DRINA FOOTBALL CLUB - SAN JOSE

Drina Football Club, formerly known as the Rose Garden Boys was founded over thirty years ago by our pal, friend, colleague, sponsor, and fellow football player Milan Mandaric who is hugely influential to all European Soccer activities in the Silicon Valley.

Throughout the years, the Rose Garden has become a place for gathering "old country" football enthusiasts to celebrate our football stars, converse about the news from the old world while sharing traditional food and drink with each other. Milan's philanthropic spirit is ever-present at these gatherings where he has upon many occasions shared his insights and answered our questions about anything and everything. For those of us who have watched his career blossom into this legendary status we where truly pleased to observe that fame and success has not changed him. Even after significant demographic changes in our club, Milan has embraced our new members with the same enthusiasm as had always shown us in the past.

For those of us who live here in the Silicon Valley, it is obvious how difficult it is for a man from our part of the world to rise up and attain so much success amidst the deluge of competition. It is very difficult to leave your familial homeland to find strangers in a foreign land who are for the most part reluctant to give you a helping hand. This sentiment is summarized by our patriotic writer Alexa Santic in his poem, "Do Not Leave Your Homeland". Another literary genius that comes to light in reference to Milan is Petar Petrovic Negos, who poetically illustrates the difficulty of finding a genius in the woods compared to finding a genius in a large city. Negos' powerful, suggestive, and persuasive message illustrates Milan's life and how legends are made amidst the ever present fight between good, evil, justice and punishment. One of the greatest German poets, author of Faust and other great works, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, learned Serbian so that he may comprehend Negos' writing in its original form in which Negos wrote that we can all be certain that sometime in our lives and sooner rather than later, we will experience a touch of bitterness (amari aliquid). This is not an ode to the great literary figures and poets but the greatness referred to when Milan Mandaric comes to mind.

We sincerely appreciate and thank Milan for all his generous endowments. Thank you Milan again, from the bottom of our heart. We will carry with us the very many untold stories connected to you that will inspire many generations to come. We are sure that Drina Footbal Club will continue the tradition of prosperous guidance for young talents to excel. e would like to recognize some of the very talented boys in our club inlcuding Darko Lazovic, Bojan Nikolic, Nebojsa Zolotic, Milivoje Cvijetinovic, Bato Minic, Ivan Gavric-Ika, for their overall talent not only in the field but in character and sportsmanship. They stand as excellent examples to the up and coming generation. We would also like to recognize Nebojsa Iric, Branko Radosavljevic, Emil Dragicevic, Branko Sudar, Svetlica Miroslav, Danilo Cukic, Sasa Cukic, Bojan Cukic, Zoran Cvijic, Deni Urosevic. Followed by, Dusan Nenadic, Milan Kupresanin, Radenko Losic, Nenad Vukicevic, Rasa Bozinovic, Momcilo Popovic, Dragoljub Starcevic- Braca, Dragan Tomic-Topa, Pajovic Miroslav-Paja, Vukadin Radomir-Raca, Aca Stojecevski, Makedonac, Nikola Jurkovic, Milan Smrzlic, Ljubomir Gataric-referee, Jimy Radetic, Valejo and Slobodan Zivkovic-Boban (who is currently in Chicago), Mirko Karajica-in LA., Aca Babic iz Windzora. We would like to give special recognition to Selimir Lazic "Laza" from Stubline, Mitar Neric from Rogatica and our well known and well liked Bulgarian born Kamen, Aca Makedonac, Ljubisa Stamenov, Veljko Campara, Dobrilo Nikolic.

In addition to the current great members it would be a great injustice to overlook the mention of our dear veterans Gabo Gavric, our indispensable left guard OFK Beograd, Djole Supica from Vallejo, our alternate coach Milenko Urosevic-Milence, Boban Smiljanic from Germany and Desimir Radisic-Deske. Additionally, we would also like to honor our celebrated football players whom we do not see as often as we like including the charming, well respected, and influential Mirko Stojanovic, and Ilija Mitic, who is also one of the most talented players from Matekalos Partizan and of course Vladimir Todorovic who once played for both BSK and Partizana. Incidentally, Vladimir is a charismatic friend, a superb chess and tennis player who will be remembered and revered for scoring a huge goal from approximately 30 meters away against Vladimir Bear.
All of us who really care about our soccer club are watching closely as we transition into new leadership. Nebojsa Iric, whether consciously or not has taken over much of the functional responsibilities of the club with some help from Duska Nenadic. We look forward to the future of our club with the certainty that it will birth great players, and leaders surpassing the standards set by the current and past hugely talented pool of football players. This is just a few words about the history of our old club with a new name now – FK Drina.

Quo vadis domine: (where are you going gentlamen) Carpent tua poma nepotes: (plan for your future). Bona opinio hominum tutior pecunia est: (guard your reputation as if it were your life)

Desko