Bosnia-Herzegovina, deeply divided by the Balkan War, finds unity in the World Cup.
Next June, in Brazil, a team that climbed out of the ruins left at the end of the Balkan war will make its debut on the world football stage. It will be representing one of the poorest countries in Europe, crushed by the economic crisis and still licking the wounds of its ethnic conflicts.
We’re talking about the Bosnia and Herzegovina national football side that played its first ever official football match on November 30 1995, nine days after the signing of the Dayton Agreement that ended the Yugoslav civil war. Played in blue jerseys bought in an airport, by a pick-up team organised at the last moment, that game brought a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Albania.
Almost two decades later, last October, 50,000 people joyfully and peacefully invaded the streets of Sarajevo to celebrate Bosnia’s historic qualification for the Brazil World Cup. A night of collective euphoria in the city that was a symbol of the Balkan powder keg, the city that has withstood the longest siege in modern history, 46 months, from April ’92 to February ’96.
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Bosnia-Herzegovina, deeply divided by the Balkan War, finds unity in the World Cup.
