This week the fantabulous Bosnian footballer, Edin Dzeko (pronounced Jeko) signed for Man City for an eye wateringly cool £27m. Everyone has been writing great things about him; his skill, his height, his striking ability. The sports journos seem to be agreed that he will be a Good Thing.
I've seen him play a couple of times mainly for Bosnia in their World Cup Qualifying campaign last year. But once in a far more surprising venue.
In 1992 Muslims were cleansed from Eastern Bosnia by Serb paramilitaries. They have started to go back to their pre-war homes but the life they lead now is hard. Unemployment is rife and the tensions between Serbs and Muslims in the area is still strong. In 2009, several players in the Bosnian national football team decided that they would show their support for those people how have returned to this area and arranged for a symbolic football match to be played; on the one side an old football team that had to leave the region because of the conflict (named Drina 93) and on the other a small local Muslim club from the village of Divic, just south of the city of Zvornik.
On the day in June 2009, Drina 93 fielded 6 of the Bosnian National Team, one of whom was Dzeko. I spoke to some of the players who played for Divic shortly after the game. The men were unbelievably proud. Proud to have walked on the same pitch as Dzeko. Proud that they should have come to their village. And proud to be recognised in this way.
It was a filthy day, pouring with unseasonal rain, but on that day some 2000 people came to Divic to see the football. It is impossible to measure how much that meant to everyone there.
Anyway, I wish Dzeko luck at Man City. May he score often and with flair (just not against Chelsea though). In the meantime, here's a video that was posted to YouTube shortly after the game, with the Bosnian equivelent of Three Lions as a background song. It shows another side of the game of football.