It’s a club from a city of the same name that is a suburb of Rimini, a town which sports over 15 million overnight stays on a yearly basis
NK Osijek president Ivan Mestrovic will soon take command of an Italian club – Santarcangelo- that competes in the Serie C and is currently in the lower half of the ladder. Mestrovic is determined to not only stabilize the club, but also to catapult them into a higher division.
“Osijek is my love, and Santarcangelo will be my little “lover”. It’s a small town 10 km away from Rimini, which is a real little tourist attraction of the Italian North Adriatic. I should be the former owner of the club in 2 weeks’ time. Santarcangelo is playing in the 3rd league, the league having 3 divisions with 20 clubs each whose mean budget is from 3-4 million Euros, which surpasses the budgets of most of our 3rd league teams” said Mestrovic.
A Novel, Great Challenge
The man who initiated Osijek’s ascension added that he has serious plans in Italy: “It is merely the first step in a broader project that I plan, namely the fusion of Santarcangelo with a club from Rimini, playing in Serie D. These 2 clubs will merge into a bigger, more successful one whose base of operations will be in Rimini, a city of 150,000 with 1,200 hotels and an astounding 15 overnight bookings annually! The whole of Emilia Romagna longs for quality football. It will surely be a challenge for me to realize all of this.”
It will be a tight Cooperation
The question imposes itself if Osijek and Santarcangelo will cooperate.
“We all know what the Italian football market is like. Even the lower-division games are a true market for players, so we believe that our prime roster players will be bolstered by some foreign players. Football is tantamount to a religion in Italy and it is a big deal to enter their football world. Regarding the cooperation between NK Osijek and Santarcangelo, it will surely be very “intimate”. This winter, we are sending some of our players over to help the Italians make it to the Serie B.”
Mestrovic is closely tied to the Apenine Peninsula in business terms, and now it will be even more intimate: “I will soon move to Italy, so that Santarcangelo will do me well over there. The Italian football market is the strongest in Europe and I think that I came to the right place at the right time” The club president added.
