At the beginning of the conversation, Jelena Pavlović reveals to us when and in what way her love for this sport was born:
“I come from a small village in Livno, and it all started with two stones and one torn ball. I could never have imagined spending my free time playing anything other than football. I started training actively in 2018, and even before that I knew that football is, so far, the greatest love of my life.”
Jelena gives us her impressions after the first match of our national team, which took place on Tuesday, 3rd May 2022:
“There is simply no word that can describe the emotion we experienced at the “Grbavica”, in front of almost full stands. With the first sounds of the anthem, my heart started beating and at that moment I felt so proud to be a part of this beautiful story.”
Although our cadets were defeated, Pavlinović reveals that there is a good atmosphere among the players, and that they are ready for the upcoming matches:
“Whatever it was, it was. We have closed that chapter; we are turning to the match with Denmark. It will be a tough match, given that Denmark is a strong team, but I believe we will deal with the challenge ahead. I believe that there will be fans tomorrow as well, and I hereby invite everyone to come and support us.”
The young cadet tells us how much they follow their opponents, and how they prepare for further matches:
“We follow the opponents, we watched Denmark and Germany, and the technical staff paid special attention to the analysis of the weaknesses of future opponents. We all know that no team is here by chance, they all deserved it with their hard work and commitment. It is our job to do our best to make our game as good as possible in the future.”
At the end of the conversation, Jelena told us some interesting situations in which she and her team found themselves before and during the championship:
“We were not aware of what awaited us. We ourselves did not know how much the public was informed about the events related to this event. Passing through the city, people were stopping us, asking if we were the ones playing the European Championship; they were even more excited than us at that moment. When we arrived at the hotel, guests, of whom there were many, even from Japan, Portugal, Kuwait, stopped us asking to be photographed with us. Only then did we begin to understand where we were and how important this event was, not only for us, but for the whole Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
In the end, Jelena Pavlinović points out: “I believe that this championship is a big step for the development of women’s football in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is the dream of all the girls who play football, and we were given the opportunity to live our dreams. I hope that support will not be lacking.”
