{"id":45332,"date":"2013-01-24T17:33:17","date_gmt":"2013-01-24T22:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=45332"},"modified":"2013-01-29T02:47:37","modified_gmt":"2013-01-29T07:47:37","slug":"offsides-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Offsides, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Jelena Toma\u0161evi\u0107, Joy of Life<\/em>, 2006, mixed media, 22.3 in. x 33.2 in. \u00a9 conrads duesseldorf.<\/p><\/div>\n

This is the second installment of a multiple-part post. Read part 1 here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Like Savi\u0107evi\u0107, the Croatian Zlatko Kranj\u010dar, fifty-six, had been a successful, offensive-minded player in his day, and one who understood the importance of international soccer. Nearing the end of his career in 1990 at the age of thirty-four, Kranj\u010dar captained Croatia\u2019s first national game of its post-Yugoslavia era. As a coach he led the Croatian national team into the 2006 World Cup. He had experience, and a lot of it. When Savi\u0107evi\u0107 hired him in 2010 as Montenegro\u2019s new manager, it was Kranjcar\u2019s eighteenth\u00a0year of coaching and his twentieth job.<\/p>\n

Also like Savi\u0107evi\u0107, Kranj\u010dar had historically favored an attacking style of play, one that resembled the Yugoslavian teams of Montenegro\u2019s past. \u201cThe former Yugoslav players have the reputation as the Brazilians of Europe,\u201d said soccer journalist and Financial Times<\/em> columnist Simon Kuper. At first glance, the Montenegro team appeared to be no different. Its two star players were strikers: Vu\u010dini\u0107, the team captain, and Stevan Joveti\u0107, who also plays in Italy, for Fiorentina. <\/p>\n

\u201cMontenegro seems to produce very technical players, and if you look at the players in the national side they follow that similar pattern,\u201d said Jonathan Wilson, the author of Behind the Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football<\/em>. \u201cSavi\u0107evi\u0107 would be the great Montenegrin player. Vu\u010dini\u0107 and Joveti\u0107 are not exactly the same player, but they\u2019re in that mold.\u201d<\/p>\n

I reached Kranj\u010dar by phone, after he had just finished eating lunch in Isfahan, Iran, where he currently coaches the defending Iran Premier League champion, Sepahan. He spoke through a translator, and, in keeping with the style of an outspoken, fiery manager, his voice at times reached such high decibels that he sounded in the foreground of our connection rather than the background. I asked him how he approached the game strategically with the Montenegro team he had inherited.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to become more organized,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it didn\u2019t mean that was sufficient. We had to attack, too. Our style of play was to try to surprise the opponent. You see that they\u2019re in an offensive formation, you let them set up that way, and then you respond with an offensive counterattack.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe temptation is just to play to their strengths,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cWhat Kranj\u010dar did was to create that defensive base first. Which was exactly what they needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under Kranj\u010dar, Montenegro won its first three matches of the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign, against Wales, Bulgaria, and Switzerland (when Vucinic removed his shorts), by the score of 1-0, and then it drew 0-0 with England at Wembley Stadium, where the attendance was one-eighth of Montenegro\u2019s population. A team never known for its defense had produced four shutouts in a row and, as it has done in this year\u2019s qualification, leaped ahead of England in the group standings.<\/p>\n

As one local journalist told me, after the England match \u201cZlatko Kranj\u010dar was the most popular person in Montenegro. He convinced a group of common players that they are stars. Now no one can convince them they\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its next two matches, though, Montenegro suffered a frustrating draw against Bulgaria in Podgorica and then an unexpected defeat to Wales. Savi\u0107evi\u0107\u2019s response was as swift and severe as it was surprising. He fired Kranj\u010dar and promoted assistant coach Branko Brnovi\u0107, a friend of Savi\u0107evi\u0107\u2019s and another star Montenegrin player in his day.<\/p>\n

