The popular “Šeki” was the second big star after Rajko Mitić and arguably one of the best dribblers in the history of Yugoslav football. He was a regular member of the Yugoslav national football team and considered its best individual player at the time.
Youth and Early Beginnings
He was born on November 8, 1937, in Štip, where his father Bogosav was stationed and met his mother Donka. The Šekularac family lived in Štip for only a few months before relocating to Belgrade. They moved again due to his father’s service, this time to the village of Čoka in Vojvodina, before returning to Belgrade in 1948.
He attended elementary school, four years of gymnasium, and meteorology school in Belgrade. However, he didn’t care much about school as football became his main focus. When Dimitrije Milojević, a former BASK footballer and coach, noticed him in the courtyard of the Second Men’s Gymnasium, he immediately recognized the immense talent he possessed.
He became a first-team player for Red Star on March 6, 1955, and wore the red and white jersey until June 5, 1966. He played a total of 375 matches, including 156 league matches, and scored 119 goals. With Red Star, he won five league titles (1956, 1957, 1959, 1960, and 1964) and one national cup trophy (1959), where he played a crucial role in the victory over Partizan in the final.
Red Star
Although he was particularly known for his exceptional technique and tricks in the game, he also scored significant goals in the red and white jersey. At just 18 years old, he scored the winning goal in the 17th Eternal Derby, defeating the Partizan goalkeeper in the 34th minute and securing a 1-0 victory for Zvezda. In a record-breaking 7-0 victory against Hajduk Split, he scored the final goal of the match in the 87th minute on September 7, 1958. He also scored the winning goal in the 73rd minute of the semifinal match against Partizan in the 1958 Cup. An incident he had with referee Pavle Tumbas from Subotica (he slapped him in the face during a match between Radnički Niš and Red Star in front of a packed Čair Stadium) in the fall of 1962 led to his suspension from football for a year and a half, actually much longer as he was at the peak of his career. It was rumored that Šekularac was frustrated by the decision of the authorities at the time not to let him join Italian club Juventus, which offered him a record contract worth $600,000. Šekularac never wanted to meet with referee Tumbas again, even though Tumbas tried to discuss everything that happened.
OFK Belgrade
After leaving Red Star, he spent a year in Karlsruhe, but due to a spinal injury, he didn’t perform well. He then returned to Belgrade and signed with OFK Belgrade. Šekularac joined OFK Belgrade in the spring half of the 1967/68 season and stayed there for a year and a half. In his later playing years, he decided to help the young team along with another true football legend, Miloš Milutinović. At that time, OFK Belgrade experienced a major shift in generations, with players like Skoblar, Samardžić, and Banović leaving, and a new group of players led by Petković, Santrač, Krivokuća, Jokić, and younger ones like Zec, Turudija, Stepanović, Stojanović, and Mitrović taking the stage. The duo, Šeki-Miloš, made their debut in a match against Partizan on March 24, 1968, and the match and that date remain memorable for the record attendance at the Omladinski Stadium. The match ended in a 1-1 draw, and according to various estimates, between 30,000 and 35,000 spectators were present in the stands. There were even around ten thousand people outside the stadium! With Šekularac, the club managed to secure survival in the 1967/68 season after decisive victories against Trepča. In total, Dragoslav Šekularac played 44 matches and scored 5 goals for OFK Belgrade in league, cup, and European competitions.
International Career
Towards the end of 1969, he crossed the border again and played for Santa Fe and Millonarios in Bogotá and América de Cali. He also played for White Eagles in Canada in 1975, where he was both a player and a coach, and for Paris FC in France (1975/76). He ended his playing career in indoor soccer in Dallas, USA.
National team
He played 41 matches for the Yugoslav national team, scoring 6 goals. He made his debut on September 30, 1956, against Czechoslovakia (1-2) in Belgrade and bid farewell to the national team on June 1, 1966, in a friendly match against Bulgaria (0-2) in Belgrade.
Among the numerous matches he played for the national team, the one on May 11, 1958, against England (5-0) in Belgrade is particularly memorable. Playing alongside Milutinović and Veselinović in the attacking trio, he delivered one of his best performances in the national team.
Coaching Career
He worked as a coach for youth categories in Crvena Zvezda and was one of the key figures behind Zvezda’s golden generation in 1991. He wanted to build a team of young and promising but unestablished players. He suggested to Džajić that they should only buy the best young footballers from the former Yugoslavia, and Džajić agreed. He took over as the head coach of the first team at Crvena Zvezda in the second half of the 1988/89 season. In the following season (1989/90), he won the double crown with a significant nine-point lead over second-placed Dinamo Zagreb (at that time, two points were awarded for a win). Due to a physical altercation with an official on the field after a match in Cologne in the UEFA Cup, he was banned from coaching in European competitions for seven matches. The club’s management, unable to have Šekularac lead the team in the European Cup 1990/91, decided to have Ljupko Petrović take charge, who later led the team to the title of European champions.
In addition to Red Star, Šekularac had a coaching career where he managed OFK Mladenovac, Footscray JUST in Melbourne (from 1986 to 1987), Al Nasr in Riyadh (1992), and he also worked in Guatemala from 1984 to 1985. He was a coach for America in Mexico (1990/91), Heidelberg United in Australia (1993), Atlético Marbella (1994/95), Busan in South Korea (1996), Obilić (from 1998 to 2000), where he also served as the sports director in 2002. His last coaching engagement was with Serbian White Eagles in Canada in 2006.
He was known as a great charmer and joker – dressing elegantly and arriving at “Madera” on his Vespa with a beautiful girl to pose. From his eventful life, he had countless stories, and one that remains forever remembered is: “My great friend and Red Star player Vladica Popović always saved money, while I always liked to show that I had it. We received a large bonus for a convincing victory over Partizan, and I wiped my shoes with the most valuable banknote in front of Vladica and put it back in my pocket. A fan saw that and started a story about how Šekularac was extravagant and arrogant, but it was just teasing between friends who liked to joke about money.”
He passed away on January 5, 2019, in Belgrade at the age of 81.
