Hasan Salihamidžić (; born 1 January 1977), nicknamed Brazzo ( bs, Braco, , "Little Bro"), is a Bosnian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

and current

sporting director A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footbal ...

club

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's association football, foo ...

. After starting his club career with German side

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of thre ...

, he made a name for himself while playing for Bayern Munich for nine seasons with whom he won the Bundesliga title six times,

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

title four times, the

2000–01 UEFA Champions League The 2000–01 UEFA Champions League was the 46th season of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA's premier European club football tournament, and the ninth since it was rebranded from the "European Champion Clubs' Cup" or "European Cup". The competiti ...

and the

2001 Intercontinental Cup The 2001 Intercontinental Cup was an association football match played on 27 November 2001 between Bayern Munich, winners of the 2000–01 UEFA Champions League, and winners of the 2001 Copa Libertadores, Boca Juniors, which was also the defendin ...

. He also played for Italian club

Juventus )''I Bianconeri'' (The White and Blacks)''Le Zebre'' (The Zebras)''La Signora Omicidi'' (The Killer Lady)''La Gheuba'' (: The Hunchback) , founded = as Sport-Club Juventus , ground = Juventus Stadium , capacity = 41,507 , owner = Agnelli ...

for four seasons. During his career, Salihamidžić usually played as a right midfielder or full back. He was a quick and energetic player with an extremely high work rate. He was also gifted with good crossing and passing abilities, which allowed him to create chances for his teammates. He earned 42

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Jav ...

and scored six goals for the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team. He is regarded by many as one of the most successful Bosnian football players. Following the end of his one-year contract with

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...

in 2012, Salihamidžić retired from professional football. He then worked for

Sky Deutschland Sky Deutschland GmbH, branded as Sky, is a German media company that operates a direct broadcast satellite Pay TV platform in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (through Sky Switzerland). It provides a collection of basic and premium digital su ...

, RTL and

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

, before re-joining Bayern Munich as sporting director in 2017.

Early life

Salihamidžić's father Ahmed and mother Šefika gave him the nickname "Braco", meaning "little brother" in Bosnian, since Hasan has an older sister, hence his current nickname "Brazzo". He finished elementary school and played in the local club. Then, Salihamidžić moved to Velež Mostar where he stayed until 1992. That year, Salihamidžić was called up to the Yugoslavia under-16 team, for a match against the CIS under-16 team in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 m ...

. Days after the match, the

Army of Republika Srpska The Army of Republika Srpska ( sr, Војска Републике Српске/Vojska Republike Srpske; ВРС/VRS), commonly referred to in English as the Bosnian Serb Army, was the military of Republika Srpska (RS), the self-proclaimed Serb ...

began a siege on the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, forcing his father to look for opportunities in Western Europe for his son.

Club career

Hamburger SV

In November 1992, Salihamidžić moved to Hamburg, Germany, with the assistance of Ahmed Halilhodžić (cousin of football coach Vahid Halilhodžić), who was also a Jablanica native and had emigrated to Germany. Through Ahmed Halilhodžić's help, Salihamidžić joined the youth team of

side

. He remained within the club's youth system for three seasons before being promoted to the senior squad. In his first season with the seniors, Salihamidžić made nine appearances, scoring two league goals. The following season, Salihamidžić became an integral part of the squad as he would make 37 appearances and score an impressive seven goals between Europe and the league. He would go on to make 31 league appearances, scoring ten goals during the 1997–98 season, which would be his last for the club before his high-profile transfer to Bundesliga giants

Bayern Munich

Salihamidžić's transfer to Bayern Munich was completed during the 1998 summer transfer window, for an undisclosed fee. In his first season with his new club, 1998–99, Salihamidžić was instantly inserted into the club's starting line-up and made an impressive 43 appearances in all competitions, scoring five goals. During his first season, he came on as a substitute in the 89th minute of the

1999 UEFA Champions League Final The 1999 UEFA Champions League Final was an association football match between Manchester United of England and Bayern Munich of Germany, played at Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain, on 26 May 1999, to determine the winner of the 1998–99 UEFA Champ ...

against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two ...

