The Count and the Future, 20 years later

Count Božović returns to the bench of Buducnost after almost 20 years. He made his debut in August 2006, against Rudar in Pljevlja, in the first competitive football match in independent Montenegro at all. They won 2:0, with goals scored by Čarapić and Igor Burzanović.

In that first term, he only stayed until mid-season. He left as the leader, the autumn champion with 13 wins and four draws, and his only defeat was in the Cup. He only took three games to the stadium under Gorica in the final (against Berane, a 4:0 win, Zeta in the championship 0:0 and in the Cup, a 2:0 win), all the others the "blues" played as hosts on Cvijetin brijeg - the place where the school is now located, due to the reconstruction of the main arena. Two decades have passed...

Božović then demonstratively left the bench, although the leader, with a strong message: “The future is a communist club.” Zeta won its first title at the end of the first season in independent Montenegro.

Two decades later, Božović returned. He found not a “communist” but a “multi-party” club, whose management was tailored exclusively to political interests. This was, after all, the management that was able to pay him, thanks to the generous almost two and a half million that the city government had earmarked for FK Budućnost.

Grof has meanwhile established himself as a big name in coaching: when he was winning trophies in Russia, strong Russia, ten years ago, he had the status of a myth in Montenegro (in football, of course). Not only because of his success as a coach, but also because of the way he left - as a coach who is not afraid to say, and to act, as he thinks; a coach who does not agree to rotten compromises.

Božović now finds himself with a team that is seventh in the table, out of 10 clubs in Montenegro. In 2006, that was unthinkable, because anything but Buducnost at the top was unthinkable, and back then the much larger army of fans would not forgive even second place. But until this summer, it was unthinkable that Božović would even manage Buducnost again, so here he is again on the bench.

There is also an open conflict between the fans and the club's management, which hangs like a noose around their necks on the desired path to a successful recovery.

As he himself said yesterday at a press conference, there are always problems in Buducnost.

"It's not good even when everything is good."

What it will look like in the new circumstances, perhaps the first game will give a hint: Buducnost vs. Sutjeska, the biggest Montenegrin derby, today at 14 p.m. at the stadium under Gorica.

After 20 years, Božović is back on the bench.

If Nenad Lalatović received such applause this summer, then Božović, the club legend, deserved - an ovation. For a new beginning.