When you hear about a Serbian who was born in Baghdad and now plays professional basketball in Cyprus, you know it's not the kind of story you hear every day.

The name Rade Kozomara probably doesn't mean much to you.

Until a few of months ago, even the basketball fans in Cyprus had never heard his name.

But the 24-year-old plays for Proteas EKA AEL Limassol, the most powerful team in the country that has won the last five league titles and continues to excel in the EuroCup.

AEL made it all the way to the last eight of the 2007 EuroCup, where they lost 2-1 to Azovmash, and they recently booked their place for the Quarter Final Round this year.

So who is this guy?

Proteas coach Charles Barton has started to use Kozomara more, especially in domestic league games.

Kozomara was born in Iraq, where his father was working on a construction job.

At the age of six, the Kozomaras moved back to Belgrade, not before he got into a fight in school with whom else but Saddam Hussein's nephew. He not only "won the fight" but survived to tell everyone about it.

"My parents got threatened because of that incident, but most of my memories from Baghdad were good, included catching cockroaches in the sand," he says to FIBA Europe.

After two years, it was time to hit the road again.

This time, the destination was Cyprus, where he has lived ever since with his mother.

Like most kids, Rade was interested in football at first, but a lack of skills in that sport and good size for a kid his age led him to basketball.

At the age of 14, he joined the local club of Panathinaikos, which has nothing to do with the Greek side, and began his basketball journey.

Since he didn't carry a local passport, Rade couldn't be considered as a domestic player, and when he ended up playing at the age of 16 for a second division team, his career was going nowhere.

Christos Loris was the president of that club at the time, and he spotted some talent in the young Serbian. Considering his situation Loris decided Rade's future wasn't in Cyprus.

He sent him to some camps in the USA, and he was eventually offered a scholarship to study and play at Maryland and Barton College in North Carolina.

Just when it seemed his career was getting on the right track, reality struck.

Shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York in 2001, he was denied a visa.

College basketball was no longer an option.

"I was very disappointed after I spent so much time on it," says Rade.

He wasn't ready to give up on basketball yet, though.

His next destination was his native country - Serbia.

"I was in Serbia for two and a half months," he says.

"I started to practice with a team in the fifth division. It wasn't high level but they were really serious in practice. The work level was high.

"They told me I can't play in the first division in Serbia, and my style doesn't fit Serbian basketball. They got me convinced, so I went back to Cyprus."

Kozomara got some offers from clubs back in Cyprus, but an ankle injury made him take another direction. He decided to quit the game at the age of 19 and move on.

"Since I didn't go to college in the US I decided to go to school in Cyprus. That's about the only place where I have played since.

"The level in the college league of Cyprus is very low. There are no real practices, basically other than two teams. The rest are real amateurs, so it means that in a season there's just one real game - the finals."

Kozomara played for one of those teams but lost that final game three years in a row, to cap his yet as yet unimpressive career.

He followed that experience by trying to enter the working world. That didn't work for him, though.

He was a gym instructor, a waiter, a dishwasher, a bartender, a stripper, a model, and a head hunting and an event organizer.

"I can't sit in the office all day and work those 9-to-5 jobs," he says.

Then, all of a sudden, things changed. Several months ago, Kozomara received his Cypriot passport, and life took another turn.

It came when Loris pushed him back to the game.

While Kozomara was making sure the dishes sparkled and his body was fully fit for some of the other jobs, Loris moved up the ladder of professional basketball. Now he's the financial director of AEL and he convinced Rade to attend AEL's tryouts and give it one more shot.

"I was very skeptical," he admits. "This is what I always wanted to do, but everybody told me it's too late."

But everybody was wrong. Kozomara made the first tryout and impressed the coaching staff with his

“	Rade is good kid, very physical and plays tough. He also learns quickly. He has been away for five years and that's tough.	„
Charles Barton Proteas Coach

strength, toughness and leaping ability.

His basketball level, considering he was never in a top junior program and never played professional ball, was also intriguing. He joined the club's training camp, and ever since has been an AEL soldier.

"If you had come to me six months ago, telling me I would be sitting on the bench of the best club in Cyprus, I would start laughing and calling you crazy.

"At some point, some friends asked me what I planned to do next year, so I told them I'd be playing for AEL. They were laughing and thought I was making a joke.

"When they saw me there in the team's presentation, everybody was shocked."

You haven't seen much of Kozomara in the EuroCup games yet, but he's making progress.

After spending most of his time on the bench to start, new coach Charles Barton has begun to give the Serbian a chance.

Barton wasn't there when Rade was picked, but he has some interesting things to say about him.

"First of all, he's an incredible athlete. He has a chance to be a good player if he plays the right position, which I think is the four (power forward).

"Rade is good kid, very physical and plays tough. He also learns quickly. He has been away for five years and that's tough, so it's really difficult to say what level he could play.

"He needs to continue to work hard and take it one step at a time. I used him in almost every game in the Cyprus league."

 "They say things are going good so far," Rade says. "I've never made a decision unless I believed I could achieve something.

"As opposed to the start of the season, I do feel comfortable. I get to play some minutes here and there, and now I'm looking at the coach to show him I'm ready to go on court."

What's next for Rade? He's not looking that far ahead.

"I really don't know at what level I can play now. I don't want to say anything for now. It would be ridiculous. I never played professional basketball before, so this is the first time for me and I'm still trying to pick things up.

"I've heard many, many stories of average players who play at a good level for different reasons. I'm going to use this year to try and get back all the things that I've missed during the past years and hope for the best."