Stefan Ristic: The serbian coaching in Dominican Republic

The UEFA A lincensed serbian coach Stefan Ristic were announced as Delfines Del Este FC head
coach after the brazilian coach Luciano Mattos left the Dominican Republic club for personal reasons
after Matchday 5.

At 27-years-old, Ristic already coached canadian League One Weterloo Region and Al jazeera in QCFL Qatar and also
worked with academies. He came to Dominican Republic to a new challenge in a far from Serbia land.

Stefan Ristic during a training session

So far for Delfines he coached the club in to matches:

Matchday 6: Delfines del Este FC 0 x 2 Cibao FC on May 5th, 2019 in Panamericano de San Cristóbal;

Matchday 7:Barcelona Atlético 2 x 1 Delfines del Este FC May 12th, 2019 in Estadio Parque Del Este;
Matchday 8: Bye

So let's go to the interview:

Inside Caribbean Football: What is your full name, place of born, nationality, career?

Stefan Ristic: My name is Stefan Ristić, serbian and I was born in Jagodina - Serbia.

Coaching career: Waterloo Region (Canada 1), Al Jazeera (QCFL Qatar)... Before that i worked only
with academies.

Inside Caribbean Football: How did you joined Delfines del Este FC? Did the club get in touch with you?

Stefan Ristic: I joined Delfines because I have a great connection with Lokomotiva from Croatia and
Delfines have a kind of partnership with them. They asked me and for it was something new and
interesting and I accepted.

Inside Caribbean Football: You already coached some games in LDF. What differences do you see
between Dominican Republic and the other countries that you worked?

Stefan Ristic: First and biggest difference is that here in Dominican Republic people have a passion
and spirit for football, compare with Canada but especially with Qatar where people don't have a spirit
for any team sports, Dominican Republic is paradise for young coaches like me.

Inside Caribbean Football: What do you think about the quality of LDF? I mean about coaches, players,
field, training, youth training sessions...

Stefan Ristic: With lot of respect to everybody in this league, people here have to work a lot to make it
more professional. About the players, here are lot of talents but the problem is that everybody can be a
coach here and here you can not find licensed coaches to work with them and in this way talents are
simply destroyed.

Fields 50/50, some of them are really good, some of them are terrible and league have to take care
more about that because it's easy for player to get injuries here.

Also, about youth teams... Only one or two clubs have youth academy here. In Europe and everywhere
on the world you can not play any professional league without academy and women team. I think that
can be a good way to improve football in this country if Dominican Republic Football Federation push
the teams from LDF to have academy and women team. I understand economy problem but the
academies pay off themselves with monthly payments per kid so with a good organisation everything
can be perfect.

Inside Caribbean Football: The LDF have a big number of players from South American, and other from
Haiti and Cuba. Do you think the league could help in the development and opportunities for the
caribbean players from other island like St. Lucia, Antigua & Barbuda, Suriname and Bermuda etc
instead of give space for south american players?

Stefan Ristic: For me it's not easy to answer of this question because I did not saw many Carribean
players here. But i think that Caribbean countries must have better communication between themselfs
and the only way how this part of world can have any success in the football future is if they are working
hard together.

Caribbean Football Union is the body who have to work on it to make a better connection between
football leagues here, whatever if it is pro or amateur league, they deffinitely have to work together.

Inside Caribbean Football: For what you have realized about the league, do you think Dominican
Republic prepares well their local players to join clubs abroad in Central and North American teams
and also Europe? In four years of league we saw only Erick Paniagua join CA Independiente in Panama
and recently Ronaldo Vasquez will play for Hapoel Tel Aviv next season.

Stefan Ristic: As I answer on your question number 4, they don't prepare well,  they don't even prepare
them because here everybody can be a coach which is a terrible for a young players. Talents are
destroyed before they are in ages for any next football step.

Stefan Ristic (In black in the center) with Delfines del Este Fc players in a traning session in the beach

Inside Caribbean Football: How is your routine of trainaments coaching Delfines del Este?

Stefan Ristic: If I have one training, it's alway on the game time for that week. So if I have game on
Sunday 4pm, all week one training daily have to be at 4pm. If I have 2 training, it is at 9am. I wake up
usually around 7am. Breakfast and then I am prepare the training for that day. I never use internet to
prepare the training, but I am using a lot of books. Currently about situation with Delfines this book help
me a lot.

Then I go to training and after that rest time, dinner and sleep. Day of I am using to go around Dominican
Republic and visit tourism attraction.

Inside Caribbean Football: What do you think about Dominican Republic so far?

Stefan Ristic: Dominican Republic is beautiful country but I think that people here do not understand
what kind of land God gave them. They destroy this beauty of nature by throwing waste everywhere,
they pollute the ocean in various ways. On another way, people here are so friendly like nowhere in the
world! What I've managed to see so far is that there is no middle-class society. You're a really rich or
really poor. I do not want people here hating me for these words, I'm just honest…

We are grateful to Stefan Ristic for the interview and we wish him and Delfines del Este FC good luck
in the rest of LDF Apertura.