ANNIVERSARIES: On this day we lost Asim Ferhatović Hase

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Everything is known about Asim Ferhatović Hase as a footballer. He spent his entire career, with the exception of a short stint at Fenerbahçe, at Koševo. For Sarajevo he played 204 first league matches and scored 75 goals. Including unofficial matches, Hase wore the Sarajevo jersey 422 times and found the back of the net on 198 occasions.

Yet who was Asim Ferhatović? Asim Ferhatović was born into an old bourgeois family. He spent his entire life in Sarajevo, at the same address. It was there that he met Vahida, with whom he started a family in 1957 and had three children, Senada, Merdin and Ademir. He was considered an exemplary husband and father and was respected in the wider family as a good host and friend. Asim was especially attentive to the elderly and infirm. Children loved him because he was kind and caring towards them. His family life was the foundation of his happiness and satisfaction, and all of this was complemented by a very successful sports career.

It can be freely said that Asim Ferhatović was a happy man, just as goodness and happiness surrounded everyone around him. However, the numerous memories of his family and old friends fill us with undisguised pride. That feeling has not faded even after so much time since Asim's death, but has become even more intense, which, like the legend of a noble man and a brilliant athlete, becomes an indispensable page in the history of the city of Sarajevo.

Asim Ferhatović died just one day after turning 54 (on 25 January 1987). The man who lived so intensely, who gave of himself, paying the least attention to himself, simply burned out. He was cut down by a heart attack and a deep pain in his chest...
His funeral was marked as one of the largest in our city. He was sent to his eternal rest with dignity. Sarajevo, the city and the club, bid farewell to their great man, but tribute to Asim Ferhatović was also paid by all sports lovers, especially football fans. The arrival of numerous guests and Asim's admirers, not only from the former country but also from abroad, was an act of respect and gratitude for everything Asim did as a footballer and a man during his lifetime.

The memory of Hase has been marked in many ways. Hase's name is today borne by the Koševo stadium, a street in Sarajevo, a drinking fountain on Baščaršija, the youth football school of FK Sarajevo, traditional futsal and chess tournaments, and Hase's image and work will forever be woven into many songs, as well as into a postage stamp issued by BH Pošta.

(Historija.ba)