Born in Belgrade’s urban neighbourhood of Crveni Krst (Red Cross) in 1952, Milovan “Mike” Bakic began his soccer career with Partizan Belgrade’s famed youth school in 1965 playing under the late Mirko Damjanovic. He climbed the ranks of Partizan, reaching their reserve side in 1971. He then decided on a move to Canada, playing for the Serbian White Eagles from 1972 to 1976. In 1977, he donned the red jersey of his adopted country four times (scoring twice).

Sitting and talking with Mike, I’m reminded of the good old original-North American Soccer League days and the beginnings of professional soccer in Canada. Today, Mike is working on a book and gave us an exclusive insider look into his soccer career and future plans.


RedNation Online (RNO): Mike, you started off with Partizan Belgrade’s youth school but you established a name for yourself in the old NASL during the league’s influx of European players. How did you start playing in Canada?

Mike Bakic: I was friends with Slobodan “Piva” Ivkovic who is the brother of today’s Serbian national basketball team coach Dusan “Duda” Ivkovic. Piva was the coach of the basketball club Radnicki Belgrade and he was visiting New York, stopping by in Toronto to see some friends. They asked him if he knows of a (soccer) player to send to Toronto and he said that he would ask me because he knew I was looking to move out of Yugoslavia. It was supposed to be a summer thing. When he came back (we were very close friends), he asked me if I want to play soccer in Canada and I said, “sure, why not?!” They (the White Eagles management) then contacted me, and filled out some forms for me. Someone from the team’s management came to Belgrade, prepared my Visa and I and Saban Romanovic were the only players to come from Serbia in 1972. The remaining players came a year later. Our name was always Serbian White Eagles, in some places it says Toronto White Eagles, which is a mistake.

Before that, when I played in Partizan’s reserve side, we often played against the first team in training sessions. I played with Momcilo “Moca” Vukotic (club legend) in Partizan’s reserve side. Moca Vukotic, Zarko Olarevic, Zoran Smileski – that’s the generation that’s older than me by a year and I played with all of them. Partizan wanted to loan me to a second-division team to gain experience which didn’t interest me at all however. I was at a crossroads. I went to France for a try-out match for Strasbourg in 1971. That tryout however was during our break where we didn’t play so I wasn’t ready to play at my best. I was always ready but not fully ready in December so that didn’t turn out the best. I went and signed a contract in the Portuguese First Division side Vitória de Setúbal. I signed a professional contract with them – I played for them as a guest at a tournament which was in Central America.

The problem was that the White Eagles sold my rights to the Rochester Lancers who didn’t allow me to stay in Portugal and I had to go back. That’s why I played in the United States, I wouldn’t have even played in the US, I would of ended up in a European first division team (in Portugal) but I couldn’t stay and that was that. If memory serves me correctly, that was 1976 or 1977. When I went to Portugal and signed a pro contract, the Yugoslav government (as my passport didn’t read Canada yet, it still read Yugoslavia), didn’t want to extend my passport as I had played for the Serbian White Eagles. I might have stayed in Portugal to play for Vitória de Setúbal if Yugoslavia had extended my passport or gave me a new one. The Yugoslav passport I had was expired, I went to Portugal with an expired passport!

Afterwards, I got Canadian papers of course – the landed immigrant papers. I was worried if I stayed in Portugal, what would I do, I had no passport and there was a chance they wouldn’t let me back to Canada so I wanted to return to Canada to get that sorted out. That was the biggest reason why I returned and didn’t remain playing for Vitória. Since I had already known Eusébio (we played in Toronto together and travelled Europe), he came to see me in Setúbal and that was in the newspapers – you know how big of a star he is there. At that time, he was playing for Beira-Mar. After the knee injuries he had, you’ll see the photo I have, he couldn’t even crouch. He couldn’t even bend his knee after all the operations he had on that knee. He was the best player in the world at that time, he was the best forward – you know how defenders go at you when you’re the best like that!? They go at you trying to injure you.
  

RNO: You appeared in a Canadian jersey four times (in 1977), scoring twice. That’s a very good statistic. Did you get called up for Canada after that?

Mike Bakic: I did get called up and I was supposed to play in the next qualifying cycle. I was talking to John McMahon and they (the CSA) sent me an official letter inviting me to training camp. At that time however, I had groin surgery – the late Dr. Branko Nesovic performed the operation – and I couldn’t play. That was the problem, it wasn’t that they didn’t call me up. That injury was at the end of my career, when the NASL fell apart. After that, I played indoor soccer for Kansas City. I wasn’t interested in going back to Europe and playing “little” soccer for little cash.

For Canada, I played against Suriname, Guatemala, Haiti and Mexico. Also, we (the Canadian national team) played an exhibition match against Hajduk Split who was almost always near the top of the table in the Yugoslav First League at that time. I scored the winning goal against Suriname and the tying goal against Haiti.