Criticism rained down on Savi\u0107evi\u0107. Claims were made that he didn\u2019t like the shift in attention from himself to Kranj\u010dar. \u201cKranj\u010dar’s departure was a shocking decision for fans,\u201d Montenegrin journalist Aleksandar Radovi\u0107 told the BBC at the time. \u201cHe received almost unanimous support, and there were calls for a fan boycott.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an awkward distinction,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cAs a player Savi\u0107evi\u0107 was a god and as an administrator he\u2019s a disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Montenegro\u2019s first qualifying match after Kranj\u010dar\u2019s firing, the team drew with England once again to advance to the Euro 2012 playoff match, where it lost to the Czech Republic and was eliminated from qualification. Three days after that loss and one month after Kranj\u010dar\u2019s dismissal, Savi\u0107evi\u0107 went on television and explained why he had fired the coach. Not surprisingly, it didn\u2019t defuse the situation. \u201c[Kranj\u010dar] had a problem which we tried to hide, the alcohol problem,\u201d Savi\u0107evi\u0107 said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to know the real reality, you can hear it from me, not from anyone else,\u201d Kranj\u010dar said from Iran, becoming so animated that the translator couldn\u2019t stop laughing. \u201cThe real truth is that I had a conflict with Savi\u0107evi\u0107. I didn\u2019t accept some of his critiques about the players, and I told him he was more successful as a player than as the president and that he needed to be more indispensable to the national team. Probably it wasn\u2019t appropriate for him. After this confrontation, for sure the president will ask me to leave. And I didn\u2019t want to continue anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

When I asked Savi\u0107evi\u0107 how involved in team decision-making he is, he started laughing. \u201cI\u2019m surprised by the question,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m the president and not the coach, and I am not involved in that matter at all. How can I ever fire one coach if I am the one who is making the decisions?\u201d<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s internal drama didn\u2019t win over the public. \u201cPeople are unhappy with the way Zlatko Kranj\u010dar was sacked,\u201d the Vijesti<\/em> reporter Mitrovi\u0107 said. \u201cIt was something not about the pitch, not about football.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can freely call Milo \u0110ukanovi\u0107 \u2018the Duke,\u2019\u201d said Bal\u0161a Brkovi\u0107 of the prime minister of Montenegro and the country\u2019s most influential political figure of the last twenty years. \u201cIt is also a linguistic joke, because \u0110ukanovi\u0107\u2014\u2018Duke\u2019\u2014at the same time he is also the duke of Montenegro. His governing methods are pretty near and familiar with feudalism. So this \u2018Duke\u2019 name is perfect for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brkovi\u0107 and I were sitting over coffee at a restaurant around the corner from the Vijesti<\/em> offices in a neighborhood called Kru\u0161evac, the more modern area of Podgorica, with glass-walled high-rise hotels, a Max Mara, and elegant dining establishments mixed in among the communist-era concrete Lego blocks you see everywhere in the city. Brkovi\u0107 writes a column for Vijesti<\/em> called \u201cMore Than a Word,\u201d and in it he critiques the politics and culture of Montenegro. It is the most read column of any in the country\u2014as are his books. His 2010 novel, Paranoia in Podgorica<\/em>, was a bestseller, confirming his place as Montenegro\u2019s leading literary figure. Brkovi\u0107 chain-smoked cigarettes as we talked, and his voice left no doubt that he\u2019d been doing so for years. It sounded like it was coming through an incinerator. He is tall and thin with a shaved head, gray stubble, and a set of teeth that look like they could be used for a dental-school final exam.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first premise you must keep in mind,\u201d Brkovi\u0107 said through a translator, \u201cis that the Duke and this establishment do nothing out of ideals. Everything is done pragmatically to keep themselves governing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u0110ukanovi\u0107 has been either prime minister or president of Montenegro for all but three years since 1991. He severed ties with Serbian president Slobodan Milo\u0161evi\u0107 in the late nineties, only when, Brkovi\u0107 said, \u201ceach sparrow on the tree could see that Milo\u0161evi\u0107 was heading to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u0110ukanovi\u0107 realized that the future of Montenegro is as an E.U. aspiring member,\u201d Brkovi\u0107 continued. \u201cOnly then did he join the circus of the independence. Now the people who were pro-independence since 1991, like me, have an issue because those ideals are not the same as the current ideals of independence, which is pretty much [to maintain] the private state of the Duke.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u0110ukanovi\u0107 resigned as prime minister in 2010, but he remained the head of the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro, of which the next prime minister was a member. When I spoke to Brkovi\u0107 last fall, he said, \u201cThe Duke has partly already descended, but it\u2019s all like false action.\u201d As if to prove Brkovi\u0107\u2019s point, in December parliament elected \u0110ukanovi\u0107 to a seventh term as prime minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing can happen in [the political] sphere in our society without his approval,\u201d Brkovi\u0107 said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I mentioned the feudalism. You can literally imagine \u0110ukanovi\u0107 with his own subrulers, who are all submissive. Everybody has a part of the land and follows his orders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Savi\u0107evi\u0107, the head of Montenegro soccer, is friendly with \u0110ukanovi\u0107. They appeared together at independence rallies. \u201cHe really was an excellent player,\u201d Brkovi\u0107 said of Savi\u0107evi\u0107. \u201cBut here he joined the omnipresent system, and now he is the chief of soccer. And none of that could have been possible if the Duke hadn\u2019t decided so.\u201d (Officially, the Montenegro parliament elects the head of the soccer association every four years. In 2009, Savi\u0107evi\u0107 was the only candidate for the job, and he received 44 of 45 votes.)<\/p>\n

