that they can outplay and win. Results are important, because if we continue, our marketing portfolio will grow and there will be interest from sponsors. Even more so because our club is recognized for its excellent work with younger categories. Gavrilo Petrović and Minja Lumović won the Montenegrin Youth League, I came second twice, and we were all happy with Lazar Knežević's goal in Mladost's victory against Buducnost last weekend, because he came from our school, just like Andrija Bulatović, whom I have coached in the club's younger categories for years - says Milić.
Bulatović is now in Lens, France, but Kom has more talent.
- We still have great work from the roosters led by Mihailo Petrović, the pioneers Danilo Todorović, the cadets Dejan-Džogo Rabrenović, and the youth team was inherited from me by Predrag Stevović. My staff includes Miloš Vukčević and the goalkeeper coach Vladan Čalija. And regardless of the lack of money, everyone has reasons, some even interests, to be in the club. Specifically, a year of work in the senior team allows me to apply for a Pro license and do what I love most. For younger players, games with experienced players and work in a positive atmosphere give them the opportunity to progress, and the power of camaraderie should not be neglected - Milić concluded.
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