The Bubamara football school, the bridge controlled by snipers, the idea of Predrag Pasic. At the origins of the Bosnian Swan
When the term “war” becomes a daily drama in Sarajevo, the multi-ethnic capital of Bosnia, Predrag Pasic, a modest former footballer, gets an idea. He gets up, dresses quickly, walks briskly through the city hoping not to be shot by Serbian, Croatian, Muslim snipers. He reaches a local radio station: “On May 15th the selections for the Bubamara football school begin. Show up at the Skenderija field at 4pm”. Pasic would like to do something for those who remained in Bosnia under the bombs, but to reach his training ground the kids would have to cross a bridge guarded by snipers. “It’s crazy,” he thinks, “no one’s going to show up.” Two hundred arrive: among these is little Edin Dzeko.
Quickly
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“Bubamara” in Sarajevo is the name of the ladybug. A symbol of luck for those who see the world fall on them every day. Like Dzeko, who would like to spend day and night with the ball at his feet but one afternoon is stopped by his mother Belma: “You don’t go to the park today, it’s too dangerous”. Edin feels terrible, but he saves his life: the park is bombed by the Bosnian Serbs, there are dead and wounded. One of his future international team-mates, Vedad Ibisevic, loses his father during the ethnic cleansing. The lifeboat is Pasic’s announcement: children could finally go back to playing football. Edin miraculously obtains his mother’s support, and on May 15, 1993 he runs across the bridge, holding hands with the children who would like Mennea’s shot to overcome those ten seconds of danger with snipers stationed everywhere. Even the little players, like the protagonists of the war, come from everywhere: Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Orthodox, Muslims. Pasic, when he thinks back to his first training sessions with his kids at Bubamara, recalls: “Outside we used to shoot at each other, for these differences. I taught them that it was precisely these that made us strong, to think as a team”.
Also in Kosovo
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The future Inter striker and Ervin Zukanovic, a good winger for Atalanta, Rome and Genoa among others, are growing up in Bubamara. Pasic explains football and civility: “Outside the gym we often heard shooting while we were training. I like to think that instead I helped my boys bring out their best part”. Then the long night of Sarajevo comes to an end: slowly Bosnia is placed on the maps of the world. Pasic and Bubamara, however, do not close their doors; they continue their initiatives for children who are victims of the war and in 2001 they land in Kosovo, another valley of blood and tears. Half of Rome is with them: Tommasi, Di Francesco and Mangone stop in the Balkans as Italian champions: Pasic’s initiative aims to bring great footballers closer to children. And it is a success: Di Biagio, De Ascentis and Delli Carri also show up. A match is played between the Serie A champions and a Bosnian selection, while Bubamara’s children cheer: the Balkans win 6-5. Who knows, maybe 15-year-old Dzeko, who has become a jewel in Zeljeznicar’s midfield, was among them.
Nerazzurri thread
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There is still a common thread between Bubamara and Edin. Indeed, Nerazzurri: the striker makes Inter cheer at the age of 36, Pasic’s courageous creature instead has become an integral part of the InterCampus Project which has been participating for 25 years with solidarity initiatives for young Bosnians and allows them to play football. Dzeko keeps memories of Sarajevo in his mind and heart: in addition to scoring swan and battering ram goals for Inter and raising Serie A trophies, he finances the construction of family homes in Bosnia and is a Unicef ambassador. The ladybug brought him luck.
January 19, 2023 (change January 19, 2023 | 17:08)
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