The photo I have of the goal against Haiti – that’s not in any archive unless it’s in a Mexican archive as that goal was on the front page of all the papers in Mexico. Why? That was in the 90th minute, tying up the score against Haiti who with that goal lost any chance to reach Mexico in the group standings and Mexico directly qualified for the 1978 World Cup thanks to that goal.

RNO: Did you decide yourself to stay and live in Toronto even after your playing days?

Mike Bakic: I left Belgrade forty years ago. Honestly, I decided myself to stay in Toronto (after my playing days). I like it here. This is the best country in the world. I was in the United States, I lived there for fifteen years, played there and I like the US as a country but Canada is the best country in the world, for me. I travelled all over. I never got a call from the US to play for them as I wasn’t their citizen. You can get US citizenship but I was never an American and I never got rid of my Serbian passport – I still have two passports.

They called me to play for Canada when I legally got a Canadian passport. The moment I got Canadian citizenship, since I was one of the prominent players of the best league in Canada and the best team in Canada, they called me up. You know, it’s very strange how I even got called up. Most of the Canadian national team players then played for the Vancouver Whitecaps who even then were a very good team. Not as good as the White Eagles but they were a pretty good team. Most of the players played in Canada, nobody even knew me. Zeljko Bilecki was the goalkeeper for Toronto Croatia at that time. He told our German coach (Eckhard) Krautzun that I “was the best player in the league” and he asked him “how can Bakic not be in the team?” They then called me up and I went to play for Canada. Those were players such as Bobby Lenarduzzi, Bobby Iarusci, Bruce Wilson, Buzz Parsons – they were the main players on the national team.

RNO: How do you compare the Canadian national team of your day to the one we have today?

Mike Bakic: Look, you can’t compare it. I wasn’t in the 1986 World Cup team but I should have been and would have been had it not been for my injury. Has the Canadian team ever qualified after 1986? No. My generation qualified for the World Cup so when the new generation qualifies, then you can say they’re on the same level. The difference between soccer today and soccer then, in regards to skill and similar things...well you can’t compare the soccer of today to the soccer of then. You can’t compare the players of today to players such as Cruyff, Pelé, Beckenbauer, keeper Gordon Banks, Gerd Müller – it’s funny to even talk about which generation of players is better.

These newer generations (of fans), they know what they have today and of course they’ll think it’s better today when they don’t know what they can compare it to. I rarely watch soccer today because it’s not visually appealing to me any more except for a select few teams and countries. Spain is the only country in the world today that has skill. You can’t take any other country. OK, maybe Germany has started, with their new, young players. To be fair, German football is pretty for the eye and they play very well today. There is no one else. The English and Italy aren’t even a shadow of what they once were! Only Spain has progressed. Look at the physical qualities of the Spanish team and compare it to the others. The other teams look like they’re going to eat Spain for breakfast but they’re inferior. Skill is the factor that always dominates if everything else is equal.

RNO: It seems as if that, with the expansion of Canadian teams in MLS, the interest for other Canadian-involved leagues (such as the Canadian Soccer League) is dropping?

Mike Bakic: Well, that’s where the better soccer is. You know what, the interest dropped because that whole ethnic structure is changing. Before it was different, people came from countries where there were problems. A lot of fans and players were nationally charged – we once had bricks thrown at us! People don’t have that wish any more to prove themselves ethnically. You can’t compare the White Eagles of today and the White Eagles when we played either. I’m speaking honestly, not insultingly (if I didn’t love the White Eagles, I wouldn’t have been one of the main re-founders of that team in 2006). When we played, first of all, people were ethnically charged and second of all, games weren’t televised often – maybe only a World Cup game or two.

In Canada, games from the top European leagues were rarely televised. The only way to watch high-level soccer was to go to the stadium. That made a big difference. We brought first-leaguers here: the Greeks brought half of the Greek national team to play for their team, the Croatian team was very good, the Portuguese team had players from the Portuguese national team and so on. Those were some serious teams, it wasn’t a Mickey Mouse league. The teams brought players when it was summer break in Europe as here we played during the summer too. Nowadays, you can’t bring high-calibre players when you play in front of 100 people. You can’t pay for that. We had up to 15-20,000 people coming to our games. We were a different income level.

RNO: You played for numerous NASL teams where you’re most often listed as a forward.

Mike Bakic: I was never the main goalscorer – I was a midfielder. I was an offensive midfielder, I wasn’t a centre-forward but I scored a lot of goals. At least 20-25 per season. In Canada, I scored a lot of goals. When I left the Washington Diplomats to go play for the Houston Hurricane, Johan Cruyff arrived in Washington and played in my position (with the Dips, I was playing as left-wing). That was the season I had that groin injury and rarely played. When I actually did play, I played injured. At the end of the season, I went and had surgery on my groin. That was 1981. Later that year, I played indoor soccer for Kansas City. While playing in the NASL, the average salary was between $30-40,000 but some players earned a little less than that while some players earned a lot more.

