Wednesday, September 30, 2009

FK Vardar

FK Vardar (Macedonian: ФК Вардар) is a football team from Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, that currently plays in the Macedonian First League. The club plays at the Philip II Arena (current capacity 25,000 - in construction).   The club was founded in 1947.  Vardar's most glorious moment came in 1987, when the team lead by Darko Pančev, Ilija Najdoski, Dragan Kanatlarovski, Čedomir Janevski and Vujadin Stanojkovic won the Yugoslav First League 1986-87 title.     By winning the league Vardar became the first and only Macedonian club to win the national Yugoslav Championship, temporarily breaking the dominance of the big four of Yugoslav football at that time; Red Star Belgrade, Partizan Belgrade, Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split.        Vardar won the title from Partizan Belgrade by 1 point due to Partizan and 9 other teams starting the 1986-87 season with negative 6 points due to match fixing irregularities committed on the 34th and final round of the season before. The title was subsequently awarded to FK Partizan in 1988 when the points deductions were successfully appealed to the Yugoslav Constitutional Court.      
 
Vardar did however represent SFR Yugoslavia in the 1987-88 UEFA European Champions Cup where they lost in the first round to Porto of Portugal over two legs. See Yugoslav First League 1985-86.  Following the breakup of Yugoslavia and the formation of the Macedonian First League, Vardar established itself as the dominant club in the new competition, winning three consecutive league titles and two Macedonian Cups.     
 
For the next six years however the club experienced a relative dry spell, yet still winning two national cups. The club's fortunes looked up with the return of coach Gjoko Hadžievski, who led the club to another two titles.     
League Titles Yugoslav Champions    * 1987      
Macedonian Champions    * 1993  * 1994  * 1995  * 2002  * 2003           
Cup Titles Yugoslav Cup    * 1961       
Macedonian Cup    * 1993  * 1995  * 1998  * 1999  * 2007  
  Records
* Most Goals: Andon Doncevski (217 goals)    * Best Goals Per Game Average: Darko Pancev (207 matches/132 goals - 0.65 goals per match)    * Most goals in single season (Macedonian League): Saša Ćirić 1992/93 (36 goals)    * Most goals in European Competition: Wandeir 2003/04-05 (14 goals)    * Most Successful Coach: Gjoko Hadzievski (5 league titles, 2 national cups)
   FK Vardar supporters are known as Komiti and they were founded in 1987. 

Sunday, September 27, 2009

FK Pelister

FK Pelister (Macedonian: ФК Пелистер) is a football club based in the city of Bitola, Republic of Macedonia. The team plays in the Macedonian First League.

The club was originally formed back in 1924 under the name Omladina, followed by Pelister and then SK Bitola. In 1945 the team was renamed back to Pelister and has used that name ever since. 

The team played in the lower divisions of the former Yugoslavia and were champions of Macedonia in 1960, 1961, 1975 and 1982 along with winning the old Macedonian Cup in 1990. They earned promotion to the Yugoslav Second League for the first in team history in 1974. Soon after they were relegated but made another comeback in 1982 with Mitko Butlevski as chairman and Ivan Čabrinović as manager.

Their greatest achievement up to date was winning the 2001 Macedonian Cup, after which they played in the UEFA Cup. Since the formation of the Macedonian First League, they played there every season up until 2003 when the team fell on hard times caused by financial problems. 

A few years later former players Mitko Stojkovski and Toni Micevski were able to save the club from collapse, after taking over the club they brought instant success with the team winning the Macedonian Second League title in 2005. The following year they made a successful comeback to the Macedonian First League and got to the Macedonian Cup semi-final.


Notable players to come from the Pelister youth system are: Gjorgji Hristov, Dragan Kanatlarovski, Toni Micevski, Nikolče Noveski, Toni Savevski and Mitko Stojkovski. Overall the club is best known for developing some of the best young talents in the country.

Pelister played 3 times in the National Cup Finals (1993, 1994, 2001) and won the Macedonian National Football Cup once in 2001.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Prosti mi - Tanja Stankovic Dimovska

Tanja Dimovska (previously known in the Macedonian public as Tanja Stankovic) is a Macedonian singer, born May 3rd 1967 in Skopje, in Republic of Macedonia. She graduates on the Macedonian music academy as a choir conductor and a music teacher in 1989. She works as a music school teacher, after she starts a music career and been active for few years.

During that period she has few big hits, performs on the most important Macedonian music festivals and has few duets as well. Takes place in the Macedonian Eurovision delegation in Birmingham, United Kingdom as a back up singer for Vlado Janevski in 1998.

In the late '90-ies she leaves the country and moves to Croatia with her family (husband Igor Dimovski - guitarist, well known to the Macedonian public, and her son Julian) where she earns a Master’s degree in church music from the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Osijek, Croatia.

In 2008, moves with her family in Chicago (Illinois), where she works as a piano and voice teacher in a private music school.

Tanja Stankovic's dicsography:

* Sareni snista (1993)
* Ruke podizem (2001)
* Ne zaboravlja me Isus moj (2003)
* Marushevec live with church choir of Marushevec(2004)
* Tanja and friends sing Christmas song to you (2006).