I mention that some of Savi\u0107evi\u0107\u2019s decisions seemed to resemble what he\u2019d described with \u0110ukanovi\u0107. \u201cSmall feudal rulers always copy big feudal rulers,\u201d Brkovi\u0107 said. \u201cThe Duke says to Savi\u0107evi\u0107, \u2018You are the duke of football,\u2019 and then he acts as if it\u2019s his private business. So there is not an awareness of a common or a joint responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brkovi\u0107 paused, straightened his back, and then leaned in across the table. \u201cSavi\u0107evi\u0107 and I are of the same school generation,\u201d he said. \u201cWe even attended the same classes. My mother taught him the mother tongue in elementary school.\u201d There is a joke I\u2019m told by the locals about Podgorica. The city is so small that if you are given only five phone numbers, from one of them you are guaranteed to get the number of the prime minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cA couple of months ago,\u201d Brkovi\u0107 continued, \u201cSavi\u0107evi\u0107 met me on the street. We hugged each other, kissed each other, and he says, \u2018Excellent work, my boy. You have an excellent column on Saturdays. How you kick them.\u2019 Although he\u2019s part of the same system! But he says this only for our ears, only so the two of us can hear that compliment. Publicly, there\u2019s not a chance that he can say that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dangers of speaking out in Montenegro, it seems, are many, and not only for the national team soccer coach. As the South East Europe Media Organisation has reported, and as Brkovi\u0107 detailed to me, there have been repeated attacks against journalists in the country. To name a few: In 2007, the director of\u00a0Vijesti<\/em> was attacked by three unidentified assailants. Later that year, a radio journalist was severely beaten by men with baseball bats.\u00a0In 2009, the mayor of Podgorica and his son allegedly threatened the editor of Vijesti<\/em> and a photographer\u2014\u201ccaressed my chief editor with the gun,\u201d was how Brkovi\u0107 said it as he turned his hand into a pistol and raked it across his cheek. In 2010, Brkovi\u0107 and four other Vijesti<\/em> journalists received letters that read, \u201cIt is over, you are next.\u201d In 2011, Vijesti<\/em> had four of its cars set on fire. Last March, one of its journalists who reports regularly on crime and corruption was beaten outside of her home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty much assured that only these facts can show you a vivid picture of what the situation is for people who are criticizing this government,\u201d Brkovi\u0107 said.<\/p>\n

I asked him why he was threatened. \u201cBecause of the writings,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause of the texts. There\u2019s no other sphere. Because of the beliefs, the thoughts, the ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Over the last two decades, a new wave of artists has emerged in Montenegro and helped create a new image of Montenegrin culture. The artist Jelena Toma\u0161evi\u0107 was one of the first of this group to receive international recognition. In 2006, in the months leading up to the independence referendum, she had her first solo show in New York City. Her works are both playful and violent, amusing and disturbing. In one, a giant pair of pliers grips the head of a bearded man, drawing blood. Behind him, a woman takes a photograph. The yellow handle of the pliers and the red of the blood and of the photographer\u2019s fingernails are the only colors other than black and white in the work. Svetlana Racanovic, the curator of the Serbia and Montenegro pavilion at the 2005 Venice Biennale, wrote that Toma\u0161evi\u0107\u2019s images are \u201cof the order of \u2018modest trespasses\u2019 \u2026 that penetrate unexpected places.\u201d It is a comment that would have suited Kranj\u010dar\u2019s Montenegro soccer team just as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to the artists that had major impacts in the region,\u201d Brkovi\u0107 said, \u201csports is another feature of the booming variety of the country\u2019s culture.\u201d During my stay much of the talk centered around the silver medal Montenegro\u2019s women\u2019s handball team had won at the Olympics a month earlier and the success of the men\u2019s basketball team, which had just beaten Serbia twice in European competition. But no sport gets more attention than soccer.<\/p>\n