. Salihamidžić would make an additional 46 appearances with three more goals in his second season for the Munich giants, in 1999–2000. His third season proved very successful as well, as he would score six goals in 46 appearances. Between 2001 and 2003, however, Salihamidžić lacked in appearances, mostly due to injury; he made just 50 appearances between both seasons in all competitions. For the 2003–04 season, the Bosnian international worked his way back into the starting line-up for the entire season, making 47 appearances and scoring five goals, also tallying 43 appearances and five goals the following season. Salihamidžić was limited to just 29 appearances for the 2005–06 season, but made 42 seasonal appearances in his final season with the club, in which he also scored five goals. One of Salihamidžić's most memorable plays in 2006–07 was in the Champions League round of 16 second leg against Real Madrid, where he dispossessed

Roberto Carlos Roberto Carlos da Silva Rocha (born 10 April 1973), commonly known as Roberto Carlos, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who now works as a football ambassador. He started his career in Brazil as a forward but spent most of his car ...

and fed the pass to

Roy Makaay Rudolphus Antonius "Roy" Makaay (born 9 March 1975) is a Dutch former footballer and a coach who is currently first team coach at Rangers. As a striker, he was known for his goal-scoring ability as a result of his "aerial prowess and quick drive ...

, who beat goalkeeper

Iker Casillas Iker Casillas Fernández (; born 20 May 1981) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper and currently works as a football commentator. Popularly dubbed "''San Iker''" ("Saint Iker") for his ability to produce specta ...

and set the record for the fastest goal in tournament history, at 11 seconds after kickoff. This helped Bayern overcome a 3–2 loss from the first leg to level the tie at 2–1 and advance on the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

. As he spent many years being so loved in Munich and his children are from the city, Salihamidžić settled there when his playing career was over.

Juventus

On 15 January 2007, Salihamidžić signed a four-year pre-deal with

. He joined them the following June after his contract with Bayern had expired. In his first season, under coach

Claudio Ranieri Claudio Ranieri Grande Ufficiale OMRI (; born 20 October 1951) is an Italian football manager and former player. He will be the new head coach of club Cagliari from 1 January 2023. Ranieri began his managerial career in the lower leagues in I ...

, Salihamidžić was a regular starter, albeit with injury lay-offs, and made 30 official appearances for his new club, scoring an impressive five goals which included two in a 3–2 victory against Milan on 12 April 2008. His second and third season with the club, however, proved to be less successful as he suffered from several injury lay-offs. In the 2010–11 season, new coach

Luigi Delneri Luigi Delneri (born 23 August 1950), often incorrectly written as Del Neri, is an Italian football manager and a former player. After a playing career as a midfielder including for several Serie A clubs, he began managing in the lower leagues, a ...

excluded Salihamidžić from the team's plans. Along with

Fabio Grosso Fabio Grosso (; born 28 November 1977) is an Italian former professional footballer and current manager of Frosinone Calcio. After playing for several smaller Italian clubs, such as Renato Curi, Chieti and Perugia, he made his breakthrough d ...

, Salihamidžić was the only healthy first-team player that was excluded from the 25-men

2010–11 UEFA Europa League The 2010–11 UEFA Europa League was the second season of the UEFA Europa League, Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 40th edition overall including its predecessor, the UEFA Cup. It began on 1 July 2010, w ...

squad. Salihamidžić was released from Juventus when his contract expired in June 2011.

VfL Wolfsburg

On 4 July 2011, Salihamidžić moved to

on a one-year contract. On 9 July 2011, in a friendly game against local team Bismark, Salihamidžić's left arm was broken in a challenge with another player.

