German football fans definitely know his name. But do you still recognize the former Bundesliga legend and current coach of Bosnia and Herzegovina?
The ex-Bundesliga star has been training the Bosnia and Herzegovina team since April 2024. The offensive player spent his active career almost exclusively in Germany. In 1992 he moved from his hometown club Velez Mostar to Hannover 96. “I was more of a refugee, if you can put it like that,” the former national player told the magazine “11Freunde”. His father sent him to his uncle in Hanover.
He scored a total of 17 goals in 47 games for his home country, and he also thought about a different career path. “If I had called Berti Vogts back then, I might have been a multiple World Cup and European Championship participant today. The question never arose for me back then because I always wanted to play for the country in which I was born.”
Well, now you know – right? It is none other than Sergei Barbarez. As national coach, Barbarez will face Julian Nagelsmann’s DFB team in the Nations League.
The striker was denied a major title in his career. After all: with 22 goals he became the top scorer in the Bundesliga in the 2000/2001 season. He won the League Cup with HSV in 2004. He was voted “Footballer of the Year” in Bosnia and Herzegovina three times in a row (2001 to 2003).
About his first big coaching job, Barbarez said in an interview with “Kicker”: “In the last ten years things have only gone downhill. I’ll try to put it a little flippantly: A normal person wouldn’t have taken on this job.”
Barbarez now faces his first big task against Germany (today at 8:45 p.m. on RTL and in the live ticker on t-online).
