Džemal "Džemo" Smječanin (born 6 June 1972) is a Bosnian retired 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 lea ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

Club career

Born in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

, present day

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

, Smječanin started playing

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

in the youth teams of hometown club by the same name,

. His first professional contract that he signed was with now defunct Slovenian club Korotan Prevalje in the summer of 1995. He spent one season playing in Slovenia, before coming back to Bosnia and Herzegovina and signing with his favourite Sarajevo in 1996. Smječanin played for three years at Sarajevo, winning two

Bosnian Cup The Bosnia and Herzegovina Football Cup ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kup Bosne i Hercegovine, Куп Босне и Херцеговине) is a knock-out football competition contested annually by clubs from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The winner ...

s, one Bosnian Supercup and one league title during that time. In 1999, he joined Đerzelez, and in the season 1999–2000 scored 25 league goals for the club, making him joint-top goalscorer of the league. From 2000 until 2002, Smječanin played abroad at German and Belgium clubs

Rot-Weiss Essen Rot-Weiss Essen is a German association football club based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club plays in the 3. Liga, at the Stadion an der Hafenstraße. The team won the DFB-Pokal in 1953, and the German championship in 1955. The latt ...

and Zuid-West-Vlaanderen. However, after leaving Đerzelez, he was not able to get back to his goalscoring ways for the rest of his career, scoring only 2 league goals in the two years that he played at Essen and Vlaanderen. In June 2002, Smječanin came back to Sarajevo, playing one more season for his boyhood club before retiring from football in June 2003 after the end of the 2002–03 league season.

International career

Showing good games at

, Smječanin was called up to the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team squad for the

1997 Dunhill Cup The 1997 Dunhill Cup was the 13th Dunhill Cup. It was a team tournament featuring 16 countries, each represented by three players. The Cup was played 16–19 October at the Old Course at St Andrews in Scotland. The sponsor was the Alfred Dunhill c ...

in Malaysia by national team head coach

Fuad Muzurović Fuad Muzurović (born 3 November 1945) is a Bosnian retired professional football manager and former player. Playing career Although he did not have an international playing career, Muzurović is still remembered as a quality full-back playing ...

. He played all five games at the Cup, scoring one goal against

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

in a 4–0 win on 22 February 1997. Smječanin played his last game for the national team against

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

in a 2–1 loss on 5 November 1997.

Career statistics

International

Source:

International goals

Honours

Player

Sarajevo * Bosnian First League: 1998–99 *

: 1996–97, 1997–98 * Bosnian Supercup: 1997 Individual * Bosnian First League top goalscorer: 1999–2000 (shared)

References

External links