A Story Without a Happy Ending: If Tadija Were a Real Man, He Wouldn't Have Left His Son in the Lurch!

On the sports portal „nogolopta“, Ismet Turšić published an interesting column which the news agency Patria transmits in its entirety.

Tadija Šunjić is the father of the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team player Toni Šunjić, a guy who slid into the hearts of all those for whom the BiH national team comes first with a sliding tackle. An uncompromising fighter who, from the background and unobtrusively, cemented his place in the starting eleven under the former selector. He was helped by the injury of Ermin Bičakčić, the non-playing of Ognjen Vranješ and the bad joke with Ervin Zukanović, but no one can say that Toni did not deserve his place on the field and in the hearts of all BiH fans with his performances.

Toni was born in 1989, he was four years old when, according to the indictment, his father shot a civilian whom he used as a human shield and later threw into the Neretva River. This is a story full of tragedy because no matter how it ends, one thing is certain, there will be no happy ending here.

On one side, we have the family of the murdered Ibrahim Hodžić, who today live in Stolac and who buried the remains of their late father and husband in 1998. They seek justice, they want the murderer of their father to be prosecuted and punished for the crime committed, which is completely understandable and, I would dare say, necessary for life to continue with some semblance of normality.

On the other side, we have the BiH national team player, a guy I don't believe grew up in a “pro-BiH” atmosphere, but who has been a BiH national team player for seven years and who today counts Zvjezdan, Sead, Vedad, Boris, and Ognjen among his friends.

Probably by playing for the national team, he gained some values that differ from those served to him from an early age, because Toni behaves exactly like that; absolutely no one can fault the way he represents Bosnia and Herzegovina. He probably still loves Croatia with the same fervor as he did seven years ago, but it is certain that BiH has become something a little more than a necessary and imposed evil, as it is readily portrayed by those who do not wish it well.

We must not forget that the indictment was not brought against Toni, but against Tadija; in 1993, Toni was four years old. If Tadija were a real man, as he is not, he certainly would not have fled from the law to neighboring Croatia, in whose name he also killed, and in that way left his son in the lurch, at the mercy of the public in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Toni is not and cannot be guilty of his father's actions, but he would have to publicly and clearly distance himself from him and his cowardice, because it has called into question his future national team career, and in the worst case, Toni's personal safety.

Then again, it is easy for me and for us to demand that of him, but we must not forget that he is his father, the man on whose goodness and love he relied his whole life and who, in the end, made him what he is today.

As I said earlier, whatever happens tomorrow, this story will have only losers: the Hodžić family, Toni, and even Tadija. The Hodžić family will not get their peace because the murderer is free; Toni currently stands at a crossroads, whether he will be his father's “accomplice” and visit him in Croatia or distance himself from him and say that what he did is, to say the least, not right.

 And Tadija? I don't know, I am really interested in the mental makeup of this “man.” Did he cheer for BiH and his son at the World Cup? Or did he demonstratively switch channels and watch some documentary on HRT?

With due respect to his victims, I think that he is perhaps the biggest loser in all of this. His son plays for those he was killing 20 years ago, and imagine, they LOVE him, and it seems that this love is (at least a little) mutual!

Tomorrow he will have to look Toni in the eye and explain to him why he sprayed a burst of fire at a man who had absolutely no chance to defend himself. And if Toni has learned anything in these seven years with the national team, he will know that no story about Croatianhood, patriotism, or resurrected jihad warriors will be able to justify Tadija's crime.