Rumori Calcio started their official 2017 season prep last week in Kotka Hall.
There are several new faces among players, but an old new face is helping our goalkeepers to fine tune for III.Liiga season that will kick off in April.
Albeit an amateur club, Rumori Calcio seek to take things seriously regardless the level we might be competing. This is the reason behind ’hiring’ an active player with a recent past in Serbian professional football and a possible future in local Estonian high-profile leagues.
We’re bringing you the story of Branislav Bosika from Serbia.
A typical Rumori Calcio story where love for the game and strive for greatness combine.
#ForzaRumori #BeGreat
Cover picture and pictures in the article from Jalkafoto.com
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They say all the roads bring to Rome.
But where do the roads of football bring to?
Branislav Bosika is the typical example of how nowadays football scenarios do work far from the shiny pathways of the Millionaire Game shown on pay-tv’s.
This is the football scenario Rumori Calcio belong to, and Branislav has been part of it already for a while. Silently, as in his typical humble approach which has earned him a lot of praise and affection in our club.
He did not decide to move to Estonia, but Estonia almost chose him. ’I was in Malta at that time (2015 –edit), recounts Branislav while we sip a warm tea in Kotka Hall changing room one hour before the Rumori Calcio first pre-season session starts. Branislav (better known by everyone as ’Bane’) is a 25-year-old Serbian who traded the striking role for the goalkeeping one.
It took 9 years of his life to realize he was born a shot-stopper, but the Road to Damascus eventually happened in the year 2000.
A Sunday afternoon like any other in the home of the Bosikas: father and son watching football, what else would you expect in a Serbian household? Bane is a big fan of Crvena Cvezda (Red Star Belgrade), the club that turned European Champions in Bari (Italy) in the same year he was born (1991). ’We were watching Serie A with my dad, a scudetto clash between Parma and Juventus,’ recounts the 190cm-tall Serbian. At that time, Gianluigi Buffon was still Parma’s goal defendant: a 6-year spell that would have eventually ended in 2001 when he moved to Juventus. ’I saw Gigi for the first time,’ tells Bane with the same kid’s eyes he had that Sunday afternoon ’he was unbelievable’ and it was a moment to tell his dad he had changed his mind: I don’t want to score goals, I want to prevent them!
However, it took another while before Bane made it to professional football. ’Prior to 2012, I had never played for any pro club before,’ admits the ’golman’ (as they call keepers in Serbia) ’but that season my football career took a turn when I put a signature on a real contract: I became a goalkeeper of FK Bezanija’.
Fudbalski klub Bežanija is a club from Novi Beograd, New Belgrade, an independent municipality de-facto part of the Serbian capital. Founded in 1921, the Lavovi (lions) ply their trade in Serbian second tier (Prva Liga).
Thanks to their good work with the youth sector, the club can boast a preliminary round of UEFA Cup (2007-08) when they lost to Albanians of KS Besa Kavaje in the first round and only on away goals.
As usual for a young player, coaches played a key-role in making Bane the athlete he is now. ’If I am what I am , I owe both to Gordan Petric, my coach at Bezanija, and to goalkeepers coach Nenad Sabic.’ To the more attemptive football fans, the name of Gordan Petric will not be new. After a career at home with Partizan Beograd (he turned Jugoslavian Champion in 1992-93) he moved onto Rangers Glasgow first (where he won everything from 1995 till 1997) and to Crystal Palace after, before ending his career at the Hearts of Midlothian in Edinburgh. He was part of that unrepeatable Balcanic selection that was the U-20 Jugoslavia winning the category World Cup in 1987 in Chile. A team made up of the likes of Jarni, Stimac, Boban, Prosinecki, Mijatovic, Suker and many others, a team best known as ’The European Brazil’. ’Gordan has not only been a great coach,’ describes Bane ’but has managed to develop such psychological skills which make him someone out of the ordinary in the coaching world. He has understood that football is not only about training the body, but mainly about training the brain: would you say this is not necessary in nowadays football?’ asks rethorically the former kid of Novi Beograd who chose the gloves instead of the scoring stripes.
Sabic did the rest in teacing him the basics of the profession.
Knowledge now Bane has accepted to transfer to our roaster of goalkeepers for season 2017.
