Every success is accompanied by some accompanying stories and fabricated controversies, and that happened with Krunić as well. There were rumors in the media that he “doesn’t get calls to the national team because he is Serbian” and that the reason is that, while playing for Zvezda, he sang the national anthem of Serbia on several occasions, which the great midfielder finally decided to talk about.
Rade Krunić was a guest on the show “Indirectly with Pop and Milan”, and at the beginning he talked about his journey from Donji Srem to Italy. He also referred to the never-received invitation to play for the young Serbian national team.
Then came a question related to the BiH national team and the singing of the Serbian national anthem.
“There was talk when Veljko Paunović was the head coach of the Serbian youth national team that I would be invited to the B list of that young national team made up of players from the Serbian Super League. I finished the paperwork, there were supposed to be two gatherings, but I didn’t get any. I couldn’t wait any longer and accepted BiH’s invitation, I don’t see that it was a wrong decision. I’m from Bosnia and Herzegovina and that’s normal,” said Rade Krunić and explained.
“If I had received that invitation to the B national team of Serbia, I would not have accepted the invitation from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Because I played in Serbia then, I feel that I am a Serb, they called me again later from FS Serbia when I played for Empoli, but then I could no longer because I had an appearance for Bosnia and Herzegovina,” explained Rade Krunić.
Rade Krunić agreed with the statement of presenter Predrag Popović that he will support Bosnia and Herzegovina at the World Cup.
“Sure, I will too”.
And then came the question of whether he would have gone to the World Cup if Dzeko had called him.
“I would go everywhere with Džeko. An incredible guy, so down-to-earth, and such football greatness,” said Rade Krunić, and then switched to the case of singing the Serbian national anthem:
“Dust arose unnecessarily around the singing of the national anthem, now I’m not welcome. Selector Sergej Barbarez made such a decision, he made a fantastic result. I have to mention the director Spahić, who also does a great job there, and we played together in the national team, a great guy, a serious personality who contributed to Bosnia’s football rise like this. They have excellent young players, I think they can go far. They have a good group,” said Rade Krunić.
Rade Krunić (32) made his debut for BiH in 2016 and made 34 appearances, scoring four goals. He made his last appearance in a defeat against the Netherlands (5:2) in September 2024, under the leadership of coach Sergej Barbarez.
(Vijesti.ba)
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