Journalist and author Hajrudin Redžović completed the book and digital collection “Operation Cardiff – From Cardiff to Zenica”, an author’s project that tells about Bosnia and Herzegovina in one of its most emotional sports moments through football, national team, diaspora and personal testimonies.
The book follows Bosnia and Herzegovina’s path to the World Cup – from Cardiff to Zenica – through the story of the national team, fans, diaspora, former war opponents who are today together recording a story of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the symbols that turn football into much more than a game.
The first copies of the book leave the printing house tonight, and the project also includes a digital package: an e-book, a film extract, an audio story/podcast and a photo-dossier with 76 photos.
The author states that “Operation Cardiff” is not a classic book about football. It is a documentary-publicist story about a country that, as the author states, “wins in the judge’s compensation”. At the center of the project are Cardiff, Zenica, the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team, fans from the diaspora, the Srebrenica goal in the Welsh greenery and an unusual journalist-people connection.
A special dimension to the project is given by the fact that Redžović is working on the story together with Slađan Jovanović, a former fighter of the Republika Srpska Army. Two people, who in the 1990s could have been on opposite sides of the trenches, are today together filming and documenting the story of Bosnia and Herzegovina, its national team and its path to the World Cup.
In the focus of the project are also stories about Bosnia and Herzegovina. the diaspora, the fans who follow the national team all over Europe, Enver Beganović who walked thousands of kilometers, and the atmosphere in which football ceases to be just a sport and becomes an emotional proof that Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite everything, still has the strength to gather around the common flag.
Author Hajrudin Redžović says that following the national team brought him back to the experience of a war reporter, but in a completely new historical framework.
– This is not a book about football. This is a story about a country that was told that it doesn’t exist, and it is going to the World Cup – says Redžović.
Hajrudin Redžović is a journalist, author and publicist from Bosnia and Herzegovina. As a freelance journalist, he built a recognizable author’s style in which reportage, social analysis, irony and documentary narration come together. He is the author of the book “Cunning Business”.
