Footballer Jack Wilshere has stoked up intense debate within the UK media following his comments that 'only English players should play for England'. Questions about what does it mean to be English, who qualifies as English have dominated radio waves and newsprint, with calls for him to clarify what it means to be English.
Think then of the Bosnian team, poised to qualify for the FIFA World Cup in Brazil, their first ever major international tournament.
The conflict that consumed Bosnia in the early 1990s at the break up of Yugoslavia saw three different ethnic groups fighting each other; Bosnian Muslims (more commonly known as Bosniaks), Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats. Since the war the Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats have tended to ignore their national team, electing to support Serbia and Croatia instead.
However, whilst the supporters of the Bosnian national team have tended to be Bosniaks, the team itself boasts players of all ethnicities and is often cited as an example of one of the few genuinely multi-ethnic organisations in Bosnia. The teams recent successes have just encouraged Bosnians of all ethnicities to play for them, whereas previously Bosnian Serbs or Croats with eligibility to play for Serbia or Croatia have chosen the higher profile teams (the best known example for British Premier League followers would be Aston Villa's Savo Milosevic, born and raised in Bosnia but won the Euro 2000 Golden Boot for his goals for Serbia).
Listening to the debates about what it meant to be English in order to play for England, I couldn't help but think of the Bosnian situation. The conflict, some 20 years ago, led to an estimated 2 million people in Bosnia leaving their homes, many of whom became refugees. Whilst a fair number of refugees have returned to Bosnia since the end of the violence, a good number have not and there are large numbers of Bosnians living abroad particularly in countries such as Sweden, Germany and the United States.
The young players of Bosnians 'golden generation' today reflect this. Some players could only be regarded as Bosnian; Edin Dzeko was born and bought up in Sarajevo and began his career in the Sarajevo team of FK Željezničar. Others have a more cosmopolitan outlook. Stoke City's goalkeeper, Asmir Begovic, was born in Bosnia, but was bought up in Germany and Canada. Bosnians continue to thank their lucky stars that he was not bought off the bench to play for Canada against Iceland in 2007, which would have rendered him ineligible to play for Bosnia. Roma's Miralem Pjanic who similarly left the country as a baby, played for Luxembourg national youth sides before choosing to represent Bosnia for his senior career. Bosnia's talismanic captain, Zvjezdan Mismovic was born and raised in Germany and only came to play for Bosnia in 2004 after being approached by a representative of the Bosnian national side.
Of course the core of the English debate and the Bosnian one are different. Jack Wilshere is reluctant to see those who have come to England as English. The Bosnians are concerned that those who have left theirs might consider themselves something other than Bosnian. At the heart of it remains individual footballers whose careers depend upon visibility and who want to play at the highest level. But those whose have led lives which allow them to ally themselves with more than one country do not feel any less passionate about the country they choose to represent. Those who support their national teams still embrace those who have made an often difficult choice as their own.
Today Bosnians applaud the efforts of their national football association which actively recruits abroad for Bosnian talent. The effects of the war twenty years ago mean that the diaspora are flung far and wide across the globe and the Bosnians mean to ensure that they come 'home' to represent their country. Perhaps regretting letting the legendary Zlatan Ibrahimovic through their fingers, who is widely rumoured to have offered to play for Bosnia before representing Sweden, the Bosnian management are encouraged by their supporters who compile lists of young talents who could possibly be recruited to play for Bosnia.
Attracting the brightest and the best Bosnians to their team has had two effects. The first is that those who might have been tempted to play for a different country are now choosing Bosnia. Bosnian Serb, Miroslav Stevanovic, hails from Zvornik, a city right on the border between Bosnia and Serbia.His ethnicity, his locality and his Serbian club pedigree all suggest that he would play for Serbia, but he has chosen to play for Bosnia.
As the Bosnian national team gets better and better, and continues to select players of all ethnicities, Bosnians of all ethnicities are getting behind it. Perhaps Bosnia's pioneering footballers are succeeding where politicians have failed after all. Just maybe if they can win in Lithuania tonight and book their tickets to Brazil, where their Bosnians of all nationalities (including the Swedish, German and American ones) will do likewise, just maybe the footballers will show the politicians that division and mistrust can be overcome. Their footballers come from everywhere, but they are making the very divided country feel Bosnian.
The effect may only last for as long as the players are on the field; national identity is notoriously transient. The teams success may be hiding a myriad of problems within the country and the organisation itself. But to have Bosnian Serbs and Croats openly supporting their national team is something that no one would have predicted just 5 years ago. The Bosnian politicians should take note; whilst they remain stuck in a debate about separate ethnic identities, the general population has worked out a way to reconcile their ethnic, historic and cultural differences and will all be cheering for their national team tonight.
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