Google Sergez Barbarez and the first search result will be from a poker website CardPlayer where the gent has collected a cool USD 143,648 in earnings playing poker.
As Bosnia and Herzegovina take on Canada on Friday night, all eyes will be on the sidelines where Barbarez will shepherd the proceedings against the hosts in Group B.
Before he dragged B&H into the World Cup, and two summers before he engineered an ouster of beloved Italy from the World Cup, Barbarez had happily retired to Germany where he played plenty for Borussia Dortmund, Hamburger SV and Bayer Leverkusen.
A 47-match veteran for B&H, he was quite adored at home. He had a coaching license, but never coached. Instead he played at poker tables, and reached World Series final table as an ex-professional.
“I told the players to go on the pitch and enjoy themselves,” Barbarez had said after the win over Italy. “I’ve never entered or finished a game calmer, I saw it in their eyes, I really like them, they’re guys with character. We have guys we’re proud of, we’re two years ahead of schedule. Now I’ve told them that we have to go to a tournament every two years,” he had said before the Zmajevi overturned poor history of 4 wins in 19 matches of qualifying.
While Emir Spahik runs the plays as sporting director, Barbarez has slid into his role as man manager and ace motivator at 54.
Aggressive defense, physicality and an outrageous 41 long balls (one for every year Dzeko has spent on earth), was the underpinning of their win over Italy as they took the midfield out of the equation. It centred on 6-4″ Erin Dzeko who was fed aerial balls into the box to take out centre backs of rivals.
Amar Dedic of Benfica is the wheels from right wing while Ivan Šunjić and Benjamin Tahirović are bulldozers in a offensive 4-4-2. They might make news for the 40-year-olds on the field, primarily Edin Dzeko, but Barbarez also trusted 18-year-old Kerim Alajbegović to take ice-cool penalties in shootouts against Wales and Italy.
B&H have Qatar, Canada and Switzerland to take care of and expats community from St Louis (called Little Bosnia) lending decibel. They arrived in the depths of wartime and genocidal 1990s, and are 70,000 in number, comprising fleeing Bosnians and Croats. Building a community while healing from PTSD, they built a replica wood fountain in Little Bosnia that mimics one in the capital Sarajevo, known as the Sebilj, as per AP’s Stephen Wade, via Columbia Missourian. Skala Bar is a landmark that commemorates over a lakh that were killed in the genocide.
The team is madebup of Bosnian Muslims, Croatian Roman Catholics and Serbian Orthodox Christians. “A lot of people from here go to Bosnia every year to see families,” Jasmina Silić, a worker at Skala Bar told Wade. ”The team represents unity because it’s all three religions and everybody is one like it used to be when it was still Yugoslavia.”
Bevo Mill bakeries in St Louis, Missouri became quite the eatery hangouts while Cevapi – a charcoal grilled meat in soft bread became the most popular food truck at the local soccer MLS stadium.
Their Ultras travel too. BH Fanaticos, Horde Zla, Manijaci, Ultras Mostar, Lesinari (Undertaker Duplicate) all can chaos, though their intra-ultra rivalries are worse. But the blue and yellow flags will blow against Canada.