On a rainy spring day back in 2004 a group of friends gave up to a crazy but noble idea about playing futbol again after about a 20 year break with not to many arguments about it they decided to register for a 3v3 tournament that was going to be held that summer in Ponte  Vedra beach and that’s how the Real mandarin F.C was born.

 

The founding members were Dr Samir Array, Greg Gross, Kevin Macdonald and the fearless leader Luis Velasquez.

 

After literally getting their butt kicked in this tournament by every team of well prepared

teenagers in this tournament  they decided to concentrate  on 7V7 tournaments and  agreed  to recruit a few talented acquaintances they meet at a couple pick up games on San Jose blvd, those were,  gol keeper Drew Green ,  mid fielder Seth Beaumont ,  mid fielder John Solis,  Defender Nelson Matos and defender Luis Naranjo. On June 2005 the team placed second at the Bear Sports 6V6 tournament held in Orange Park after loosing to the legendary Old Stars from Bosnia 5-3.

 

After a few months of practicing on Sundays at a local futbol park they meet a group of young talented Uruguayan player’s members of the Bonilla Tile futbol club that was competing in the local futbol league. After a few months a good friendly relationship was established and the group decided to merge the Real mandarin and the Bonilla Tile futbol team agreeing to keep the Real Mandarin name. Those new founding members were,   keeper Marcel Bonilla, defender Robert Williams, defender Diego “el patron” coppola, forward Richard “el flaco” Giorgetta, midfielder Pablo  Deledon, and keeper Mike Cornell. The new real mandarin team performed well and enjoyed the game playing together for a couple of years and expanding into the over 40 division.

 

After a few fun seasons filled with a lot of great memories some of the most talented original members decided to try their luck with a new team where they joined a group of equally talented  young players , which brings us to the present team with most of the original founding players for the exception of defender/mid fielder Luis Naranjo who decide to retire and the addition of new talent for the over 30 and over 40 teams, defender Sergio “el che”  Rodriquez, defender Ignacio “Mucho nacho”  Martinez, midfielder Oatman “el moro” Affaya, Julio “el principito” lujan, Miguel “Dr suave” Fernandez” and gol keeper Alexsandar  “The king of Serbia “ Chirkovich, forward Carlitos "Mucho gol" Bouvier.

 

The Real Mandarin presently holds a good standing in our local futbol league and in our communities where we all reside, past and present players continue to enjoy great friendships on and off the field.