Bosnia and Herzegovina will compete in the World Cup this month. Can they take inspiration from the legacy of legendary manager Ivica Osim? Lida Hujic meets Osim’s illustrious son Amar to find out – and asks team captain Edin Dzeko too.
I arrive to meet one of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s most celebrated football club managers on a sunny Sunday afternoon in what looks like the middle of nowhere, close to the city of East Sarajevo, on the crossroads between the country’s two political entities, Republika Srpska and the Federation.
The invisible border between the two ethnically-delineated entities could be seen as a suitable place to meet to talk football these days, as Bosnia and Herzegovina’s prepare for their first match at the 2026 men’s World Cup on June 12 has brought the country a bit closer together.
But even with my app map, I struggle to pinpoint my destination. When I approach the building, the pavement ends. Making my way through the forecourt of a service station, between malodorous petrol pumps and refilling cars, I spot Amar Osim through the floor-to-ceiling window of a hotel café.
This unassuming hotel is his fitness-cum-social club. He is cooling off after a table tennis session with a couple of his fellow players. “I’ve always played. My cousins in Vodice [Croatian coastal town] had a table, so we played since a young age. When I was with Zeljo and we were doing our seasonal training, we’d always play table tennis,” he tells me.
Zeljo, short for Zeljeznicar, are one of the most successful and popular clubs in Bosnian football. After making his mark as a player, Amar led Zeljo to multiple titles across his managerial spells at the club, becoming its most decorated manager since Bosnia’s independence.
I’m here to talk football and look at how the legacy of Amar’s famous father, Ivica Osim – whose career as a football manager also took him to a World Cup – continues to influence the game in the country, building a football legacy that informs today’s team as it prepares to compete at the very highest level.
Osim senior was national team coach for Yugoslavia in its final years as a unified state, from 1986 to 1992. He resigned as the Bosnian war erupted, just before the 1992 European Championships, angry at Bosnian Serb forces’ attacks on his hometown Sarajevo. “On the scale of human suffering, I cannot reconcile events at home with my position as national manager,” he explained at the time.
His resignation is widely remembered in the country as a defining moment of integrity amid the outbreak of war. To honour him, the street in Grbavica, one of Sarajevo’s hardest-hit neighbourhoods during the siege and home to Zeljo’s stadium, was renamed Ivica Osim Boulevard.
Looking back later, he said: “The [Yugoslavia] team was far, far better than the country. It would be a fantasy to lament that generation of players, and not to talk about what happened afterwards. Lots of people were killed. The country was destroyed. Sometimes there are things that are more important than football.”
A footballing father and son
Photo: Coach of Japan’s national soccer team Ivica Osim gives a press conference in Hanoi, Vietnam, 07 July 2007. Photo: EPA/JULIAN ABRAM WAINWRIGHT
The country’s World Cup qualification has highlighted the loss of Ivica Osim, who died in May 2022 . He was known as Cika Svabo (Uncle Jerry), an affectionate nickname, referring to the Nordic blond hair he had as a youngster. A disclaimer is due here: Amar Osim and I have known each other all our lives because our parents were friends from their youth.
Cika Svabo’s departure left a hole, not just among those who knew him, but also in the world of football. Career highlights included being appointed as the head coach of the Japanese national team, successfully managing JEF United Chiba; winning two Austrian titles with Sturm Graz and taking Yugoslavia to the 1990 World Cup quarter-finals. As a lasting tribute on the first anniversary of his death, the city of Graz officially renamed the forecourt of Sturm Graz’s home stadium as Ivica-Osim-Square, while the Soga Sports Park in Chuo Ward, Chiba, Japan, unveiled a bronze statue known as the Osim Monument.
Osim senior started his career as a player at Zeljo, followed by a successful stint at clubs in France, before returning to manage Zeljo from 1978 until 1986, leading them to Yugoslav Cup finals as well as UEFA Cup semi-finals. He was then appointed Yugoslav national team coach, simultaneously managing the Serbian club Partizan Belgrade.
Amar Osim was bequeathed this glorious heritage, but he speaks about his parents like any son who enjoyed a happy childhood. His first memories of football are associated with France, when his father played for Strasbourg FC in the 1970s.
“I must have been four, five? Svabo used to take me to the stadium when he trained,” he recalls, referring to his father by his nickname. “Then, when he played at Sedan, we used to go to matches, with [his mother] Asima.…
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