International career

Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team in 2002

Salihamidžić made his international debut for

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...

on 8 October 1996 against Croatia. On 6 November 1996, he scored the team's first goal in a friendly 2–1 win over Italy. During his 11 years with the national team, the closest they came was falling one goal short in a match against Denmark that would have enabled them to qualify for UEFA Euro 2004. He has earned a total of 42 caps, scoring 6 goals and his final international was an August 2006 friendly match against France.

Punditry

After retiring from professional football in 2012, Salihamidžić started to work as a regular pundit for

. From summer 2013 to spring 2014, he worked as a football expert for RTL and was a

color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and the ...

for during the

2013 Audi Cup The 2013 Audi Cup was the third edition of the Audi Cup, a two-day association football tournament that featured four teams, and was played at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany. The competition hosted the 2009 Audi Cup winners Bayern Munich ...

. He was also an expert for

from February 2014 until the

UEFA Champions League Final The UEFA Champions League is a seasonal football competition established in 1955. Prior to the 1992–93 season, the tournament was named the European Cup. The UEFA Champions League is open to the league champions of all UEFA (Union of European ...

and during the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

in Brazil.

Administrative career

On 31 July 2017, Salihamidžić was appointed sporting director of Bayern Munich, his predecessor Matthias Sammer had retired for health and family reasons a season ago in 2016. Salihamidžić signed a three-year contract until 30 June 2020. Bayern's Chairman,

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge Karl-Heinz "Kalle" Rummenigge (; born 25 September 1955) is a German Association football, football executive and former professional player. He was the longtime Chairman of Executive Board of FC Bayern München AG, a daughter company of German B ...

said, "In Hasan, we have brought a man to FC Bayern who knows the club very well. He is a very hard-working, serious, loyal and very alert person with great integrity and he speaks five languages. His time in Italy means he has a great network that will definitely be very helpful in his job. We have complete confidence that he will be able to do the job as he should do." Salihamidžić officially assumed his position on Bayern's executive board on 1 July 2020 as the "board director of sport".

Personal life

Salihamidžić has three children: Selina, Nick and Lara June, all born in Munich, with his wife, Esther Copado. Footballer Francisco Copado is his brother-in-law, whose son Lucas (Salihamidžić's nephew) is a footballer for Bayern Munich, alongside Salihamidžić's own son,

Nick Nick may refer to: * Nick (given name) * A cricket term for a slight deviation of the ball off the edge of the bat * British slang for being arrested * British slang for a police station * British slang for stealing * Short for nickname Places ...

. Salihamidžić also holds German citizenship.

Career statistics

Club

:''Source:''

International

:''Scores and results list Bosnia and Herzegovina's goal tally first''.

Honours

Club

Bayern Munich *

: 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2004–05, 2005–06 *

: 1999–2000, 2002–03, 2004–05, 2005–06 *

DFB-Ligapokal The DFL-Ligapokal (, officially Premiere Ligapokal , previously DFB-Ligapokal ) or the ''German League Cup'' was a German football competition that took place before the start of the Bundesliga season, featuring the top five teams of the previous B ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

* UEFA Champions League: 2000–01 * Intercontinental Cup:

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...

Individual

Bosnia and Herzegovina Sportsperson of the Year Bosnia and Herzegovina Sportsperson of the Year are annual sporting awards given to best athletes of Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often kno ...

* Bosnian Footballer of the Year: 2000, 2004, 2005, 2006

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Salihamidzic, Hasan 1977 births Living people People from Jablanica, Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosniaks of Bosnia and Herzegovina Yugoslav Wars refugees Association football midfielders Association football fullbacks Bosnia and Herzegovina footballers Bosnia and Herzegovina international footballers Hamburger SV II players Hamburger SV players FC Bayern Munich footballers Juventus F.C. players VfL Wolfsburg players Regionalliga players Bundesliga players Serie A players UEFA Champions League winning players Bosnia and Herzegovina expatriate footballers Bosnia and Herzegovina expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Bosnia and Herzegovina expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Italy Association football commentators Color commentators German sports broadcasters German television journalists RTL Group people ZDF people FC Bayern Munich non-playing staff FC Bayern Munich board members