G anz Bosnia and Herzegovina weeps. Weeps, weeps and weeps. So many tears as Tuesday night last occurred when the great Bosnian pop singer Halid Bešlić died last year, who had given Sarajevo the most beautiful and saddest songs. Hundreds sang Tuesday night his hit “Ljiljani” which had become the unofficial national anthem at the stadium of the industrial town Zenica.
But this time they were tears of joy. Autokorsos, flags, flares, thousands in the streets of the country – all of Bosnia celebrates its national team and their qualification for the World Cup, as if they had already won it. The latter is absolutely unlikely; unlikely, too, was the outcome of this qualifying match on Tuesday evening against ITALY. The four-time World Champion.
Sure, Bosnians can play football. Some even say that street football may have been invented not in Italy, but in the dusty alleys of Bosnia. Nevertheless, Bosnia and Herzegovina is a Nobody in the football world. Nobody really believed in a triumph against Italy, this tiny country about which the world only talks when it concerns the wars of the 1990s, war crimes, Srebrenica, genocide.
Bosnia Completely Overwhelmed
Since Tuesday night the country has shed tears of overwhelm. For this land the game was as magical as the 20 minutes during the 2014 World Cup when Germany scored five goals against Brazil. How significant that is can be read from the fact that even in Croatian pubs with the neighbor who is notoriously considered to be thieves, dumb, and underdeveloped, celebrations occurred. And even Novak Djokovic, the tennis player from Serbia, from whose country Bosnia’s integrity is still threatened, sat in the stands in Zenica and celebrated the Bosnian team.
Even if Italy has a World Cup curse and now misses the World Cup for the third time in a row, even if the match against Bosnia was decided only in a penalty shootout, even if the game took place in the shaky little stadium of the industrial ruin Zenica, even if Italy played the remainder of the game with one man fewer from the 41st minute due to a red card, even if the giant Gianluigi Donnarumma guarded the Italian goal, even if it is Bosnia and Herzegovina’s second World Cup appearance after 2014: Bosnia is completely overwhelmed.
As if they had finally ended all the misery, all the consequences of the bloody war. It is a victory for a country that 30 years after the war has not much to rejoice about, except its great talent for humor. Bosnian humor is legendary, especially because its heart lies in making its own small country and its own small people the center of the joke.
Cry with Us!
For those who lack evidence, watch the videos from Zenica and Sarajevo from Tuesday night. In Zenica, fans carried a huge banner that read: “I am from Bosnia, take me to America.” It is, of course, a nod to the World Cup, which this year is taking place in the USA. But it is a quote: It is the title and chorus of a song by the Bosnian funpunk/dub band Dubioza Kolektiv (Dubious Collective), who also performed the song in Zenica. In the streets of Sarajevo, it was sung as late as 3 a.m., when the national team players arrived in the capital. However, slightly altered: “I am from Bosnia, coming to America.”
The song is a satire about all Bosnians who emigrate to the USA to leave behind the terrible history, to start over, to hope for a better life, which of course does not come true.
No one can forget the tragic history. But precisely because the tragedy of this small country is so great, the tearful celebration of joy in these days is also enormous. By the way, these are European tears. Cry with us!
