Hasan Salihamidžić

Hasan Salihamidžić (born 1 January 1977) is a Bosnian former professional footballer. After starting his club career with German side Hamburger SV, he made a name for himself while playing for Bayern Munich for nine seasons with whom he won the Bundesliga title six times, DFB-Pokal title four times, the 2000–01 UEFA Champions League, and the 2001 Intercontinental Cup. His only match in the UEFA Super Cup ended in defeat. He also played for Italian giants Juventus for four seasons.
During his career, Salihamidžić usually played as a right midfielder, right back or left back. He was a quick and energetic player with an extremely high work rate. He was also gifted with good crossing and passing abilities, which allowed him to create chances for his teammates.
He earned 43 caps and scored six goals for the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team. He is regarded by many as one of the most successful Bosnian football players in recent times.
Following the end of his one-year contract with VfL Wolfsburg in 2012, Salihamidžić retired from professional football and started work as a regular pundit for Sky Deutschland.

Early life

Salihamidžić's father Ahmed and mother Šefika gave him the nickname "Braco", meaning "little brother" in Bosnian, since Hasan has an older sister, hence his current nickname "Brazzo". He finished elementary school and played in the local club. Then, Salihamidžić moved to Velež Mostar where he stayed until 1992. That year, Salihamidžić was called up to the Yugoslavia under-16 team for a match against the CIS U-16 team in Belgrade. Days after the match, Bosnian Serb troops began a siege on the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, forcing his father to look for opportunities in Western Europe for his son.

Club career

Hamburger SV

In November 1992, Salihamidžić moved to Hamburg, Germany, with the assistance of Ahmed Halilhodžić (cousin of football coach Vahid Halilhodžić), who was also a Jablanica native and had emigrated to Germany. Through Ahmed Halilhodžić's help, Salihamidžić joined the youth team of Bundesliga side Hamburger SV. He remained within the club's youth system for three seasons before being promoted to the senior squad. In his first season with the seniors, Salihamidžić made nine appearances, scoring two league goals. The following season, Salihamidžić became an integral part of the squad as he would make 37 appearances and score an impressive seven goals between Europe and the league. He would go on to make 31 league appearances, scoring ten goals during the 1997–98 season, which would be his last for the club before his high-profile transfer to Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich.

Bayern Munich

Salihamidžić's transfer to Bayern Munich was completed during the 1998 summer transfer window, for an undisclosed fee. In his first season with his new club, 1998–99, Salihamidžić was instantly inserted into the club's starting line-up and made an impressive 43 appearances in all competitions, scoring five goals. During his first season, he came on as a substitute in the 89th minute of the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final against Manchester United. At this point, Bayern were 1–0 up and all seemed well until two last minute goals from Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær downed Bayern.

Salihamidžić would make an additional 46 appearances with three more goals in his second season for the Munich giants, in 1999–2000. His third season proved very successful as well, as he would score six goals in 46 appearances. Between 2001 and 2003, however, Salihamidžić lacked in appearances, mostly due to injury; he made just 50 appearances between both seasons in all competitions.

For the 2003–04 season, the Bosnian international worked his way back into the starting line-up for the entire season, making 47 appearances and scoring five goals, also tallying 43 appearances and five goals the following season.

Salihamidžić was limited to just 29 appearances for the 2005–06 season, but made 42 seasonal appearances in his final season with the club, in which he also scored five goals. One of Salihamidžić's most memorable plays in 2006–07 was in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg against Real Madrid, where he dispossessed Roberto Carlos and fed the pass to Roy Makaay, who beat goalkeeper Iker Casillas and set the record for the fasted goal in tournament history, at 11 seconds after kickoff. This helped Bayern overcome a 3–2 loss from the first leg to level the tie at 2–1 and advance on the away goals rule.

As he spent many years being so loved in Munich, and his children are from the city, Salihamidžić settled there when his playing career was over.

Juventus

Hasan Salihamidžić playing for Juventus in 2009.

On 15 January 2007, Salihamidžić signed a four-year pre-deal with Juventus. He joined them the following June after his contract with Bayern had expired. In his first season, under coach Claudio Ranieri, Salihamidžić was a regular starter, albeit injury lay-offs, and made 30 official appearances for his new club, scoring an impressive five goals which included two in a 3–2 victory against Milan on 12 April 2008. His second and third season with the club, however, proved to be less successful as he suffered from several injury lay-offs.

In the 2010–11 season, new coach Luigi Delneri excluded Salihamidžić from the team's plans. Along with Fabio Grosso, Salihamidžić was the only healthy first-team player that was excluded from the 25-men 2010–11 UEFA Europa League squad. Salihamidžić was released from Juventus when his contract expired in June 2011.

VfL Wolfsburg

On 4 July 2011, Salihamidžić moved to VfL Wolfsburg on a one-year contract. On 9 July 2011, in a friendly game against local team Bismark, Salihamidžić's left arm was broken in a duel with another player.

International career

Bosnia and Herzegovina squad during UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying.

Salihamidžić made his debut for the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team in 1996. He scored the team's first ever goal in a friendly 2–1 win over Italy. During his 11 years with the national team, the closest they came was falling one goal short in a match against Denmark that would have enabled them to qualify for UEFA Euro 2004. He retired from the national team in 2006.

International goals

Scores and results list Bosnia and Herzegovina's goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	6 November 1996	Koševo Stadium, Sarajevo	Italy	1–0	2–1	Friendly
2.	8 October 1996	Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, Bologna	Croatia	1–1	1–4	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
3.	6 September 1997	Maksimir, Zagreb	Croatia	2–2	2–3	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
4.	27 January 1999	Ta' Qali National Stadium, Attard	Malta	1–0	1–2	Friendly
5.	4 June 2005	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle	San Marino	1–0	3–1	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
6.				2–0

Personal life

Salihamidžić has three children: Selina, Nick and Lara June, all born in Munich with his German-born Spanish wife Esther Copado. Footballer Francisco Copado is his brother-in-law.

Career statistics

Statistics accurate as of match played 5 May 2012

Club

• Also played one UEFA Super Cup game where he scored one goal (2001–02 season).
• Has also played 14 Ligapokal games (no goals).

International

Honours

Club

Bayern Munich

• Bundesliga: 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2004–05, 2005–06
• DFB-Pokal: 1999–2000, 2002–03, 2004–05, 2005–06
• DFB-Ligapokal: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004
• UEFA Champions League: 2000–01
• Intercontinental Cup: 2001

Individual

• Bosnian Player of the Year: 2004

• "H. Salihamidžić". Soccerway. Retrieved 18 August 2014.