As David Winner points out in his history of Dutch soccer, Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football<\/em>, the Netherlands\u2014another country with a population that pales beside the European soccer giants such as Germany and Italy\u2014first began to emerge as a success at the sport during the cultural upheaval that took place there in the sixties.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter twenty years of peace, there were unparalleled opportunities for international cross-pollination via the new mediums of television and pop music,\u201d Winner wrote. It extended to the soccer field as well. Forty years later, the Dutch remain one of the best teams in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what the Dutch are very good at,\u201d said the FT<\/em> journalist Kuper, who is also the co-author of Soccernomics<\/em>, a book which breaks down why one country succeeds in the sport where another fails. \u201cThey understand what the neighbors are doing, and they\u2019re always learning, absorbing new knowledge from them. And that\u2019s crucial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking about Montenegrin society at large, Brkovi\u0107 echoed this thought. \u201cI want to see culture that is open, meaning one that communicates with Albanians, Serbs, everybody\u2014in the sense that it catches the most important global influences,\u201d he said. \u201cSome critics frown upon me, stating that I\u2019m much more influenced by American literature than our own. To me it\u2019s only normal, because culture is an evolving point of communication and [that\u2019s] the only way for it to make sense. No tradition can be given mechanically.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd,\u201d he added matter-of-factly, \u201cI am the creator of that tradition.\u201d For all of Brkovi\u0107\u2019s differences with Montenegro\u2019s governing authorities, it struck me that Savi\u0107evi\u0107 could make the very same claim about the nation\u2019s soccer team, that \u0110ukanovi\u0107 could about its politics.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Montenegro\u2019s biggest victory so far in this World Cup qualifying campaign came in October in Kiev against Ukraine. The team followed a wide open 2-2 draw with Poland in its opening match by employing a tactical return to Kranj\u010dar\u2019s style of play. It organized a defensive base, forced Ukraine to be the aggressor, and then relied on its own successful and surprising counterattacks to win the game by the Kranj\u010dar-sanctioned scoreline 1-0.<\/p>\n

The team received great attention locally afterward, but it didn\u2019t overreact to the victory. \u201cWe are not celebrating that much,\u201d said Ivan Radovic, the team\u2019s media officer. \u201cThere are still many games to go in this campaign, and we are trying to keep our feet on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

What happens over the next several months will determine whether or not Montenegro advances to the World Cup, and what happens over the next several years will determine whether or not this squad is an anomaly or if the team is leaving behind the initial footprints that will come to mark one aspect of a national character. Either way, it\u2019s a sport and an endeavor that is not taken lightly.<\/p>\n

Earlier in Podgorica, at the press conference before Montenegro\u2019s match against Poland, Vu\u010dini\u0107, the team captain, made this clear. Montenegro didn\u2019t need to play well, he said. It only needed to win. \u201cI\u2019ve spent twelve years in Italy, and I\u2019ve learned from the Italians that it\u2019s most important to bring home three points.\u201d (In soccer, a win is worth three points in the standings.)<\/p>\n

Vu\u010dini\u0107 might have learned something else, too\u2014that the team didn\u2019t need the distraction of his mustache with its melancholic undertones. He showed up to the press conference without it. When asked what happened to it, he smirked and said, \u201cI shaved it.\u201d But he\u2019d demonstrated another important feature of an open culture: the necessity of deciding what is and isn\u2019t worth importing.<\/p>\n

