Serbian White Eagles and Spanish Future Stars FC have one thing in common – they both import players from other countries. Beyond that, the two teams are strikingly different with a background contrasting to the extreme.
The history of Serbian White Eagles in Canada goes back to 1968 in the National Soccer League while based in Hamilton. The team moved to Toronto in the early 70s to import players mostly from Yugoslavia building a reputation as one of the top teams in Canadian soccer. Serbian White Eagles became the first Canadian team to reach the CONCACAF Champions Cup final, emblematic of the North American championship, losing to FC Monterrey of Mexico.
White Eagles entered the Canadian Soccer League in 2006 and attracted a lot of attention when the club signed Dragoslav Secularac as head coach. Sacularac was in earlier times one of the greatest players in Europe and known as the ‘King of Dribble’. It was the second time Secularac joined Serbian White Eagles. The team went on to be in the CSL Championship final four times, winning twice and winning several league titles.
Future Stars FC origins are in Colombia and the Canadian side was founded in Toronto in 2023, Several local players are under contract and the roster is being fortified with players mostly from South America and some from Africa. The club is at an early building stage.
Serbian White Eagles and Spanish Future Stars opened the CSL season in the first match semifinal of the Royal CSL Cup competition at Centennial Stadium = recently re-named the Rob Ford Stadium in tribute to Toronto City mayor Rob Ford, who died in 2016 following a battle with cancer at the age of 46.
The Royal CSL Cup is also a memorial tribute, to CSL games announcer Enio Perruzza who called the league’s matches for more than two decades. Enio Perruzza passed away in January 2021 at the age of 54.
Serbian White Eagles outplayed Future Stars throughout the 90 minutes from an early strike after three minutes to the 12th goal at 86 minutes. The one-sided event was not unexpected while a well drilled Serbian White Eagles team under head coach Bojan Zoranovic assisted by Uros Stamatovic tore into a Spanish Future Stars under head coach Daniel Villa and assistant Camilo Carmelo.
Spanish Future Stars have an abundance of local players and imports on trial from South America (mostly Colombia) and Africa. The CSL waived the eligibility under contract requirement in this three-match memorial event to accommodate the final roster selection process for Future All Stars and teams still at the trial stage before creating their final roster for the regular season.
It took just three minutes for Serbian White Eagles forward Vladimir Strizovic to find the net with a low drive from the edge of the box, to be followed by midfielder Nikola Djurkovic increasing the lead to 2-0 seven minutes later, a well- placed drive inside the right post . First half goals were added by Strizovic who took a pass from the right wing to score from 15 yards, Milos Mijatovic at 22 minutes to make it 4-0 and it became clear a rout was in store.
Nikola Timotijevic scored his first goal of a second half hat-trick at 47 minutes, finding the net again at 63 and 70 minutes, a second half hat-trick was also scored by forward Marko Pavicevic and a single was struck by midfielder Bozan Sisovic.
Serbian White Eagles advance to the Royal CSL Cup Final to meet the winner of the second semifinal between Scarborough and Unity FC set for Sunday, June 2 at Esther Shiner Stadium, a 6 pm start. The final game will be played on Sunday, June 9 at Esther Shiner Stadium, also a 6 pm kickoff and the CSL regular season will be underway with the opening game Serbian White Eagles vs Scarborough on Friday, June 14, an 8 pm kickoff at Centennial Stadium.