She was as well, a junior school music teacher to the author of this blog. Tanja, you are the best! ;-)

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Jeremiah Massey

Jeremiah Massey (born July 22, 1982 in Detroit, Michigan), is a naturalized Macedonian professional basketball player, originally from the United States. Massey's Macedonian language Cyrillic name transcription is Џеремаја Мејси, and his Latin name transcription is Djeremaja Mejsi. At 6 ft 7 ½ in (2.02 m), weighing 235 lbs. (107 kg), he plays the power forward position. 

He currently plays for Real Madrid, a Spanish professional basketball team. Real competes in the Spanish League and the Euroleague.


He played his college basketball at Kansas State University, playing for the Kansas State Wildcats. He earned the Big 12 newcomer of the year honor in 2004. He was named to the 3rd and 2nd All Big 12 teams in 2004 and 2005 respectively.

He was selected 5th overall in the 2005 USBL draft. He started his professional basketball career in 2005 playing for Gymnastikos S. Larissas, a mid-level team in the Greek League. In 2005-06 season he was the leading rebounder in the Greek League. 

This was the main reason why he was acquired by Aris, one of the top 3 teams in the Greek League, prior to the 2006-07 season. He was declared the most spectacular basketball player of the Euroleague 2006-07 season.


Massey signed a two-year contract extension through the year 2009 with his club Aris in the summer of 2007, but Aris sold his rights to Real Madrid in 2008.

Massey plays internationally for the Macedonian national basketball team, after acquiring Macedonian citizenship in 2008. He has played for Macedonia in the EuroBasket 2009 qualification in September 2008, helping the team to reach the final tournament for the first time since 1999. On the current Eurobasket 2009 he is one of the most competitive players together with Pero Antic who is adored by the Macedonian supporters.


Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Fyrom - short story

This short story was written by Allan Stevo, Slovakian American where he shares his oppinion about the senseless name dispute between Macedonia and Greece. Allan Stevo, writer and lecturer, has been featured in Pravda, Twin City Journal, the Chicago Tribune, and other media.

His controversial 2008 U.S. congressional campaign was the subject of a forthcoming documentary along with the subsequent case that made it to the U.S. Supreme Court this past spring. He’s received grants from the Austrian Ministry of Education, funds from the Slovak government, tutored the children of Ambassadors and CEOs and given lessons to Iraqi NGO leaders.

He is the author of 4 books of poetry and has had his work published in, has translated for, or has edited for 45 publications. He is 29 years old and is currently working on a novel.


“Hi, my name’s Allan. Pleased to meet you.”
“You’re name’s not Allan, your name’s Fyrom.”
“Excuse me?”
“Fyrom, Fyrom’s your name. Not Allan.”
“How do you figure?”
“Well, Fyrom’s a name my friends and I came up with for you.”
“But my name’s Allan. That’s the name I’ve always had.”
“Always?”
“Well, ever since I’ve been around.”
“Ok. Well, listen. Your new name is Fyrom. The name Allan’s already been taken.”
“So what if it’s taken. It’s my name. Other people can use it too.”
“Well, we don’t like it when you use it. We know somebody else called Allan and if you use it, it makes you seem like an imposter.”
“But it’s my name.”
“What is?”
“Allan.”
“No. Your name’s Fyrom. Allan is somebody else’s name.”
“Okay, you can call me Fyrom if you want, but my name’s still Allan.”
“No, it isn’t. It’s Fyrom.”
“How are you going to tell me what my name is?”
“That’s what I’m doing right now.”
“Okay, well you can call me that, but I’m still going to introduce myself to people as Allan.”
“No you won’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, if you do that, they’ll just sort of laugh at you uncomfortably.”
“Why?”
“Because your name’s Fyrom, and there can only be one Allan, and they will know you aren’t him.”
“What are you going to do, talk to everyone in the world and tell them my name’s not really Allan?”
“If we have to.”
Allan stared blankly at him. He had hoped this would be kind of a fun evening. It was his 18th birthday. Tonight meant independence at last.
“Well, I don’t care for the name Fyrom.”
“Which name would you prefer?”
“Allan.”
“Not possible.”
“Fyrom sounds weird.”
“Pick a better name then.”
“Nope, I’m Allan.”
“Have it your way. Good luck trying to convince anyone of that.”
“Listen, I’m Allan. My parents know I’m Allan. My brothers and sisters know I’m Allan. They all call me Allan. All the most important people in my life call me Allan.”
“Yeah? When was the last time they did that?”
“I don’t know. When they walked in the door and wished me happy birthday.”
“No, none of them called you Allan
. They’ve all agreed that your new name is Fyrom. We spoke to them earlier today. They just prefer not to call you Fyrom to your face because they know it will bother you. All except for that weird Swedish guy in the corner. He’s still calling you Allan. He even calls you Allan when you’re not around. He refuses to call you Fyrom.”

Allan looked over at the Swedish guy kind of uncomfortably. Allan barely even knew him. Could that really be the only person in this room still calling him Allan?

“Okay, Fyrom, I’ve gotta run. Congratulations on turning 18. Welcome to the world. You’re on your own now. I wish you all the best. And even though Fyrom’s a weird name, I appreciate you being so good about this.”

And he walked away.
And then Fyrom looked around the room, not quite sure what to believe.