David Gendelman is deputy research editor at<\/em> Vanity Fair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the second installment of a multiple-part post. Read part 1 here. Like Savi\u0107evi\u0107, the Croatian Zlatko Kranj\u010dar, fifty-six, had been a successful, offensive-minded player in his day, and one who understood the importance of international soccer. Nearing the end of his career in 1990 at the age of thirty-four, Kranj\u010dar captained Croatia\u2019s first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":470,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[931],"tags":[9848,9849,9851,212,9852,9847,9850,9841,9845,86,85,9846,9853,9844,9843],"class_list":["post-45332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-sports","tag-aleksandar-radovic","tag-balsa-brkovic","tag-e-u","tag-football","tag-jelena-tomasevic","tag-jonathan-wilson","tag-milo-djukanovic","tag-montenegro","tag-simon-kuper","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-stevan-jovetic","tag-svetlana-racanovic","tag-yugoslavia","tag-zlatko-kranjcar"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOffsides, Part 2 by David Gendelman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"January 24, 2013 \u2013 This is the second installment of a multiple-part post. Read part 1 here. Like Savi\u0107evi\u0107, the Croatian Zlatko Kranj\u010dar, fifty-six, had been a successful,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Offsides, Part 2 by David Gendelman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"January 24, 2013 \u2013 This is the second installment of a multiple-part post. Read part 1 here. Like Savi\u0107evi\u0107, the Croatian Zlatko Kranj\u010dar, fifty-six, had been a successful,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-24T22:33:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-29T07:47:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Tomasevic1_07.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"424\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"340\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Gendelman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Gendelman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"14 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"David Gendelman\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3366df93e14ec54a8bc57d76d6242888\"},\"headline\":\"Offsides, Part 2\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-24T22:33:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-29T07:47:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/\"},\"wordCount\":2892,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Tomasevic1_07.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"Aleksandar Radovic\",\"Balsa Brkovic\",\"E.U.\",\"football\",\"Jelena Tomasevic\",\"Jonathan Wilson\",\"Milo Djukanovic\",\"Montenegro\",\"Simon Kuper\",\"soccer\",\"sports\",\"Stevan Jovetic\",\"Svetlana Racanovic\",\"Yugoslavia\",\"Zlatko Kranjcar\"],\"articleSection\":[\"On Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/\",\"name\":\"Offsides, Part 2 by David Gendelman\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Tomasevic1_07.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-24T22:33:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-29T07:47:37+00:00\",\"description\":\"January 24, 2013 \u2013 This is the second installment of a multiple-part post. Read part 1 here. Like Savi\u0107evi\u0107, the Croatian Zlatko Kranj\u010dar, fifty-six, had been a successful,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Tomasevic1_07.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Tomasevic1_07.jpeg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Offsides, Part 2\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3366df93e14ec54a8bc57d76d6242888\",\"name\":\"David Gendelman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6b4c23590f6981cdb587681661ba4f961d94a96d167cc2cc94d8ff13a6037b4b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6b4c23590f6981cdb587681661ba4f961d94a96d167cc2cc94d8ff13a6037b4b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"David Gendelman\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/dgendelman\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Offsides, Part 2 by David Gendelman","description":"January 24, 2013 \u2013 This is the second installment of a multiple-part post. Read part 1 here. Like Savi\u0107evi\u0107, the Croatian Zlatko Kranj\u010dar, fifty-six, had been a successful,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Offsides, Part 2 by David Gendelman","og_description":"January 24, 2013 \u2013 This is the second installment of a multiple-part post. Read part 1 here. Like Savi\u0107evi\u0107, the Croatian Zlatko Kranj\u010dar, fifty-six, had been a successful,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2013-01-24T22:33:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-29T07:47:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":424,"height":340,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Tomasevic1_07.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"David Gendelman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"David Gendelman","Est. reading time":"14 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/"},"author":{"name":"David Gendelman","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3366df93e14ec54a8bc57d76d6242888"},"headline":"Offsides, Part 2","datePublished":"2013-01-24T22:33:17+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-29T07:47:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/"},"wordCount":2892,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Tomasevic1_07.jpeg","keywords":["Aleksandar Radovic","Balsa Brkovic","E.U.","football","Jelena Tomasevic","Jonathan Wilson","Milo Djukanovic","Montenegro","Simon Kuper","soccer","sports","Stevan Jovetic","Svetlana Racanovic","Yugoslavia","Zlatko Kranjcar"],"articleSection":["On Sports"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/","name":"Offsides, Part 2 by David Gendelman","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Tomasevic1_07.jpeg","datePublished":"2013-01-24T22:33:17+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-29T07:47:37+00:00","description":"January 24, 2013 \u2013 This is the second installment of a multiple-part post. Read part 1 here. Like Savi\u0107evi\u0107, the Croatian Zlatko Kranj\u010dar, fifty-six, had been a successful,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Tomasevic1_07.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Tomasevic1_07.jpeg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/offsides-part-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Offsides, Part 2"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3366df93e14ec54a8bc57d76d6242888","name":"David Gendelman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6b4c23590f6981cdb587681661ba4f961d94a96d167cc2cc94d8ff13a6037b4b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6b4c23590f6981cdb587681661ba4f961d94a96d167cc2cc94d8ff13a6037b4b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"David Gendelman"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/dgendelman\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/470"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45332"}],"version-history":[{"count":44,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45570,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45332\/revisions\/45570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}