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

Written by: Haris Ljevo

Hasan Salihamidžić has become the sporting director of Germany's biggest and one of the world's largest sports clubs, Bayern Munich.

By German standards, the position of sporting director at the famous Bayern is considered one of the three most important functions in German society, alongside the positions of Chancellor and Foreign Minister. Thus, according to German state perceptions, the legend of Bosnian football, alongside Angela Merkel and Sigmar Gabriel, currently represents one of the three most significant people in Germany.

Unfortunately, Salihamidžić's appointment to such an important position was only covered in sports media in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with no discussion about the significance of his appointment for the state of BiH itself.

This is not surprising, knowing that in our society, everything is forgiven except success.

From the beginning of his sports career in his hometown of Jablanica, Hasan Salihamidžić carved his path from rags to riches on his own, with only the support of his father and immediate 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 BiH 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 boarded a bus for Hamburg, where he joined one of the best youth football schools in Germany.

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

After three seasons with HSV, the reward for all the effort, blood, and sweat he invested in his development followed. In 1998, he became a member of Germany's biggest club, Bayern, with whom he won six German championship titles, as well as one European and one world title. He played 234 matches for the famous Bavarian club, after which he went to Italy's biggest club, Juventus. Just to show his class in yet another giant. 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 the life of Braco, 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 at a time when various semi-amateurs refused the national team jersey, building their own authority through the national team.

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

At the age of 30, at the peak of his fame, he said goodbye to the national team. He never publicly spoke about the relationships within the national team, or about the attitude of certain journalists towards him, even though he had plenty of reasons to raise his voice and speak out about the many injustices done to him.

He never responded to stories about an alleged extortion attempt by the Sarajevo underworld, or to stories about how he lent money to certain journalists to survive, only for them to accuse him in return of avoiding playing for the national team. One journalist accused him live on television of deliberately getting a second yellow card so he wouldn't have to play a match against Serbia and Montenegro in Belgrade. It later turned out that it was not his second yellow card and that Hasan had the right to play in Belgrade. And he did play, being one of the best, but the journalist never apologized for the false accusation. Braco never said a single word about it.

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

No matter how proud we are of the fact that one of our own has become the "main figure" in an institution of world football, we must be realistic and admit that he alone deserves the credit for that.