Hasan Salihamidzic is stunned. War is raging in the middle of Europe. The sporting director of FC Bayern has experienced for himself what it feels like when the bombs fly. In an interview with “Sky” he is now extremely emotional and feels reminded of his own story.
Hasan Salihamidzic knows the war. He was right in the middle. In 1992 Hasan Salihamidzic fled to Hamburg from his birthplace Jablanica in what was then Yugoslavia and is now Bosnia and Herzegovina to escape the barbarism of the Balkan war. “Those were terrible times. Jablanica was bombed. A dud hit us right in the hallway. Thank God we all survived,” he told DFL-Magazine in November.
And only a few months later he has to talk about the war again. Bayern Munich’s sporting director feels painfully reminded of his own past by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Before the Munich game in the Bundesliga at Eintracht Frankfurt, the 45-year-old gets extremely emotional. “I just can’t believe that we’re having an aggressive war in the middle of Europe at this time,” said the agitated Salihamidzic. “I’m shocked – like all of us – and I hope this stops very soon.”
In the conversation on Sky, the Bosnian gives insights into his emotional state. “The fact that I experienced this time is the worst time you can experience. My family was down there. The worries you have are unimaginable.” Salihamidzic was 15 at the time.