Mirsad Bešlija (born 6 July 1979) is a Bosnian former professional footballer who played as a right winger. He has most notably played for Željezničar,

Genk Genk () is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality and City status in Belgium, city located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg near Hasselt. The municipality comprises only the town of Genk itself. It ...

, Heart of Midlothian and the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team.

Club career

Bešlija started his career with hometown club Slaven Živinice. Although he was among the youngest players in their squad, he became an important part of the first team. He was spotted there and signed by Bosna Visoko, a first division team at that time, in 1997. He spent two seasons in Visoko, during which he won both the Bosnian Cup and Supercup. His rapid footballing ascent attracted the interest of Željezničar and he signed for them in 2000, becoming a fan favorite during his single season in the capital. He won three trophies in that period with Željezničar, one Bosnian Premier League title, one cup and one Supercup. Bešlija joined

in July 2001, where he stayed for five years, and made over 130 league appearances, winning the

Belgian First Division The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023– ...

title with them in 2002. He moved to Scottish side Heart of Midlothian during January 2006 in a deal worth £850,000 (€1.22 million), a record fee paid by the Tynecastle side at the time. A dispute developed about whether the overall transfer fee should include agents percentages or not, leading Hearts to suspend payment after the first installment.Genk threaten Hearts over Beslija
''

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

'', 16 June 2006. When further dialogue brought no resolution, Genk petitioned

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

to impose a transfer embargo upon Hearts, however, an agreement was finally reached in December 2006, with Hearts paying the entire outstanding balance. Bešlija suffered serious injury problems at Hearts and he failed to win a regular first team place. He was loaned out to Belgian club Sint-Truidense for the 2007–08 season, and was released by Hearts in October 2008 after they reached a severance agreement. In 2009, he re-signed with Željezničar and retired in 2012, winning four more trophies in the process, two leagues and two cups.

International career

Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team in 2002

Bešlija made his debut for

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 ...

in a January 2001 Sahara Millennium Cup match against

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

and has earned a total of 37 caps, scoring 4 goals. His final international was a September 2006 European Championship qualification match against

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

Honours

Bosna Visoko * Bosnian Cup: 1998–99 * Bosnian Supercup: 1999 Željezničar * Bosnian Premier League: 2000–01, 2009–10, 2011–12 * Bosnian Cup: 2000–01, 2010–11, 2011–12 * Bosnian Supercup: 2000 Genk *

: 2001–02

References

External links