Coach, in a conversation a little over eight months ago you said you really wanted to take our national team to a major tournament you didn’t manage to reach as a player. Did you feel that as your deepest, most personal obligation or some kind of debt to Bosnia and Herzegovina and the fans who’ve always stood by you?
“Desire, reality, and vision are closely connected and intertwined for me. When I spoke about it before, I was simply expressing our strong desire, our ‘hunger,’ so to speak, to take the team to a major tournament as head coach. I didn’t see it as an obligation, even less as pressure or a debt to Bosnia and Herzegovina or the fans. A huge desire, discipline, and commitment from everyone brought us to this result, and we’re very happy about it. When you play for the national team or are part of it, you always have in mind that you’re representing your country to the whole world, you’re full of emotion and the desire to qualify for a big tournament—that’s how it is with me.”
As a player, you had authority and your teammates followed you. That’s hard to achieve in football, and you’ve shown that even as head coach you have that authenticity and strength for players to follow both you and your football philosophy. How did you manage to achieve that?
“I think every person carries a certain level of authority within them. How that authority is built or expressed depends on the individual. I didn’t become an authority overnight at 19, it simply came naturally through my career, through the foundation I had, my attitude on the pitch, quality, and importance within the team or league. I’m glad the values I nurtured are now reflected through unity in the national team, good communication with players, and mutual trust. For me, it’s always been important to stay consistent with my principles, consistent in decisions—there are good ones and less pleasant ones in coaching, but they’re all part of the path and philosophy we follow. I think all that together has made players trust me and follow my vision, which is now theirs as well. There’s no specific recipe or formula, it’s about character and personality.”
Is Barbarez before and after the qualifiers the same? How much have these matches changed you and what have you learned or discovered about yourself, your staff, and the team?
“I’m not the same, of course, I’ve progressed and developed through these qualifiers and the play-off. Not just me, but my staff as well—we now understand more in every segment. We’ve learned things about ourselves, about opponents, about the business side of football, how a national team functions in qualifiers and how it works in the play-offs. Every match is different, so we prepared that way, constantly asking players not to give up, to believe in themselves and their abilities. This experience is valuable, and we’re definitely a bit wiser now than before the qualifiers.”
Now that emotions have settled a bit, there’s intense work ahead regarding preparations, choosing a training camp, selecting opponents for friendlies etc. How far along are you with those activities?
“There’s more work than we had over the past two years. That’s how it goes when you play in the play-offs, but we’re happy, things are going well. Some aspects take more time, especially logistics. When it comes to travel and choosing opponents, a lot is already booked by other national teams, so we have to adapt a bit and make some compromises. Still, none of that worries us, it’s important that we’re at the World Cup. When preparations start, I just want all players to be healthy, no injuries, and I’m sure they’ll work well and, of course, we’ll head to America fully ready.”
It seems it was harder to convince people of your ideas than to win and qualify for the World Cup. You restored trust and raised the national team’s image. Can you share another dream of yours, since not only do they come true, but they also bring joy across the country and beyond?
“I didn’t want to convince anyone, people have to accept things on their own. What matters is vision, persistence, and courage to keep going even when results weren’t great. People recognized that themselves, believed in me, my team, and what we do. From the start, we were clearly transparent and credible, and we approached this job honestly. Of course, there are always mistakes, but we want to minimize them and succeed, even when we see things differently than others. That’s the idea guiding us and the purpose behind it all. As for dreams, mine are tied to emotions. When I watched our first match at the 2014 World Cup on TV against Argentina, the atmosphere and emotions impressed me so much they’re hard to describe, that I always felt maybe the only thing missing from my career was not playing in a major tournament. That’s why I always highlighted it as a big dream, which I’ve now achieved in a different role. Now everything else is a bonus, and after that we keep moving forward, slowly uphill, hoping for more success. And I’m sure it’ll come.”
Coach, at the end of this conversation tell us what kind of Bosnia and Herzegovina team we’ll see at this World Cup?
“I recently said I can promise you’ll see the same team you watched throughout the qualifiers. A team that has everything people are praising now: unity, determination, character, a winning mentality. We built all that over these two years, and it’ll stay that way as long as I’m here. We’ve done the most important job, we qualified for the World Cup, and now we’ll go step by step. Many young players have already shown their quality and potential in these matches. They still have plenty of room to develop, so they’ll take the next step at the World Cup.”
In a country where everyone sees themselves as a coach, it’ll be remembered that Sergej Barbarez, in less than two years on the bench of the national “A” team, led Bosnia and Herzegovina to the biggest stage in world football. Before him, only Safet Sušić achieved that, and at the time of qualification he’d already spent more than three years in charge of the team.
