Blagoja Kuleski (, born 4 October 1962) is a Macedonian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager and former player.

Playing career

Club

Born in

Prilep Prilep ( mk, Прилеп ) is the fourth-largest city in North Macedonia. It has a population of 66,246 and is known as "the city under Marko's Towers" because of its proximity to the towers of Prince Marko. Name The name of Prilep appear ...

,"Asov Yu-Fudbala", page 39

SR Macedonia The Socialist Republic of Macedonia ( mk, Социјалистичка Република Македонија, Socijalistička Republika Makedonija), or SR Macedonia, commonly referred to as Socialist Macedonia or Yugoslav Macedonia, was ...

, back then still within Yugoslavia, Kuleski started playing in Yugoslav League for Macedonian clubs

FK Pobeda FK Pobeda ( mk, ФК Победа) is a football club based in the city of Prilep, North Macedonia. History The club was founded in 1941 as Goce Delčev and renamed in 1950 to FK Pobeda. FK Pobeda has been a winner of Macedonian First League for ...

FK Vardar FK Vardar Skopje ( mk, ФК Вардар Скопје), or simply Vardar, is a football club based in the capital city of Skopje, North Macedonia, North Macedonia. The club was founded in 1947 and currently competes in the Macedonian Second Foo ...

and

FK Pelister FK Pelister ( mk, ФК Пелистер) is a Macedonian football club based in the city of Bitola, North Macedonia. They are currently competing in the Macedonian Second League. History FK Pelister, was formed in 1945. In 1946 they won the Bitol ...

, Serbian

FK Radnički Niš Fudbalski klub Radnički (), commonly known as Radnički Niš ( sr-cyr, Раднички Ниш), is a professional football club based in ok Niš, Serbia. Its name means ''Labourers'' in Serbian and stems from the relationship with the Labour ...

, before moving to Australia, in 1992, where he played with

Marconi Stallions Marconi Stallions Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club based in Fairfield, Sydney, New South Wales. The club has been crowned Australian champion four times. The Stallions are the soccer team of Club Marconi, a social ...

, Melbourne Zebras,

Bulleen Lions FC Bulleen Lions is an Australian semi-professional football club based in the Melbourne suburb Bulleen. Founded in 1974 by Melbourne's Italian community, the club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria 2, the second high ...

and

Rockdale City Suns Rockdale Ilinden Football Club (formerly known as the Rockdale City Suns Football Club from 1992 to 2020) is an Australian Macedonian soccer club based in Sydney suburb of Rockdale. Founded in 1969, the club competes in the highest men's comp ...

. Blagoja was voted second best defender/ sweeper in 1990 in Yugoslav National League just 2 points behind Miodrag Belodedici of Red Star Belgrade who were crowned Super Cup Champions in the same year.

International

Blagoja, or Kuki, as he is better known in the football community, played the first game for Macedonia against Yugoslavia in Skopje in 1991, along the greats of Darko Pančev and Ilija Najdoski.

Managerial career

After retiring in Australia, he became a football coach managing Illawarra Lions and

Bonnyrigg White Eagles Bonnyrigg White Eagles FC is an Australian semi-professional soccer club based in Bonnyrigg, Sydney, New South Wales, currently playing in the NSW League One. The club was founded in 1968 as Avala Sports Club and took its current name in 1992. H ...

. He won the Championship two consecutive years with Bonnyrigg and promoted them back into the NSW Premier League in 2009.

References

External sources

Career
in OzFootball. * 1962 births Living people Sportspeople from Prilep Association football defenders Yugoslav footballers Macedonian footballers FK Pobeda players FK Vardar players FK Pelister players FK Radnički Niš players Marconi Stallions FC players Rockdale Ilinden FC players Yugoslav First League players Yugoslav emigrants to Australia Macedonian expatriate footballers Expatriate soccer players in Australia Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in Australia Macedonian football managers Bonnyrigg White Eagles FC managers Macedonian expatriate football managers Expatriate soccer managers in Australia Australian Macedonian soccer managers Macedonian emigrants to Australia {{RMacedonia-footy-bio-stub