Esmir Bajraktarević, born and raised in Appleton, Wisconsin, became a Bosnia and Herzegovina sensation when he scored the winning penalty in qualification against Italy. His assists from the left have lit up their World Cup, and his reputation for nutmegging opponents precedes him. The American-raised family never forgot their roots.
Several of Esmir’s relatives were killed in the Srebrenica genocide of 1995, years before he was born. His parents, Elmir and Emina, fled first to Switzerland as refugees, before settling in Appleton in 2001. “My parents lost a good part of their family,” Esmir told The Blazing Musket. “It’s a tragedy and something I will never forget. Srebrenica is something I will never forget. It’s a part of me and who I am.” Choosing to represent Bosnia wasn’t a difficult choice for the 21-year-old.
He shares that deep tug at the Bosniak heart with Zlatan Ibrahimović, who is entertaining Americans on FOX as a World Cup TV pundit.
Ibrahimović has joked about the connection before. Bosnian NBA player Nihad Dedovic was once asked if he was related to him, and replied, “No, my father has never been to Sweden.” Ibra’s response: “But my father has been to Bosnia.”
This time, though, the usual wisecracker, whose bicycle-kick banter has Thierry Henry bracing and Alexis Lalas rolling his eyes most nights, stepped out of character. He emotionally narrated just how much Bosnia Herzegovina making the knockouts, and 70,000 singing in the streets of Sarajevo, meant to him. “My father’s roots are from there, and because Bosnians have suffered so much. It makes me emotional, I can’t even express myself,” he said on Fox.
His father, Šefik Ibrahimović, a Bosnian Muslim, met his mother in Sweden, where the family settled. The couple, now divorced, raised the blunt-talking but beautifully gifted Ibra in the rugged Malmö district of Rosengård.