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Bosnia national team. UEFA (Europe). Zmajevi (the Dragons). Home jersey: White with blue trim.
-Bosnia is in Group F (with Argentina, Iran, and Nigeria). ‘2014 FIFA World Cup/Group F‘ (en.wikipedia.org).
FIFA World Cup Qualification: 1st qualification out of 5 tries. [1930 to 1990, competed as part of Yugoslavia; 1994, could not enter.]
-Population of Bosnia and Herzegovina: 3.7 million {2013 census}. Capital and largest city: Sarajevo, pop. 515,000 (metro area) {2013 census}.
Coach of Bosnia national team: Safet Sušić. Safet Sušić. Susic was a forward who scored 172 goals in 343 league appearances for Paris Saint-Germain (1982-91), helping PSG win the French title in 1986. He played in two World Cups for the former Yugoslavia (in 1982 and in 1990). In 2010, Susic was voted Paris Saint-Germain’s all-time best player, by the readers of France Football magazine.
Susic has been coach of the Bosnian team since December 2009. Bosnia narrowly missed qualifying for both the 2010 World Cup and for Euro 2012. But in the 2013-14 WC qualifiers, they edged out Greece in their UEFA qualiying group, for the automatic qualification. In Brazil in June 2014, it will be Bosnia’s first World Cup appearance. They have been placed in a group with Argentina, Iran, and Nigeria, so Bosnia has a real shot at advancing as second-in-the-group.
Bosnia have an attack-minded philosophy. Their two main scoring threats are Vedad Ibišević (age 29; also of VfB Stuttgart), and Edin Džeko (age 27; also of Manchester City). Bosnia’s captain is Bayer Leverkusen central defender Emir Spahić, who is 33 years old and is an ethnic Montenegran/Bosnian who was born in Dubrovnik (which is in Croatia/see map below). Besides Spahic and Zvjezdan Misimović (who was born in Munich, West Germany), the other 9 players featured below in the starting XI, as well as 2 of the 3 other possible starters, were all born in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina (MF Izet Hajrovic, also of Grasshoppers Club Zurich, was born in Switzerland). All the players shown below play their pro football outside of the former Yugoslavia, with the exception of defender Avdija Vrsajevic, who plays in Croatia for Hajduk Split. All but one shown below play in Europe (5 in Germany, 2 in England, 2 in Italy, 2 in Turkey, 1 in Switzerland, 1 in Croatia), and that is vice-captain and attacking midfielder Zvjezdan Misimovic, who is 31 and plays in the Chinese Super League for Guizhou Renhe. Misimovic is the most capped player for Bosnia (79 caps).
Here is an excellent article on the Bosnian team…from Guardian/football, from 5 Dec. 2013, by Sasa Ibrulj,’Bosnia and Herzegovina unite behind their World Cup-bound football heroes‘ (theguardian.com/football/blog).
Below: Theoretical Best XI for Bosnia (with 3 other player-options listed) -
Photo and Image credits -
Bosnia 2012-13 home jersey, photo from uksoccershop.com/p-31913/2012-13-Bosnia.
Map of Bosnia on globe, by Marcos Elias de Oliveira Júnior at File:Bosnia and Herzegovina (orthographic projection).svg (en.wikipedia.org).
Map of Bosnia (topographic), by Sémhur at ‘File:Relief Map of Bosnia and Herzegovina.svg‘ (commons.wikipedia.org).
Coach,,
Safet Sušić, photo from studio88.ba.
Goalkeeper,
Asmir Begović (Stoke City), photo by Getty Images via dailymail.co.uk.
Defenders,
Avdija Vršajević (Hajduk Split), photo by EuroFootball/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com.
Emir Spahić (Bayer Leverkusen), photo from by gettyimages.com.
Ermin Bičakčić (Eintracht Braunschweig), photo by picture alliance via kicker.de.
Sejad Salihović (Hoffenheim), photo from depo.ba.
Midfielders,
Miralem Pjanić (AS Roma), photo by Paolo Bruno/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com.
Haris Medunjanin (Gaziantepsor), photo from olaymedya.com.
Zvjezdan Misimović (Guizhou Renhe), photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images AsiaPac via zimbio.com.
Senad Lulić (SS Lazio), photo by Paolo Bruno/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com.
Forwards,
Vedad Ibišević (VfB Stuttgart), photo from sports.xin.msn.com.
Edin Džeko (Manchester City), photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com.
Other player-options, Midfielders,
Senijad Ibričić (Kayseri Erciyesspor), photo from erciyesspor.org.tr/Galleries at erciyesspor.org.tr/medya/albumler/maclardan_goruntuler/foto5.html. Izet Hajrovic (Grasshoppers), photo by gettyimages.co.uk. Adnan Zahirović (VfL Bochum), photo from bobbi-klub.de.
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Thanks to the contributors at ‘2014 FIFA World Cup qualification‘ (en.wikipedia.org).
Thanks to the contributors at ‘Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team‘ (en.wikipedia.org).
Thanks to http://www.transfermarkt.com/en/, for player-position details.