After stand-in forward Jovo Lukić headed in a corner kick in the 21st minute for Bosnia and Herzegovina in its World Cup opener against one of the host nations Canada on Friday, a small yet vibrant group of Bosnian fans erupted in joy at the Toronto Stadium.
The Western Balkan nation of some 3 million has been anxiously awaiting its World Cup appearance — only its second since declaring independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1992, triggering a bloody four-year war within weeks — after it came up big, eliminating four-time champion Italy in the European playoffs with a feverish penalty shootout at home.
Thousands of kilometres away, outnumbered by a sea of Canadian fans wearing red at the temporarily expanded stadium along the shores of Lake Ontario — including the likes of Ryan Reynolds and Mike Myers — Lukić’s goal sparked tears of joy from the Bosnian fans in blue in the upper deck of the stands.
Starting in place of the team’s mainstay star striker Edin Džeko, Lukić, who plies his trade at Romania’s Universitatea Cluj, flicked in a team effort after a lively opening to the match in which Bosnia was meant to play the role of the underdog Canada was to easily run aground.
Bosnia went on to play a record-setting game, becoming only the fourth team in World Cup history to record more than 70 defensive clearances in a single match, but Canada rallied to claw one back in the 78th minute, with the match ending in a draw.
The Dragons — Bosnian football team’s long-standing moniker — still drew applause for their efforts at the final whistle from the ever-friendly Canadians.
Bosnia is 64th in the current FIFA rankings, the lowest-ranked team in Group B behind Switzerland (19), Canada (30) and Qatar (56).
Yet for Bosnia, rolling over was never on the cards, much to the rapture of its fans, many of whom are part of the country’s large diaspora displaced across western Europe and North America by the war more than three decades ago.
Others left Bosnia in the postwar period marred by stalled progress caused by constant political bickering between the representatives of the country’s three main ethnic groups — Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks — and a Western-designed maze of checks and balances meant to even out the playing field, yet resulting in one of the world’s most complicated systems of government.
Their anthem turned out to be one of this year’s World Cup bangers: a 15-year-old song by a much-beloved Bosnian band Dubioza Kolektiv that opens with the lyrics: “I am from Bosnia, take me to America”.
‘American football dream for the entire nation’
The song, which went viral on social media after it was embraced by fans, who sang it louder the closer Bosnia got to making it to the tournament and emblazoned its lyrics on banners and t-shirts, is not just a Balkan earworm — as much as it is seemingly about an eagerness over the promise of a better life elsewhere.
The number, initially simply titled “USA”, was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek take on grass not always being greener elsewhere, a common topic for a band that has woven political and social causes into its identity.
“I want to start all over, return to no man’s land, send greetings to your leader, don’t want your green card, I want to fly back like a rocket to the Balkans,” the original lyrics say as the song progresses.
“It’s an interesting story how this song got its second and third and fourth incarnation in these 15 years,” Dubioza Kolektiv’s bass player Vedran Mujagić said.
“It evolved from this satirical take on immigration and the American Dream and it was translated into an American football dream for the entire nation.”
Dubioza’s viral anthem continued to catch on: after the game with Canada, superstar commentator duo Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimović sang the catchy “I am from Bosnia, take me to America” line live on TV.
Arguably the world’s top strikers, both are intrinsically linked to Bosnia and the song’s message: Henry’s children are half-Bosnian while Ibrahimović’s father hails from there, too.
“This is the best thing for the band or for the song: when people take over and load new meaning and then it becomes theirs,” Dubioza Kolektiv’s keyboardist Brano Jakubović said. “It’s not ours anymore.”
How bad can it get?
Yet news out of Bosnia over the past years has been nothing short of depressing. The country has largely stalled on its path to EU membership, as ethnonationalist leaders have continued to sacrifice progress for personal, political and financial gain.
An estimated quarter of the population lives in relative poverty amid record-high unemployment rates. The country’s healthcare system is in shambles, plagued by widespread corruption.
To make matters worse, Bosnia’s dizzyingly complicated government structure made it easy for those in power to emphasise division through separate educational systems and a lack of desire to reckon with the past, made apparent in open war crime and genocide denial despite a long list of international court sentences for the culprits and repeated pushes by the international community toward reconciliation.
