My girl married a foreign soccer star. It only broke her heart

Sunday Mirror, Mar 29, 1998 by ANDY BUCKWELL

SOCCER star Sasa Curcic's wedding to Lisa Aldred brought memories flooding back last week for Lisa Hall and her mum Glenda.

It seemed like only yesterday that Glenda flew from Manchester to Australia to see her daughter marry ambitious young footballer Mark Bosnich in a Sydney register office.

The bride was blissfully happy after a romance that had triumphed over heartless red tape, and involved countless long-distance phone calls.

She remembered the time she burst into tears when the Home Office refused to renew her handsome boyfriend's work permit and kicked him out of Britain.

Sadly, further tears were to follow little more than two years later when the marriage later broke down, leaving Lisa heartbroken. Glenda said: "The experience has totally changed Lisa. She is now very hardened against men.

"She has not had a steady boyfriend since the divorce. Men are queuing up but she is not interested after what she has been through."

But Mark was able to overcome his heartache and carve out a successful career as a goalkeeper for Aston Villa.

Last week, after news broke that Serb Sasa, a Villa teammate for 18 months, had wed his sweetheart from Oldbury, West Midlands, in a London register office, Mark wished him luck.

It was a big week for Sasa, 26, who yesterday made his debut for Crystal Palace whom he joined on Thursday, hours before English football's transfer deadline.

It had been expected that he would soon be going back to his native Serbia.

Last month the Home Office rejected his application for an extension to his work permit because he had failed to meet the criteria set for non-EU nationals of playing in 75 per cent of games.

There are 51 stars from 31 different countries now earning a living in English football, and they all need work permits.

As cynics' tongues wagged last week, Sasa's bride Lisa, 26, said: "All the suggestions about us getting married for the sake of his work permit have been very upsetting.

"Sasa did go to the Home Office two days after we were married but it wasn't for a passport. It was for an extension of his work permit.

"Everyone knew about the wedding. We were due to go ahead with it in Serbia in June but his parents were in England so we brought it forward.

"We honestly don't care what people think. We're very much in love."

Glenda remembers the look of love that her daughter had the day she married Mark. But she had reservations even then about the wedding. "But she was in love with him and they seemed happy, so I kept my fears to myself," said Glenda, of Worsley, Manchester.

Lisa had met Mark when he was a teenage hopeful on the books of Manchester United who at the time were managed by Ron Atkinson.

But in three years with the club, Mark only made three appearances for the first team. It was not enough for his work permit to be renewed and he had to go back to Sydney.

Glenda said: "He and Lisa kept in touch with long phone calls. Then he asked her to marry him. She agreed because she loved him."

Mark and Lisa were pronounced man and wife in Sydney in February 1992 but Mark's parents were not present.

They were told about their new daughter-in-law in a phone call from their son who returned to Britain a fortnight after the wedding and signed for Aston Villa. Being married to a British citizen, Mark was able to live and work in Britain for a year. He had kept in touch with Brian Whitehouse, who was a coach at Manchester United before moving to Villa after Ron Atkinson was appointed manager there.

After two years of marriage, Home Office officials were satisfied it was not a wedding of convenience and Mark was allowed to remain indefinitely in Britain.

Sadly, three months later, in May 1994, only 27 months after the wedding, the marriage was ended by a decree nisi.

Glenda said of Bosnich, who apologised last year after giving a Hitler- style salute to Tottenham fans, "I always thought he was a very arrogant man."

Lisa, 28, who lives with her mum, refuses to discuss her marriage.

Mark said: "We were in love but our marriage just didn't work out."