Dan Tana

Dan Tana (born Dobrivoje Tanasijevic; 1933) is an American restaurateur and former professional footballer from Yugoslavia. Tana is the proprietor of an eponymous restaurant, Dan Tana's, in West Hollywood, California, as well as being closely associated with football clubs Red Star Belgrade and Brentford F.C.

Tana was spotted playing football at 12, and offered an apprenticeship with Red Star Belgrade. He spent five years at Red Star, developing as a striker. In 1950s Yugoslavia the only people allowed to officially travel outside the country were athletes or people working for the government. His restaurateur father had been arrested by communists, and his restaurants nationalised by Marshal Tito.

Tana was aged 17 when he toured Belgium in 1952 as part of the junior squad of the Yugoslav football team Red Star Belgrade. In Brussels to play R.S.C. Anderlecht, his team were eating in a restaurant, accompanied by a commissar. A dance was held after dinner, and Tana, applauding the dancers at the end, was asked 'How can you clap a capitalist dance?' by the commissar. Tana replied that he wasn't aware that "this dance belonged to capitalists" and the commissar proceeded to rant about the excesses of Western culture. Tana left the room, and went into the street, and eventually found a policeman. Crossing his arms to indicate a hammer and sickle, and saying the word 'Communist', Tana was taken by the policeman to spend a night in the cells. The next day Tana told an interpreter that he wished to defect, and Red Star's junior team returned to Yugoslavia without him. Tana subsequently took refuge in a Brussels nunnery after applying to defect in Belgium.

While in Belgium Tana saw the senior Red Star Belgrade team play Anderlecht, and was spotted in the crowd by the Red Star captain Rajko Mitic. Mitic told Anderlecht of Tana's ability, and arranged a trial for Tana with them. Anderlecht offered Tana a four-year contract, but as a defector he could not play club football in Belgium for two years. Anderlecht loaned Tana to Hannover, and six months later, in the summer of 1955, he was offered a contract to play for Montreal in the Canadian League. Playing in Montreal he won successive Canadian league titles and the Dominion Cup.

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