{"id":5648,"date":"2025-10-01T07:16:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T11:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serbianwhiteeagles.ca\/en\/?p=5648"},"modified":"2025-10-03T07:38:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T11:38:48","slug":"in-memoriam-dragan-don-popovic-1941-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serbianwhiteeagles.ca\/en\/2025\/10\/in-memoriam-dragan-don-popovic-1941-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"IN MEMORIAM: DRAGAN &#8220;DON&#8221; POPOVIC (1941\u20132025)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"180\" height=\"241\" src=\"https:\/\/serbianwhiteeagles.ca\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/Don_Popovic_crop.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5654\" srcset=\"https:\/\/serbianwhiteeagles.ca\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/Don_Popovic_crop.jpg 180w, https:\/\/serbianwhiteeagles.ca\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/Don_Popovic_crop-149x200.jpg 149w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Serbian White Eagles Football Club regrets to announce that our former player and coach Dragan &#8220;Don&#8221; Popovic passed away on September 29, 2025 in St. Louis at the age of 84.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Popovic was born to father Mihailo and mother Milica in Berane on January 1, 1941. He became a professional footballer in 1958 at the age of 17 in Yugoslavia. He was also a player for Red Star Belgrade and Hajduk Split. In 1967, he moved to the United States where he played for the St. Louis Stars in the first National Professional Football League. He also played for the Kansas City Spurs, and then moved to Canada where he played for our club in the Canadian National Football League until 1973. In the same year, he played for the Canadian national team in an exhibition match against Arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Popovic was also renowned as a coach and became the head coach of our Serbian White Eagles in 1974 and led our team to the Canadian National Football League championship in 1975.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The funeral will take place on October 6 at Bellerive Gardens Cemetery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We express our condolences to the family of Dragan Popovic as well as our gratitude for everything he did for our club. May God rest his soul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Serbian White Eagles Football Club regrets to announce that our former player and coach Dragan &#8220;Don&#8221; Popovic passed away on September 29, 2025 in St. Louis at the age of &#8230; <a title=\"IN MEMORIAM: DRAGAN &#8220;DON&#8221; POPOVIC (1941\u20132025)\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/serbianwhiteeagles.ca\/en\/2025\/10\/in-memoriam-dragan-don-popovic-1941-2025\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about IN MEMORIAM: DRAGAN &#8220;DON&#8221; POPOVIC (1941\u20132025)\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5649,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50","no-featured-image-padding"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Serbian White Eagles FC - Toronto - Canadian Soccer League<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/serbianwhiteeagles.ca\/en\/2025\/10\/in-memoriam-dragan-don-popovic-1941-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Serbian White Eagles FC - Toronto - Canadian Soccer League\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Serbian White Eagles Football Club regrets to announce that our former player and coach Dragan &#8220;Don&#8221; Popovic passed away on September 29, 2025 in St. Louis at the age of ... 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