Having come to the United States as a refugee from war-torn Bosnia two decades ago, Slavisa Ubiparipovic knows all too well about transitions in life.
Only 12 years old when his family of four was placed by an aid group in their first U.S. home in a rough part of downtown Cleveland in 1999, Ubiparipovic quickly came to understand that what you see on television or postcards isn’t always the sweet reality.
Unless, maybe, you come to San Diego.
Ubiparipovic, a Sockers acquisition in an offseason trade with Utica FC who has contributed heavily to the MASL indoor club’s 6-1 start, chuckled when asked before a recent game if his young life might have been different had his family first settled in Southern California.
“Just the lifestyle itself … everything is different,’ Ubiparipovic said. “It’s like a different country, even though it’s America. It’s California. It’s definitely different.”
When he arrived a couple months ago after an entire adult life spent on the East Coast, in cities such as Utica and Syracuse, Ubiparipovic settled into a house in Pacific Beach. Some San Diegans would argue the neighborhood is a foreign land itself, but for the first time in his life, Ubiparipovic, 32, can get up in the morning and take a stroll at the beach.
“I love it. I enjoy it,” Ubiparipovic said.
The Sockers are appreciating the deft ball skills and field vision that the left-footed midfielder — known to his teammates simply as “Slav” — has added to a squad that has searched for a piece to put it over the top in a championship drought that has lasted six years.
Coming off a career-best year of 40 points (19 goals, 21 assists) last season for Utica, Ubiparipovic leads San Diego in goals (8) and points (13).
“He’s the type of player who can change a game every time he touches the ball,” Sockers General Manager Sean Bowers said.
The considerable soccer skills of Ubiparipovic and his brother, Sinisa, 36, whose 11-year U.S. pro career included stints with the New York Red Bulls and Montreal Impact of MLS, afforded the men more opportunity than most other immigrants could fathom.
The brothers set Ohio high school scoring records and earned college scholarships and degrees. Sinisa Ubiparipovic is now the head men’s soccer coach at Cleveland State. Slavisa, who attended Xavier and Cleveland State, is playing his ninth indoor season — the first seven with the Syracuse Silver Knights before they moved to Utica in 2018.
Their parents both worked in a plastics and metal factory in suburban Cleveland, which very much could have been Slavisa’s fate had he not excelled at soccer.
“That’s the reality of most of the foreign kids who come here,” Ubiparipovic said. “The kids from Bosnia, they go to the factories. It’s either a factory or living in your parents’ basem*nt.”
Imagine having a comfortable, middle-class life and then having it all ripped away by circ*mstances completely out of your control. That was the situation for so many families in the former country of Yugoslavia when war broke out in the region in 1992.
Ubiparipovic said his parents lost nearly everything during the early years of the conflict. He recalled snipers shooting at the feet of children playing — not to hurt them, but to warn them to run inside because bombings were about to commence.
“As a kid, you don’t understand what’s going on,” Ubiparipovic said. “The more I understood the situation as an adult, it was, like, ‘Wow, we survived that.’ It was crazy. My mom was left a lot to herself to take care of me and my brother. She did the best she could.”
The Ubiparipovic parents were of mixed religions. The father was Greek Orthodox and mother was Catholic. That put them in a dangerous no-man’s land of allegiances, and for the safety of the family they applied for aid to move to the U.S.
When they were finally cleared to travel in 1999, a church group found housing in Cleveland, but the conditions were so bad Ubiparipovic remembers his father saying, “Don’t unpack your bags. If this is it, we’re going back.”
“It was very rough,” Ubiparipovic said. “We came here with 30 dollars in our pockets. Nobody knew English. My parents found a job working in a factory for 6 bucks an hour.”
It wasn’t all bad. That work led the family to settle in the pleasant suburbs of Mentor, Ohio, where the boys became soccer stars.
“It’s something that every kid dreams of — being a professional soccer player,” Ubiparipovic said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for me playing on the big field.
“People said I was a better player, but my brother was more dedicated. I didn’t take things as seriously. I realized later in life that I made a mistake, but I’ve tried to make it better for at least indoors.”
The way Ubiparipovic can make the ball dance, as if on a string, is reminiscent of another former Sockers Eastern Bloc refugee, Hungarian Juli Veee. Bowers marveled at Ubipariopovic’s recent goal against Tacoma, in which he trapped a loose ball with his chest, and with his back to the net, turned and volleyed a blistering shot into the upper corner.
“There are not that many players in the league who can do that,” Bowers said. “That’s the type of excitement he brings.”
The general manager raves that as good as Ubiparipovic is as a player, he’s a better person.
“He wants to make the team better,” Bowers said.
Perhaps it is the perspective provided by a life of unthinkable challenges. Ubipariopovic, now an American citizen, insisted there are no grudges or regrets for a childhood filled with hardship.
“To this day, I have many friends who are Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian,” he said. “When we get together, we play our music and have fun. We don’t worry about the politics. It’s a thing of the past and we made it out alive.”
