Children in Belgrade

Entering its 20th year of existence, the Yugoslav Football Association found a way to celebrate - on January 18, 1939, a visit by the English national team to Belgrade was arranged. The date was set, May 18, and the pre-match - a match between the national teams of the Cetinje and Belgrade sub-associations. The organization of the visit of the Montenegrin football players was entrusted to the secretary of the CNP Niko Bokan and his associate Vlado Mitrovic, and professional questions Milan Becić. Apparently, the right man in the right place: a thirty-three-year-old clerk at the Ministry of Physical Education, after playing in Podgorica and Cetinje, has made an enviable career in Serbia, France and Switzerland during that time. The Belgrade match is shrouded in a mantle of prestige and pride.

Lamb Đuro Cejović, the Minister of Physical Education in the Kingdom, was generous, allocating 60.000 dinars to the budget of the Cetinje Sub-Union. Most of it was spent on the first “football course” in Montenegro. The selected players gathered on April 25, 1939 and completed three weeks of training in Tivat, the only Montenegrin place with a “proper playground”, where “most of the space is under grass”, and there are also “necessary rooms with showers”. 27 football players from Montenegro, Balšić, Sloga, Crnogorac, Arsenal, Jugosloven, as well as from Leotar from Trebinje and Herzegovac from Bileća showed up for the training.

"Among the selected players, there are already well-known names... who will catch the eye of the leading clubs in the league," Milan Becić said in an interview with Belgrade's Politika, not daring to predict the outcome of the match.

His associate Taken to do was more specific and more singsong:

"The competition is not far away, so we'll see who will be the hero of the day. Whatever happens, happens. And if he fails, it won't be a miracle. The first appearance, like any other, gives: success or disappointment."

While in Montenegro “there was great interest in the first game of the CNP national team in Belgrade”, there were also preparatory matches with the team from Dubrovnik and the combined squad of Kotor and Tivat. However, everything was far from idyllic. The Montenegrin press criticized the selection of football players.

"On the eve of a collapse", is the striking title of an article published in Zeta (May 14, 1939), which points the finger at Bokan and Mitrović as "incompetent, incompetent and fatal to Montenegrin football".

The list of accusations was made more specific - the main criterion for selecting players was not quality, but garnering votes at the electoral assembly; the two of them regularly receive daily allowances, without "even once visiting the national team's training course in Tivat".

"The composition of the national team is not good and we expect a complete collapse in this match... The main thing is that the result is not catastrophic, that neither we who live in Montenegro, nor those Montenegrins who live in Belgrade, nor all other Montenegrins and their friends are ashamed of it," he wrote. Jovan P. Vukcevic, editor of Zeta.

Those to whom he dedicated the ranks set off for Belgrade that very day, under pressure, in a somewhat altered composition. There they were greeted by football fever. The Yugoslav capital was alive for the arrival of England. Although extremely expensive for the time, tickets were in high demand, to such an extent that resellers appeared. The ceremonial box was reserved for the Prime Minister of the Government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia Dragiša Cvetković, ministers and members of the ambassadorial corps. The Belgrade media followed every step of the members of the English national team, but they were also interested in the one who arrived from the south.

"The Montenegrins have prepared well for this, their first game in Belgrade. They have brought their best team... They are hoping for success," wrote Vreme, while Pravda added that "we can expect them to be pleasantly surprised and show that they are unjustifiably neglecting themselves."

The BSK stadium began to fill up in the early morning hours on May 18, 1939. People arrived in columns, among them a group of cyclists from Skopje who had been traveling for three days. At 15 p.m., in front of about thirty thousand people, the Montenegrin national team ran onto the field, for which, in addition to Asim Đurđević i Vlada Božović, performed and Ikontije Nakić, Vlado i Vojo Mugoša, Pear, Rogović, Jovićević, Klemen, Arsić i Karlo Marks. Before the eyes of his countryman Đuro Čejović, representatives of the Government and the English national team, the Montenegrin footballers were "stuck" from the start, and their efforts were welcomed by observers who cheered them on. "They played with dedication and with a lot of technique... they left the impression of brave and virtuous footballers", but it was to no avail.

Before going for the break, they conceded a goal, and then gave way “like victims of their own pace”. By the 60th minute, the hosts were leading 3:0, then one from Mugoš reduced the deficit, the Belgrade team added two more goals, and responded Đurđevićand in the end it is Gojko Džepina (BSK) set the final score 6:2. “Montenegrins still need a lot of experience,” concluded Vreme.

Vlado Mugoša found the cause of the defeat in the terrain - it was too flat: "We're used to hills, after all."

Defeated, but witnesses of history, they had the privilege of watching the Yugoslav national team's triumph over the English team 2:1 live. While in Belgrade they were perceived as lovable naives from the provinces, in Montenegro they were welcomed with open arms.

"Bravo 'Reprezentacijo'," said Zeta, with the bitter conclusion that a rare opportunity to break the reputation of Montenegrin football was missed - and that "someone needs to pay for that."

(From the monograph “Proud Past, One is Future”, which can be purchased in the Future fan shop)