Former Sacramento Republic forward Ismar Tandir forging path in Europe

Ismar Tandir’s stint with Sacramento Republic was brief, a matter of weeks in the club’s debut 2014 season, but the player continues to ply his trade in Europe, and he’s still just 25 years old.

Tandir, who departed the club after making a single appearance in the championship season with Sac Republic, has played the rest of his career so far in a variety of European leagues, currently with Zemplin Michalovce in the Slovak first division.

The club are sitting in 10th place in the 12-team league, and Tandir recently showed off a goal highlight in a 4-3 win to close out play in December.

Tandir has two goals in eight appearances so far this season for Zemplin Michalovce.

He was born in Germany and grew up in the United States, holding citizenship with the U.S. and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Coming through the New York Red Bulls academy, and kicking off his career with French club Sochaux’s reserve team, he made his sojourn with Sac Republic. In the years since, he’s played in Iceland (Breidablik), Serbia (Javor Ivanjica), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sloboda Tuzla), Czech Republic (Frydek-Mistek, Sigma Olumouc) and Slovakia (Ružomberok, Pohronie, and Zemplin Michalovce). His best run to date has been with Ružomberok, where he racked up over 1,400 minutes and scored nine goals in the 2018-19 season.

I think we think of professional careers often at the highest level, of our local teams and a handful of top leagues abroad and forget about the true diversity of soccer on our planet. Even in Europe exclusively, Tandir has forged his own well-traveled path, as he’s played for a variety of teams you may or may not have heard of before stateside. You certainly have to respect his persistence as he continues to fight for a spot where he can ply his trade and bang in some goals.

Again, Tandir is still just 25, so there could be several more chapters left in his career. So we’ll see what happens for him moving forward.

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