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SINGAPORE: More than a decade after ending his professional football career, Aleksandar Duric is preparing for another major sporting assignment.<\/p>\n
The former Singapore striker will be one of Team Singapore’s two assistant chefs de mission at the Asian Games in Japan, drawing on a sporting career that has taken him from the Olympics to football.<\/p>\n
Duric, 56, said his experience as a former athlete could help him support competitors before important events, whether by calming their nerves or helping them focus.<\/p>\n
“Myself and my team, who are around me, our job is to support them,\u201d he told CNA.<\/p>\n
His new role is the latest chapter in a sporting journey that has spanned more than four decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Duric’s own sporting journey began thousands of kilometres from Singapore.<\/p>\n
Born in 1970, he grew up in Doboj, a small town in the former Yugoslavia \u2013 now part of Bosnia and Herzegovina.<\/p>\n
As a child, he would collect items that could be sold to help his parents.<\/p>\n
“Life was rough and tough. It wasn’t easy to live because we weren’t (a) rich family,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Next to my house in the village, we had like a big depot of rubbish. Every day after school, we will go look for bottles, papers, metals and sell that, and you make some small money.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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