Singapore’s adopted footballing son, who hails from Yugoslavia and started playing here domestically since 2000, will become a public servant this Monday.

On Feb 1, former Singapore national striker Aleksandar Duric will become more Singaporean as he takes on a role as a public servant at Sports Singapore.

Duric called it a day as a professional footballer on Oct. 31, 2014 and was earning his keep as a writer and football commentator.

Anyway, Duric has recently published his autobiography, Beyond Borders.

Here are seven snippets of his inspirational life story that will strike a chord with many Singaporeans: 

1. Aleks recounts growing up with an alcoholic father.

“Regrettably, I have plenty of dark memories from my childhood too; my father made sure of that. He was a hard, bitter alcoholic. When he was drunk he was scary. He was abusive to all of us, verbally and physically.

The earliest instances of this I can remember were when I was six or seven. I remember nights when he would punch and kick my mum, screaming at her as he did, the stench of alcohol heavy in the air. If Milan or myself tried to protect her he would fling us out of the way.”

2. He served as an officer in the Yugoslav army. When the Croatian war of independence broke out and the Yugoslav Federation fragmented, he was called up to lead his unit to suppress the Croats, but refused to do so.

“Growing up none of us ever thought about ethnicity or religion –nationality, maybe – but never race or ethnicity. It was out of the question to think, 'Oh, he’s Serb Orthodox, he’s Croatian Catholic, she’s a Bosniak Muslim…Never.

So it was difficult for us to understand at first. We had always been taught during our national service to fight for Yugoslavia, to prepare for enemies from outside our borders, but we never expected our people would end up fighting each other in a bloody civil war."

3. Hitchhiking to represent the newly independent Bosnia at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992:

“The morning came in August when I needed to start my long journey to Barcelona. In the first leg I had to get from Szeged to Graz in Austria, then south to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. I had with me only my canoe paddle, a small backpack and the equivalent of US$20 in my pocket.

The total distance for this leg was about 700 kilometres and was complicated by the fact that I had no transport, nor even the money to get myself there on the bus. The only way was to hitchhike on the freeway.”

4. Losing his mother when a mortar shell fired by the Bosnian army:

“One thing I couldn’t see, and now never would, was the imagined future I had for her.

How when the war ended I would bring her to Hungary, set her up in a nice flat with all the comforts she needed. How I would take care of her the same way she had taken care of me. I was never going to see or speak to my mum again, and that realization opened a hole inside me that I have never been able to fill.”

5. Aleks led a nomadic life, playing in Hungary, Australia, China, before finding a home in Singapore.

“I was a permanent resident (PR) but I desperately wanted full citizenship. As far as I was concerned, Singapore was home to me and my family. Apart from my home town of Doboj, I had never lived in the same place for so long and the country now held a very special place in my heart. Every time I sat on an airplane to start a journey back to Singapore, whether returning from a holiday or an overseas game, I truly felt that I was on my way home.”

6. Aleks had to fill out three citizenship applications before finally being accepted. He was called up for the national team aged 37, and would go on to score 24 goals in 53 games for Singapore.

“ I scored many goals for Singapore, broke records, and won an AFF Suzuki Cup medal, yet my biggest achievement as a Singaporean footballer is earning the respect of the Singaporean people. I have said it before and I will say it again: To all Singaporeans, thank you for allowing me to represent your country. It was a privilege to wear the Singapore shirt”

7. Adopting baby Massimo

“The longer I spent working with the charity (Beyond Social Services) and the more tragic cases I saw, the stronger my desire to help children. At dinnertime each night I looked at all the food on the table and thought to myself, 'We have room for one more in our home.' Natasha (Duric's wife of 15 years) and I talked it over and we soon knew we wanted to adopt a child. We didn’t have millions of dollars but we definitely had enough food and love to give at least one little child a proper home.

Margaret (a staff from Beyond Social Services) called me one day soon after I’d brought the baby home to warn me that things might not be as straightforward as we hope. The thing was, the boy was born to a Malay mother; he was Muslim. It’s not easy for non-Muslims to adopt Muslim babies. I said to Margaret, 'I don’t care what happens or what anyone says. Nobody is taking our baby away from us. I’ll convert to Islam myself if I have to.'

You can purchase a copy of his book at Kinokuniya or Times Bookstores. There will also be a book signing session at 2pm this Saturday (January 30) at Kinokuniya’s main store at Ngee Ann City.

Photos by Weixiang Lim.

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