How did Bane find Rumori Calcio? Before becoming the very first Serbian national to wear the club’s jersey (in a Rahvaliiga fixture –edit) Bane reached Kotka Hall thanks to the usual word of mouth: ’I arrived in Tallinn in August 2016,’ recounts Bane who left Malta, his temporary home for few months before meeting his wife, Anna, a Finnish citizen living and working in Tallinn ’and I did know very little about football here. Some friends talked to me about this expats’ football club, so I started to train with them.’
Coach Angelo Palmeri reminds Bane’s first training. ’I immediately understood he was a high-profile goalkeeper for our level,’ recounts our gaffer ’albeit physical form was rusty, you could see he had all the moves of a pro.’ Due to bureaucratic issues, Rumori Calcio was not able to ’sign’ Bane at least as a second keeper in order to replace our very first one, Filippo Zanin, when the latter was due to be unavailable. ’At the same time,’ confesses the 42-year-old coach holding an Estonian FA C-licence ’I felt he could have aimed for a higher level, which was confirmed to me later by his CV…plainly talking, he was an overkill for IV.Liiga!’. But bureaucratic issues seemed to taunt Bane’s football path once again: ’it was the same reason why I could not play for FC Qormi in Malta (a club from the local top-league –edit) albeit I had been training with them through all my time on the Mediterranean island.’
With a fully valid Estonian residence permit in his hands and 8-month term to wait before being registered according to Estonian football rules for higher tiers when comes to an amateur football player’s contract, Bane is chomping at the bit while training with Nõmme Kalju U21, a team which look like very determined to enroll him when the term will be over (June – edit).
’I’m indeed training with them,’ confirms Bane, the Kalju U21 will play in Esiliiga B, the third tier of the six ’and the offer to join the team looks quite concrete: I’d say difficult times are behind and everything looks quite exciting now, I just need a bit of additional patience.’
Until his debut with Kalju U21, the only games in the Estonian football will be a couple of fixtures in the Rahvaliiga B with Rumori Calcio II. Coach Angelo Palmeri explains: ’since we moved Mikko Miettinen to first team, the second team ran short of gloves in the crucial moment of the Summer when they reached the play-offs. Bane was superb, not only for his performances on the pitch, but for his attitude. He helped the second team in a serious and professional way, regardless the level he was playing and he was really one of the lads. He helped keeping the sheet clean in Nabala (0-2) and saved the day many times in Jõgeva when luck did not come our way.’
For a moment, Bane returned to his striking role, again Coach Palmeri explains: ’it’s true and it was my decision since I was replacing second team coach Renè Moeller in Jõgeva. Due to playing conditions (11v11 with no offside –edit) I thought that in the event of a penalty assigned during the game, he would be the best rested player to take it. It happened and Bane went from the spot. He was unlucky, because the opposing keeper was very good in reading and saving it. But then he helped us keeping afloat before we could equalize (1-1) and bring the game to extra time. A penalty never defines a football player, it’s a lottery. Bane was defined in those 210’ of play-offs: a serious and focused professional, all the rest comes natural.’
Bane found himself like in a ’family’ at Rumori, this is why he decided to double his weekly engagement and visit the first team season prep’s sessions twice a week, on top of his Kalju’s trainings, as Rumori Calcio’s goalkeepers coach: ’Coach Angelo Palmeri helped me a lot,’ he says with one of his big smiles ’he welcomed me to Rumori family with open arms. The team spirit here is incredibly good, they are really like a big (and happy) family. They’re all from different backgrounds, but with just ’One Love’ in their heart, football.’
Albeit too early to hang the gloves to the usual nail, Bane will be 26 in November, an age that allows him to give some advices to the younger keepers: ’keepers must…keep going,’ laughs at the involuntary pun ’due to their unique role, they can never ever give up! Albeit a team sport, when you are in goal, you have the biggest responsibility on the pitch: defending that net, and the line that separates success from failure…it’s almost all down to you sometimes and you must accept it and be prepared. This is why it’s utterly important to have the right mentality and strong belief in oneself, otherwise it will be hard to make a great career.’
Understood kids?
A video of Bane’s skills is available below on YouTube