While with Washington, I scored maybe the fastest goal in the history of the NASL. You’d have to double-check if it’s the fastest ever but I scored it in the first ten seconds of the game – most likely somewhere around the 7th and 8th second. That was against the team Sead Susic and Branko Radovic played for – the Colorado Caribous.

RNO: You played with the legendary Dragoslav Sekularac. What was that like?

Mike Bakic: Sekularac played for the Serbian White Eagles in 1975. We were with the White Eagles in Columbia while Sekularac was playing for Santa Fe. Then, in 1975, Sekularac came and played for the White Eagles as player-coach. In one exhibition indoor soccer game, we represented Toronto. We played in Lyon and we beat Lyon 14-11. Sekularac and I scored six goals each! You know what that means? Eusébio was part our team but we loaned him to Lyon for that one match. This was October of 1974.

Also while with the White Eagles, we played at the Maple Leaf Gardens and the stadium was jam-packed. Stars from all over the world played in that tournament. I’m talking English national team players such as captain Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton and Jackie Charlton. This is history. That’s how indoor soccer started in Toronto (the indoor soccer we have today in America). We invented that. Who invented that is Dragan “Don” Popovic.

Don Popovic was the coach when they brought me here. Don was coach 1972, 1973 and 1974. After that, Dragoslav Sekularac was brought in to replace Don which was a mistake in my opinion – although I love Sekularac and I brought him here to coach the new expansion White Eagles in 2006 when I was president – but it was a big mistake. Don Popovic proved what kind of a coach he was, he made us into the best team on this continent. With Popovic, there was no fooling around during games or practices. If you’re not trying, you’re out.

We (the White Eagles) beat Vardar in an international friendly. Vardar was near the top of the Yugoslav table at that time and in this match, they played with their entire first-team including Dragan Mutibaric who was the national team goalkeeper at that time. We beat them which means we had a serious team. We went to Columbia and beat a Columbian first division team. The White Eagles were a team that could beat any one! Many of the players from the White Eagles who came over to play, most of them are still here. Some of these players were big in the former Yugoslavia as well – big players such as Miroslav Vardic. Vardic came in 1975 and played here. We had some big players. We were champions of the league (the National Soccer League), the cup and we were the best team in North America. We played in the CONCACAF Cup, representing Canada.

RNO: In that 1975 CONCACAF Cup, in the Serbian White Eagles’ match against Monterrey, the match was abandoned due to a fight!?

Mike Bakic: Monterrey had a great team, they were the champion of Mexico. The game was cancelled here in Toronto (this was at Varsity Stadum or Exhibition Stadium) because our fans ran on to the field and we lost because of that, which makes sense. It starts in a game like that, a little pushing and shoving between the players and the fans ran onto the field. Stupidity. That started in Monterrey as we had an excellent team and they were very aggressive and of course, when a team is aggressive, they play dirty soccer. Then you have to defend against that and you get into the whole silly – instead of playing soccer – both teams try to physically prevent the other team from playing. Mexico then was on the same level as the Yugoslav national team. If you compare the results of Mexico against Yugoslavia, I’m pretty sure Mexico won most of the matches against Yugoslavia.

RNO: What is Mike Bakic up to today?

Mike Bakic: I’m now in fitness and nutrition. I’m a certified master personal trainer. That doesn’t mean I’m a doctor or anything but it’s basically general knowledge. I also have a certificate in sports nutrition. From a fitness perspective, I obviously have a record of personal achievements which, on the pyramid, is at the excellence level. The only people at that level are the ones who played for their country and I did. I work in the gym, people come to me, I go to them – all sorts of places.


RNO: Mike, you have an astounding collection of never-before-seen photographs from the era you played in. Could you explain the stories behind some of them?

Mike Bakic: The team photo where you see Eusébio struggling to crouch, that is from that exhibition match in Lyon I was telling you about where we represented Toronto. I’m the third one from the right in the top row of that photo.

The photo you see there of me and the trophy, that was taken after the Washington Diplomats defeated the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers 4-1 on April 16, 1978. I scored a goal and was voted man of the match. The men I’m surrounded by are Henry Kissinger who was a huge soccer fan and since he was a well known American politician, he was invited by the league and awarded me with the trophy. The other two are NASL commissioner Phil Woosnam and a representative of the Happy Days tobacco company who made a donation to charity in my name.

The photo where I’m celebrating is right after that goal – I’m being congratulated by Bobby Stokes who scored the only goal for Southampton when they won the FA Cup, Ray Graydon from Aston Villa and Sakib Viteskic (number 6) from Sarajevo and MVV. In the other “group-hug” photo, I’m getting kudos from Guus Hiddink.

RNO: Thank you Mike. I thoroughly enjoyed this as statistics and photographs from that era of North American soccer are scarce.

Mike Bakic: Of course. This is history that, if not properly documented, will be forgotten. Lost. It’s especially important to document the beginnings of indoor soccer in North America as well as that is at even greater risk of being lost. Thank you as well and let’s hope these photos are preserved over time.