This week the fantabulous Bosnian footballer, Edin Dzeko (pronounced Jeko) signed for Man City for an eye wateringly cool £27m. Everyone has been writing great things about him; his skill, his height, his striking ability. The sports journos seem to be agreed that he will be a Good Thing.
I've seen him play a couple of times mainly for Bosnia in their World Cup Qualifying campaign last year. But once in a far more surprising venue.
In 1992 Muslims were cleansed from Eastern Bosnia by Serb paramilitaries. They have started to go back to their pre-war homes but the life they lead now is hard. Unemployment is rife and the tensions between Serbs and Muslims in the area is still strong. In 2009, several players in the Bosnian national football team decided that they would show their support for those people how have returned to this area and arranged for a symbolic football match to be played; on the one side an old football team that had to leave the region because of the conflict (named Drina 93) and on the other a small local Muslim club from the village of Divic, just south of the city of Zvornik.
On the day in June 2009, Drina 93 fielded 6 of the Bosnian National Team, one of whom was Dzeko. I spoke to some of the players who played for Divic shortly after the game. The men were unbelievably proud. Proud to have walked on the same pitch as Dzeko. Proud that they should have come to their village. And proud to be recognised in this way.
It was a filthy day, pouring with unseasonal rain, but on that day some 2000 people came to Divic to see the football. It is impossible to measure how much that meant to everyone there.
Anyway, I wish Dzeko luck at Man City. May he score often and with flair (just not against Chelsea though). In the meantime, here's a video that was posted to YouTube shortly after the game, with the Bosnian equivelent of Three Lions as a background song. It shows another side of the game of football.
I'm sure this post is going to lift your supervisor's heart! What a fantastic clip you found and how lucky you were to be there. I'm very cynical about the football industry but if there is anything that justifies the pantomime this match is exactly what it is.
ReplyDeleteYou're sparing of your visitors' sensibilities, and rightly so - what happened to the people of Divic should be beyond discussing in any civilised company. If anyone wants to follow up for themselves they can do a bit of searching on Celopek, Yellow Wasps and the Vuckovic brothers, but they need to be warned that a strong stomach is required.
This match was about far more than football, it was about affirming decency and humanity and the Bosnian players like Dzeko brought more honour and respect on themselves playing on that semi-bald pitch under the hills than they'll ever do in any Premiership or Bundesliga superstadium.
I just wish your boys were old enough to understand and admire what their Mum is up to in the scraps of time they allow her to get on with the rest of life. In time they will.
Apologies to the ground-keeper from my rude comment about the pitch - I just watched the clip again and it's only the goalmouths that are bare. What a glimpse of the beauty of the Drina Valley in the backdrop.
ReplyDeleteOwen - the pitch used to be amazing, before 1992. Years of being used as a car park for UN vehicles degraded it enormously, and the UN still like to 'borrow' it for helicopter landings from time to time and really damages the pitch. The football club have no say in whether they can or can't do so.
ReplyDeletewhat a great story & a wonderful & symbolic gesture. Thanks for telling it.
ReplyDeleteInteresting.
ReplyDeleteThasnk goodness there are some nice stories out there occasionally, I too wish Dzeko all the best here in our sunny land (NOT) but again, no goals against Chelsea, thank you
ReplyDeleteAt least the weather in Manchester wont come as much of shock.
ReplyDeleteHelen - the weather that day was really dreadful. Got totally soaked!
ReplyDeleteMarisWorld - exactly. Score many times but not against the Blues...