In 2024, the state-level ministry of security estimated that some 1.8 million Bosnians born in the country have left to live elsewhere — in 54 countries worldwide. Another half a million were born abroad.
The last state-run census in 2013 showed that 3.7 million Bosnians lived at home. This number has since been estimated to have plummeted to below 2.8 million, one of the worst rates of depopulation in Europe.
While Dubioza Kolektiv’s “USA” resonates differently with those on the outside, Bosnian emigrees are cognisant of the song’s deeper meaning, having replaced one set of problems with another.
Once they leave, Mujagić said, “they encounter this hostility of the locals, right-wingers, and they just don’t want them there.”
“It’s this schizophrenic situation in which you want to go there, but you somehow know that you won’t have it good on the other side as well,” Mujagić said. “So in that sense, this song still works perfectly well as it worked before.”
Still dreaming dreams
In all of this, football has been the one great unifier, a spark of hope in the face of politics of fear and division.
Following years of disappointment at the hands of Europe’s footballing superpowers in qualifying rounds — Bosnia infamously lost out to Portugal in World Cup and Euro playoffs twice in a row — the country finally made it to the World Cup in Brazil in 2014, enveloping the country in a football frenzy.
Under the watchful eye of coach Safet Sušić, himself a legendary striker still popular with PSG fans, who he enthralled with his skills in the 1980s and early 1990s, the team lost its opener against Argentina 1-2. Leo Messi scored the decider.
It was the match against Nigeria, however, that to this day irks all Bosnian fans: Džeko, who was Manchester City’s star striker at the time, broke away from Nigerian defenders after a pass from playmaker Zvjezdan Misimović and scored, only to have the goal ruled offside.
This was pre-VAR times, and the decision stood, even though TV replays, which can still be found online, showed Džeko was clearly onside. Bosnia lost the game 0-1, and despite winning their final group match against Iran, the Brazilian dream was over.
Another 12-year wait ensued until current coach Sergej Barbarez, himself a former national team captain who never featured at a major international tournament for his country despite a stellar career in Germany as a potent attacking midfielder for the likes of Borussia Dortmund and Hamburger SV took over, producing nothing short of magic over the two-game playoffs against Wales and Italy.
Only two players from the group that went to Brazil remain on the pitch for Bosnia: Džeko, one of a handful of 40-plus players at the tournament still at the top of their game, and Atalanta left-back Sead Kolašinac, who captained the team on Friday.
‘You are Bosnian, the world is at your feet’
In a letter addressed to the children of Bosnia, published by The Players’ Tribune right before the game against Canada, Džeko reminisced about his own path to glory.
He wrote about playing football as a child in besieged Sarajevo during breaks between the shelling and while hiding from snipers, his humble beginnings at Željezničar, one of the Bosnian capital’s two major teams, and his doubts after transferring to the Czech Republic at the age of 17 for just €25,000.
“To be honest, I didn’t even know what my dream was. I just wanted to get better. I had this belief in myself,” Džeko said.
“The strongest part of my body was my mind. When I arrived at Teplice, I told myself, Edin, you have to outwork these guys, or else they will send you away.”
When City came to get him from Wolfsburg, he said his value had risen to nearly €40 million.
“I grew up with war. Suddenly, I was living a fairy tale. Nothing is ever impossible. Not even taking Bosnia to the World Cup,” Džeko said.
The team he captains this time is replete with youngsters, most of whom are second-generation immigrants, and Džeko’s message reads as both a nod to his fresh-faced peers and a rallying cry for a nation that has been divided long enough.
“I’m playing for my people. I’m playing for the boys and girls in the streets of Sarajevo. I’m playing for all the different cultures and religions that make our country so beautiful, even if some people are still trying to break us apart,” Džeko said. “They will never succeed.”
“Not because of me. Not because of the adults. We never learn. It’s because of you kids… You never change.”
“So do me one final favour, OK,” Džeko asked.
“Whether you live in Sarajevo, or Rome, or St Louis… Whether you are Muslim or Jewish or Catholic or Orthodox… Never forget where you came from. You are Bosnian. The world is at your feet.”