Blagoy Simeonov

Blagoy Simeonov (Bulgarian: Благой Симеонов) was a Bulgarian international footballer.

Career

Blagoy Simeonov, known by the name of Blagoje "Blaže" Simonović, was playing along with his brother, Kiril Simonovski (Kiril Simeonov), in Građanski Skoplje in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Građanski was the dominant club of the Skoplje Football Subassociation and Simeonov brothers got to play on two occasions with Građanski in the Yugoslav Championship which was the final tournament held each year where the winners of all subassociation leagues played in order to determine the national champion. Građanski Skoplje managed to qualify twice, in 1935–36 and in 1938–39 Yugoslav Football Championship. Both Blagoy and Kiril played on both occasions.^[1][2]

Later in the season 1939–40, the system changed, and Građanski was placed in the 1939–40 Serbian League but since it finished fifth it failed to qualify to the final tournament. Blagoy Simeonov, played along his brother in the 1940–41 Serbian League as well.^[3] In total, with Građanski, Blagoy Simeonov made 24 appearances and scored 1 goal in the Yugoslav Championship, plus an uncknown number of appearances without scoring in the Serbian League.

The season 1940–41 was interrupted by the arrival of the Second World War and the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia. Skopje, the city Građanski was based in, was the capital of the Vardarska banovina within Yugoslavia, and with the start of the war the entire region was incorporated into Axis-allied Bulgaria. The new Bulgarian authorities decided to merge several of the best clubs from Skopje, namely Građanski, SSK SKoplje, ŽSK, Pobeda Skoplje and Jug, into one which they named FC Makedonia. Most of the players of the new club were former Građanski players, including their coach, Hungarian Illés Spitz. They were immediately included in the 1941 Bulgarian State Football Championship. In the first round they faced Sportklub Plovdiv and they won 2–1 at home, but due to their lack of possibility to travel for the away game, they were attributed a 0–3 defeat being that way overall eliminated. In the 1942 Bulgarian State Football Championship however, they entered much better prepared, and after taking revenge over Plovdiv in a single game won by 2–0, they qualified to the quarter-finals where they eliminated favorites ZhsK Sofia by a stunning result of 3–1 and 6–1. The semi-finals were played against Slavia Sofia, a team that by then had already been Bulgarian champion five times, and were the current title holders. Playing in Bulgarian capital Sofia where Slavia was playing at home, Makedonia shocked the audience by defeating the defending champions by 5–1. Slavia did its best in the second game, but their 3–0 win was not enough, and Makedonia qualified to the final with a 5–4 aggregate win. The final was played in two games, both in Sofia, against Levski. Both games were lost by Makedonia, the first one on 11 October 1942, by 0–2, and the second on 18 October, by 0–1. The hero and the scorer of all three goals was Bozhin Laskov. The fact that Levski didn't had to play the semi-finals may have contributed for their players to be much more fresh, while Makedonia players had come to the finals after playing many consecutive games. Also, the fact that all games were played in Sofia where Makedonia's opponents were playing at home with large crowds of fans making pressure on the referee to favorize the home team is often mentioned by Makedonia players, stuff and enthusiasts as reason why they didn't took the trophy to Skopje that season.

Despite all, Bulgarian Football Union recognised the quality of Makedonia, and after their memorable exhibition in Sofia in the 1942 Bulgarian championship, several of the players were called for Bulgarian national team. Blagoy, as well as his brother Kiril, were among them. Blagoy made one appearances for Bulgarian national team,^[4] in Sofia, on 19 July 1942, against Nazi Germany.^[5]

At the end of the war and the defeat of the Axis powers, Kiril and Blagoy returned to Yugoslavia which abolished monarchy and retook the territory of the Vardar banovina which Bulgaria had occupied during the war and turned much of its Southern parts into the newly former Socialist Republic of Macedonia, one of the six federal units (socialist republics) forming the newly established SFR Yugoslavia. During the war, Yugoslavia had two factions resisting the Axis invasions, the monarchists and the communists. As the later one won, they disbanded all major pre-war monarchic clubs and formed new ones which would be identified by the new communist ideology. As a talented footballer, Blagoy and Kiril were brought to Serbia, and while Kiril joined FK Partizan, Blagoy was signed by OFK Beograd, named temporarily Metalac Beograd at the time. He played with Metalac under the Serbianized name he used in the pre-war period while playing with Graanski in the Yugoslav championship, Blagoje Simonović. He played with Metalac in the 1946–47 having made one appearance in the league.^[6]

References