Don Popovic, who came to St. Louis from Yugoslavia to play soccer and stayed, starting the Lou Fusz Soccer Club in 1992 that taught the game to thousands of kids and enhanced the region’s reputation as a soccer hub, died on Monday (Sept. 29, 2025). He was 84.

Popovic arrived in St. Louis in 1967 to play for the St. Louis Stars in the only season for the National Professioal Soccer League, and while he would play and coach in a number of other cities, with no shortage of success, it was St. Louis that he called home. While the leagues he played and coached in, the NPSL, NASL and MISL, are long gone, he left a lasting mark with Lou Fusz, the club he started along with the St. Louis auto dealer whose name it bears. The club became one of the top clubs in St. Louis and now, under the name Lou

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