SERGEJ Barbarez surveilled the scene in front of him. In front of positively heaving Canadian crowd in Toronto, the coach of the Bosnian team may have been filled with regret. After taking a lead against the run of play against the hosts, his team — in only their second World Cup after independence — had held on for the best part of an hour before Cyle Larin lashed home from the edge of the box.
In the end, it was a creditable point but it could have been so much more. After all, Barbarez knows all about the point of having a winning hand. A creditable poker player, Barbarez's story from Bosnia's captain during his playing days to being the main man in the dug-out is stuff that belongs in a book. Having retired as one of the best players in Bosnia and Herzegovina's history, he did his coaching badges. But he never felt the urge to scratch that particular itch so he swapped football for Europe's poker tables. Apart from poker, he also became a noteworthy media pundit, somebody who wasn't too pleased with the Bosnian football was going.
That particular rhetoric was amped up in 2024 when the side suffered off and on the pitch. The results were so dire that they went through four coaches in 2023 alone. Off the pitch, an arrangement to play Russia in a friendly after the invasion of Ukraine polarised already angry supporters even more. In Euro qualifying for the 2024 event, they finished fifth in their group out of six teams.
So when the federation approached Barbarez in 2024 — one apocryphal story goes that the officials told him 'if you think it's so easy to do this job, come and manage us rather than criticise us on TV — the task was two-fold. "Make us competitive and take us to the Euros in 2028."
That's how Barbarez's first ever coaching job happened to be with the national team whose jersey he used to wear proudly as captain. The apogee of his coaching career came a few months ago when Bosnia eliminated Italy in a dramatic penalty shootout in the playoffs in March. The poker player had played his cards right to engineer one of their greatest football nights.
For other teams, getting to the World Cup is a bare minimum. For Bosnia, it's the culmination of hard work and the beginning of a dream. Sample this. While this team does feature Edin Dzeko — the one remaining link to the golden generation in the post Yugoslavia era — they had to get creative. So they cast the net far and wide for success. The proof lies in simple numbers. Out of the 26 men representing them in Canada, more than a dozen members of the squad were born outside their borders. A handful of players in fact started their international journeys with other countries before declaring for Bosnia.
In a presentable group, Barbarez knows that if plays his cards right, he will give Bosnia and their fans another 'miracle' so soon after dumping Italy. Qualifying for the knockout stages. Their next game is against Switzerland on June 18.