Hasan Salihamidžić's Journey: From Waiter, Through Military Checkpoints to the Most Important Figure in German Football

By Haris Ljevo

Hasan Salihamidžić has become the sporting director of the biggest German club and one of the biggest sports clubs in the world, Bayern Munich.

According to German standards, the position of sporting director of the renowned Bayern is considered one of the three most important positions in German society, alongside the positions of Chancellor and Foreign Minister. Therefore, according to German conceptions of the state, the legend of Bosnian football, along with Angela Merkel and Sigmar Gabriel, currently represents one of the three most significant figures in Germany.

Unfortunately, Salihamidžić's appointment to such an important position was only covered by sports media in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but there was no mention of the significance of his appointment for Bosnia and Herzegovina itself.

This is not surprising if we consider that in our society, everything is forgiven except success.

From the beginning of his sports career in his hometown of Jablanica, Hasan Salihamidžić forged his path to the stars alone, with only the support of his father and close family. When he reached the status of one of the best players in the German Bundesliga, many tried to take advantage of him.

When the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina began, Hasan was 15 years old and earned a living working as a waiter in Jablanica. He managed to pass through 11 military checkpoints to get from Jablanica to Zadar, and then took a bus to Hamburg, where he joined one of the best youth football academies in Germany.

In Hamburg, several thousand boys show up for training every year, and coaches select only the three most talented for the youth academy. In November 1992, Hasan Salihamidžić was one of those three most talented boys. The great coach Felix Magath recognized a future star in him, and in just three years, he made it to the first team.

After three seasons with HSV, he received the reward for all the effort, blood, and sweat he invested in his development. In 1998, he became a member of the biggest German club, Bayern, with whom he won six German championship titles, and one Champions League and one Club World Cup title each. He played 234 matches for the renowned Bavarian club, after which he moved to the biggest Italian club, Juventus. Just to show his class in another giant club. From Juventus, he returned to Germany, where he ended his playing career in 2012 with Wolfsburg.

The national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a special story in Braco's life, as he was affectionately called in Germany. Although he had an offer to play for the German national team, Hasan never hesitated about where he belonged. He played for BiH even when various semi-amateurs refused the national team jersey, building their own authority through the national team.

However, he was always a target of criticism, accused of not trying hard enough when playing for the national team, that there were two Hasans, one at Bayern and one in BiH. For years, he played, fought, remained silent, and endured all the insults, hoping to fulfill his greatest life wish and go to a major tournament with the national team, but he did not succeed in achieving his goal. Probably the only thing in his life he didn't manage to achieve.

At the age of 30, at the height of his fame, he retired from the national team. He never spoke publicly about the relationships within the national team, about the attitude of certain journalists towards him, and he had more than enough reasons to raise his voice and speak out about the many injustices done to him.

He never responded to stories about an alleged attempt at extortion by the Sarajevo underworld, to stories about how he lent money to some journalists to survive, only for them to accuse him in return of avoiding playing for the national team. One of them accused him in a live television broadcast of intentionally receiving a second yellow card to avoid playing the match against Serbia and Montenegro in Belgrade. It later turned out that it was not his second yellow card and that Hasan was eligible to play in Belgrade. And he played, being one of the best, and the journalist never apologized for the false accusation. Braco never said a word about it.

He managed to rise above it all and become what no Bosnian had ever achieved before him. It is unlikely that anyone will achieve it after him. Everything he has achieved in his life, he achieved on his own.

As much as we are proud of the fact that one of our own has become the "main face" in a world football institution, we must be realistic and admit that he alone is responsible for it.