The coach of the national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sergej Barbarez, spoke for the official website of the Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which he touched on a number of topics.
Selector, in a conversation a little more than eight months ago, you said that you really wanted to take our national team to some big competition that you didn’t manage to go to as a player. Did you feel it as your deepest, most hidden obligation or some kind of debt to Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as to the fans who were always with you?
Barbarez: “Desire, reality and vision are closely connected and intertwined for me. When I spoke about it before, I was simply conveying our great desire, “hunger”, so to speak, to take the national team to a major competition as a coach. I didn’t feel it as an obligation, even less as a pressure or a debt to Bosnia and Herzegovina and the fans. The enormous desire, discipline and commitment of everyone led us to this result and we are very happy about it. When you play for the national team or are part of the national team, you always have in mind that you are representing your country to the whole world, you are full of emotions and desire to qualify for some big tournament, that’s how it is with me.”
As a player you had authority and your teammates followed you. In football, it is difficult to achieve that, and you have shown that even in the position of selector, you have the authenticity and strength to make the players follow you and your philosophy of the game. How did you manage to achieve this?
Selector growth
Barbarez: “I think that every person carries a certain amount of authority. How that authority will be built or expressed depends on the individual. I didn’t suddenly become an authority at the age of 19 either, but it simply came about through my career, through the base I had behind me, the relationship on the field, quality and importance in the team or in the league. I’m glad that the values I nurtured can be confirmed through togetherness in the national team, good communication with the players, mutual trust. It was always important for me to remain consistent with my principles, consistent in the decisions that are good and less good in the coaching business, but they are part of the path and philosophy that we follow. I think that all this has influenced the fact that the players trust me and that they follow my vision, which is now theirs. There is no recipe or formula, but I think it has to do with the character and personality of a person.”
Is Barbarez the same before and after qualifying? How much did these matches change you, what did you learn or discover about yourself, your colleagues, the team?
Barbarez: “I’m not the same, of course I also progressed and developed through these qualifications, the play-off. Not only me, but also my colleagues now know more about each segment. We learned some things about us, the opponent, the business of football, how a national team works through the qualifications, and how it works in the play-off. Every match is special, so we prepared constantly asking the players not to give up, to believe in themselves and their abilities. This experience is valuable and for sure we are perhaps a little smarter now, than we were before the qualifications.”
Now, when the emotions have calmed down a bit, intensive work is ahead on the preparation plan, selection of the representative camp, selection of opponents for friendly matches, etc. How much progress has been made in these activities?
Barbarez: “It’s more work than we’ve had in the past two years, that’s how it is when you play a play-off, but we’re happy, it’s going well. Some things require a little more time, especially those logistical things. As for travel and the choice of opponents, a lot of it is already filled and taken up with other national teams, so we have to adapt a little, make some compromises. However, nothing worries us, the important thing is that we are at the World Cup. When the preparations start, I just want all the players to be healthy, that no one gets injured and I’m sure it will work well and, of course, we’ll be ready to go to America.”
It seems that it was much more difficult for you to convince people of your ideas than to win and qualify for the WC. You have restored trust and raised the “image” of the national team, can you share some more of your dreams because not only are they coming true, but they bring joy throughout the country and much further than that?
Dreams do come true
Barbarez: “I had no desire to convince anyone, people have to accept that themselves. What is important is vision, persistence, the courage to persevere to the end even when the results were not great. People recognized these things themselves, trusted me, my team and what we do. I think that from the beginning we were explicitly transparent, credible, that we truly did this work, that we are honest in what we do. Of course, there are always mistakes, but we want them to be minimized, to succeed in what we do and when we see things differently than others see them. That is the idea that guides us and the purpose of all this.
As for dreams, for me they are also connected to emotions. When I watched our first game on television at the 2014 World Cup, against Argentina, I was so impressed by the atmosphere, the emotions that are hard to describe, that I always thought that it might be the only drawback in my career that I didn’t go to a big tournament as a player. That’s why I’ve always emphasized it as a big dream that I’ve realized now in a different role. Now everything is a bonus, and of course after that we continue on, with the desire to go slowly up the hill and, we hope for the following successes. And, I’m sure they will come.”
Selector, at the end of this conversation, tell us what kind of BiH national team we will see at this World Cup?
Barbarez: “I said recently, I can promise that you will watch the national team that you saw through the qualifiers, that national team, which has everything that everyone is praising now, as far as that unity, that willing moment, that character, the mentality of the winner. So we created all those things in these two years and it will be like that while I’m here. We did the most important work, we qualified for the World Cup and we will go step by step. A lot of young players have already shown during these games that they have quality and potential. They have there is still so much room for further development so that the next step will be made at the WC”.
In the country where all the selectors are, it will remain recorded that Sergej Barbarez, in less than two years on the bench of the “A” national team, took Bosnia and Herzegovina to a review of the world’s best football teams. Before him, only Safet Sušić managed to do that, who at the time of placement had already been at the head of Bosnia and Herzegovina for more than three years. selection.
(Vijesti.ba)
