In the parallel history of the era of the birth of football in Podgorica, earlier researchers singled out the names of several "outsiders" who took on the roles of teachers, motivators and inspirers.
First of all, they were natives of Cetinje Ilija Ivanovic, “founder of Podgorica football clubs and a good coach”, and a native of Nikšić Micko Pajovic, who, upon returning from their education in Czechoslovakia, brought a souvenir - a ball - to Podgorica.
Already skilled in the new game, they gathered students and craftsmen and taught them the basics of football.
Along with them, a Belgrader also left a visible mark. Djordje Medo Keseljevic, and carpenter Vlado Rus Kirsanov, a White Guard from Voronezh, Russia, who found refuge in Montenegro after the October Revolution, and played in both Nikšić and Cetinje.
Podgorica embraced football. One after another, teams sprang up - the term used is not random, as there were a series of organizational steps separating them from the rank of clubs.
As early as 1919, the students of the Gymnasium founded the Njegoš Student Sports Club, which Arsenije Simović left behind information that it was older than Balšić. A year later, the youth of the Islamic faith gathered in the Balkan Muslim Sports Society (renamed Gajret in 1923), for which Kešeljević and Kirsanov also played.
In addition to them, in the Split press of the time we also find mention of the "Representative Board of Sports Clubs" (ROSK), sometimes in our sports journalism, possibly incorrectly, identified as the "Workers' Youth Sports Club", which, at least by name, acted as a supra-club, ad hoc organization, gathered on the occasion of playing individual matches.
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However, it is not ruled out that it was a separate team. Because, in July 1922, almost at the same time as Njegoš, ROŠK "reported" to the Split Football Association in a letter, of which neither team became full members.
The first matches recorded by the Montenegrin press were played in mid-1921.
Montenegro, dated May 10, 1921, writes about a match between the “ball club from Cetinje and the ball club from Podgorica” held on May 8 in Cetinje, which ended in a draw (1:1). The Cetinje team, it goes on to say, took revenge on the Podgorica team who had defeated them the previous summer.
The “rematch” was completed with the Cetinje national team’s 2:1 away triumph, in a duel with the corresponding team from Podgorica, played on June 8, 1921. In the match report, Montenegro mentions that among the Podgorica players who stood out were “Đ.[orđe] Kešeljević (Medo), I.[lija] Ivanović... then V. Spajić and V.[ladimir] Kaluđerović”.
The level of quality of Montenegrin football in those years is vividly demonstrated by the visit of the Hajduk youth team from July 27 to August 6, 1922.
The Split "Bili" drew with a combined team from Tivat (2:2) at the opening of the tour, made up of players from Zagreb, Split, Belgrade and Cetinje, and then played two matches in the center of the Zeta region with Crnogorce (3:1 and 1:1). The Podgorica team - sometimes referred to as ROŠK in Split newspapers - faced them on August 1 and 2, suffering two defeats (3:0 and 2:1).
"In Podgorica, we were greeted by something completely unusual for us Dalmatians; we came across a different architecture that we knew little about. The winding, charming streets, cultural and historical landmarks such as the Clock Tower, the old town, churches and mosques, and very beautifully designed urban houses, awakened in us a feeling of true satisfaction. And the Ribnica and Morača rivers captured our attention," recalled the then Hajduk youth player, and later the top scorer for the first team of the "former" and a member of the Yugoslav national team. Ljubo Bencic, in conversation with Husein Tuzović.
"On the field, the Podgorica audience enthusiastically accepted our performance, warmly and cordially accepted our every action, welcomed and saw off in a friendly and sporting manner."
The guests were particularly inspired before returning home in the matches against Lovćen on August 5 and 6, 1922 (5:0 and 6:0).
The most important for the genesis of Buducnost was Zeta, a club founded in 1924 on the initiative - according to the memories of the captain and coach of the interwar Buducnost Šefket Šabanadžović - of shoemakers Vaso Kulić, Vuk Vuksanović, Milovan Radulović and Novica Radović, who were the first in Podgorica to start making football shoes with studs.
Šabanadžović also listed the names of several players: Milovan Radulović, Vasa Kulića, Vuk Vuksanović, Novice Radović, Milo Pajovic, Duje Džaferadžović and Mahmut Bat Krkanović.
(From the monograph “Proud Past, One Future”, which will be on sale soon)
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