As a young man, Hasan Salihamidzic left Jablanica and forever marked Germany, Italy, and the rest of Europe as a football player. He played 234 times for FC Bayern and played 43 games for his country's national team. Today, he is one of the most successful athletes in the world and holds the position of Sporting Director of the great Bayern. Speaking for N1, he recalled his childhood and path as FC Bayern’s Sporting Director.

“I had a wonderful childhood and in a way, I became who I am through that. I can only thank my parents for that. I did the same things as many of my colleagues who played with me on the national team did. When you leave (your country), you don't get a bonus, but you try to be hardworking and have a goal in mind. Through work and striving one can achieve their goals,” Salihamidzic told N1, sending a message to all young footballers in BiH who want to one day succeed like him.

The road was not easy, he adds, he trained a lot and got up quite early.

“I didn’t go out and party, but I went training,” he recalled.

He told N1 about a moment that, he says, may have been a turning point for him at the very beginning of his career.

“When I left BiH, there was maybe a moment on the bus… At that time, everyone had Croatian passports, and I had a Yugoslav one. I was a bit lucky there when three soldiers pulled me out of the bus and asked me where I should go now because I was small and simply had another passport. I said I was going to Germany to play football and try to make it. Maybe it was a moment when I was lucky. They could have left me at the border to stay and prevented me from leaving. Later, I learned the language quickly, tried to be diligent and trained a lot in another culture so I could adapt, to simply be a part of that society. I succeeded year after year”, Salihamidzic recalled.

He said that no one has ever asked him for advice from the BiH Football Association. N1 ask him, what would he do if he received an offer to join the BiH Football Association?

“I didn't think about that. Because I have my job now. I didn't really think about it. We have a lot of experts who played with me, such as Baljic, Bolic, Glavas, Konjic… They are all over there (in Bosnia). It’s important for our football that we consult with them. They had great careers and it is very important that we consult with them and that would be good for BiH football,” he noted.

Braco, as he is affectionately called, believes that sport and politics do not go together at all.

“I heard what great people said, such as Vahid Halihodzic, that it is very important that the best players play and that the coach must have the strength to decide which are the best players. Politics and sports, it's very difficult. I know from experience if there is a lot of politics in the sport, then it’s very difficult. I talk to my father a lot and he tells me what the situation is, but I wouldn't go into the details,” Braco concluded.