AFC Cup: Tampines Rovers’ Aleksandar Duric - East Bengal have better foreigners now than in 2004

Tampines Rovers’ Bosnian-born former Singapore international Aleksandar Duric might be 42 now but his level hasn’t dropped with age as he won the Player of the Year award in the 2012 S-League, which Tampines Rovers won to qualify for the AFC Cup.

In a conversation with Sportskeeda on Monday, ahead of his team’s AFC Cup clash against East Bengal on Tuesday afternoon, Duric stated that hard work and several sacrifices has seen him have a career spanning two decades. But having retired from international football last year, the S-League legend revealed that retirement from club football is also not too far away now.

“When you get older you have to work even harder and that has kept me going but last year after winning the AFF (ASEAN Football Federation Championship) Cup I decided to retire from the national team because when you play club football and international football you don’t get to spend much time with your family. I am not getting any younger (he smiles) and I want to spend more time with my three kids so maybe this could be my last year and hopefully I will be able to win another S-League title,” he said.

His former club and international teammate John Wilkinson, who now plays for Salgaocar, had admitted that there are better financial opportunities in the I-League compared to Singapore’s S-League and Duric too was full of praise for India’s national domestic league.

“I have heard only good things about the I-League. It is really strong now and it is good to know that the players are getting paid well,” he stated before adding that an offer from India would be interesting but difficult to accept at this stage of his career.

Recently, Sportskeeda had discussed the need of naturalisation of foreigners and PIOs (Players of Indian Origin) for the Indian national team and Duric totally supports that. The striker played seven years in Singapore before getting a chance to represent the national team after getting the citizenship on his third attempt.

Duric, who has scored 27 goals at international level, is one of many naturalised foreigners that Singapore has had in the recent past and citing other examples the Tampines Rovers player believes India should also adopt that policy.

Duric (right) had a successful international career with Singapore

“Initially I only wanted to become a Singapore citizen because I fell in love with the country but my application was rejected on the first two occasions. I only got to make my international debut at the age of 37 but I had a goal scoring debut and had five memorable years for the national team.

“Singapore have done very well thanks to presence of these naturalised foreigners. Many Asian countries do that, just look at Australia. I am open to it completely and I believe India is a multicultural country so if some foreigners who, have played in the I-League for five-six years, can improve the national team I think they should be given that opportunity,” he opined.

MUST-WIN Clash

It hasn’t been a good start to the AFC Cup for Singapore’s two representatives with Tampines Rovers recording just one point after three matches and Warriors FC suffering three straight defeats.

“Unlike the domestic league, you are punished for every mistake in the AFC Cup and that is what has happened to us so far. The quality in the AFC Cup is always getting better and we have also conceded a lot of goals,” Duric commented.

So Wednesday’s clash against East Bengal is a must-win for the Stags or else they will suffer group stage elimination for the second straight edition. Duric doesn’t want to make excuses of an afternoon kickoff or the bad shape of Salt Lake Stadium’s artificial turf but rates Trevor Morgan’s East Bengal very highly.

Duric faced the red-and-gold brigade nine years ago in the AFC Cup when he was with Geylang United and when asked to compare the two sides, the former Singapore international said, “The current East Bengal side is an excellent team. They have good national team players and foreigners. Back in 2004 also they had a quality side but I think they have a better set of foreigners now.”

The veteran, though, remains confident of a good performance and stated that he and his teammates still believe they can qualify for the round of 16 by winning the last three matches. “But we are first focusing on winning tomorrow,” Duric reiterated and East Bengal can expect this great goal scorer to give them a tough time.