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World Cup 2014: Bosnia-Herzegovina profile – Miralem Pjanic

By Allsports.com.gh
World Cup World Cup 2014: Bosnia-Herzegovina profile – Miralem Pjanic
JUN 5, 2014 LISTEN

This article is part of the Guardian's  World Cup 2014  Experts' Network, a co-operation between 32 of the best media organisations from the countries who have qualified for the finals in Brazil. theguardian.com is running previews from four countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 12 June.

Faruk Hadzibegic lowered his head to his chest and walked towards the centre of the Artemio Franchi stadium in Florence. It was June 1990 and seconds earlier the Argentina goalkeeper, Sergio Goycochea ,had saved his penalty kick, meaning that Diego Maradona's Argentina narrowly denied Yugoslavia a place in the  World Cup  semi-finals. The team led by their Bosnian manager, Ivica Osim, and the veteran playmaker, another Bosnian, Safet Susic, played the last match in the history of the country that was about to be torn apart in the terrible war that began the following year.

A couple of months later, just across the Adriatic Sea, in the little town of Zvornik, a young lady entered the old clubhouse of a local football club called Drina, the name of the beautiful river that divides Bosnia from Serbia. Her husband, one Fahrudin Pjanic, was in Luxembourg where he had agreed to play football and have a job on the side, but had been denied a transfer request by the tiny third-tier team.

"It was a difficult time", explained Fahrudin to the Bosnian weekly newspaper Slobodna Bosna years later. "Playing in the third tier in small places all around the country, you could sense that something is wrong and that bad times were coming."

Fatima, as his wife was named, kept coming to the club and trying to talk the president into letting her husband leave and have the chance of a better life. This time she was holding her infant baby son and after he once again refused to release Fahrudin from his contract, she started to cry. Her son, Miralem, did the same.

"Like any other baby, he felt that something is wrong when his mother cries,"Fatima said in the same interview. "He was screaming and the president felt sorry for us, signed the papers and let Fahrudin go. If it wasn't for Miralem, we would probably never have left the country."

Twenty-four years later Miralem Pjanic, the Roma midfielder, will walk out on to the pitch at the Maracanã stadium in Rio and face Lionel Messi's Argentina. He is part of a unique team of players in the world of football, the team that built their success from the ashes of a destroyed and divided country, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"This is the best feeling ever," Pjanic said through tears just after  the victory in Lithuania  last October when Bosnia secured their place at thefinals of a major tournament for the first time. "This is what we play for. This is what we live for."

Miralem took his first steps in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, where Fahrudin and the family eventually moved in 1990. A few months later Yugoslavia was caught in the whirlwind of a brutal war and the town of Zvornik witnessed thousands of Bosnian-Muslims being killed or forced to leave their homes. Fahrudin was aware that he and his family had escaped a similar destiny thanks to his son and he did his best to provide. Sometimes he worked 12 hours a day, but still managed to practise and play football. Little Miralem followed him around, since they couldn't afford a babysitter.

"He was always playing with a ball, constantly. I remember our holiday trips from Luxembourg to Bosnia. He would spend 12 hours of driving playing and juggling with the ball. One day, we returned home late at night, and the sound of whacking coming from the garage woke me up before 7 o'clock in the morning. I went in there with my father, expecting burglars, but it was just Miralem practising more."

Pjanic Jr was still a boy when he joined Metz and their youth academy, famous for producing talents such as Robert Pires, Louis Saha and Emmanuel Adebayor. At the age of 12 Miralem was the best player of his age group and his family started to receive offers from clubs all over Europe. The first official offer arrived from PSV Eindhoven, but Pjanic's family wanted him to stay closer to home. They resisted many other offers and Miralem made his professional debut for Metz, at the age of 17, on 18 August 2007, coming as a substitute in a goalless draw against Paris Saint-Germain.

It was obvious that Metz was just a stepping stone for Pjanic. In the summer of 2008 Pjanic agreed to move - but only the short distance to Lyon. It was the logical move at the time - Lyon were the dominant force in France and Champions League regulars, and Pjanic wanted to prove himself in Ligue 1.

After the first season of adjusting to his new club, Pjanic established himself as a first-team regular and found himself in the limelight. Still only a teenager, naturally shy and reticent, he was inconsistent and was criticised for his frail physique, was often injured and seemed to lack pace and energy. However, his talent was impossible to ignore - Pjanic was developing into a beautiful player to watch, with great vision and perfect technique.

It was not just clubs who were battling to recruit Pjanic. Having moved to Luxembourg as a baby, he was eligible to play for the tiny nation that he had represented at youth levels. Soon enough France started to get interested in Pjanic's passport, trying to pursue him to play for  Les Bleus . However, from day one Pjanic made clear that there was only one country he wanted to represent - the country of his birth. Even though he had problems trying to get Bosnian citizenship, both Miralem and Fahrudin did not want to give up.

In 2008 the then manager Miroslav Blazevic gave him his debut for the Bosnia-Herzegovina  national team and Pjanic instantly became a fans' favourite. However, Blazevic was one of the doubters; he disliked the player's build and claimed that he could not play alongside Zvjezdan Misimovic. Pjanic collected scrappy minutes coming off the bench and caps in friendlies, but was not given a key role. Until the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign.

At club level Pjanic scored  the goal for Lyon at the Bernabéu that knocked Real Madrid out of the Champions league at the Bernabéu , and reached the semi-finals of the same competition, before he moved to Roma in 2011 and established himself as one of the best midfielders in Italy's Serie A.

Pjanic became an instrumental figure in the Bosnian march towards Brazil, and is expected to be one of the most important players for the Dragons this summer. A player that plays with a grace, enjoys his football and brings joy to those who watch him. The baby who saved his family with his crying grew up and is mature enough to carry his country, under the guidance of Safet Sušic, to success and continue where Bosnian football, as a part of the former Yugoslavia, left off in the summer of 1990.

"I dreamed about this - when I was a kid I travelled with my family and friends from Luxembourg to watch a crucial match against Denmark in the Euro 2004 qualifiers. Since that day I've been dreaming of representing my country in such a tournament and now we are there. And everything is possible."

This will be the first major tournament for Bosnia and Herzegovina as an independent country, but it certainly will not be the last. Not with Miralem Pjanic, still only 24, as a leader of the future generation.

Sasa Ibrulj is a Bosnian freelance journalist who writes for sport.ba

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