Asmir Begović prefers empty stadiums

It seemed appropriate enough to start posting again with this tidbit of news, both because I’ve just gotten back to Bosnia and because it’s elicited quite a response from the Bosnian fan-base. In short, after many months of cat-and-mouse in which he gushed about wanting to play for Bosnia and telling Oslobođenje that he’d accept a call-up from Miroslav Blažević, Bosnian-Canadian goalkeeping prospect Asmir Begović just told some Canadian radio station that he plans to play for Canada after all.

I’ll try to keep it short. Normally I’m a little skeptical about the media ping-pong wars that regularly erupt around Bosnian talents from the diaspora, but here the news comes straight from the horse’s mouth (listen for your self below, via reprezentacija.net). In fact, Begović didn’t stop there, going as far as saying that his knowledge of the language was pretty weak and that Bosnian media may have misunderstood him. Color me a little skeptical. Since Oslobođenje is not some quasi-tabloid that would manufacture quotes to sell copies (cough, Avaz), it’s safe to say that Begović just did a 180 on his earlier statements.

How do I feel about this? Firstly, I’m disappointed that we just lost a guy who is a year or two away from being a regular in the premiership and who would have provided us with security between the sticks for a solid decade. Given the nature of these things, I think we can hold out hope until the upcoming friendly in August (wasn’t he at the Bosnian embassy a few days ago to sort things out with his passport?), but I wouldn’t invest too much into it. Shame – goalkeeping has historically been a weak link for the Yugoslav countries, and we honestly don’t have anyone quite as good as Begović coming up to replace Hasagić.

But secondly, I’m honestly flummoxed as to why anyone, given the choice, would opt for playing international football for Canada, a country that has more polar bears than football fans. At least when the United States was treading water in the Subotić affair with Serbia, they were able to (somewhat) legitimately argue that a player is more likely to play in the World Cup with the United States than with a 2nd-to-3rd-seed UEFA country. Granted, I’ve actually read Canadian fans make the same argument with Begović, but it’s hard to take it as anything but a bad joke. Canada has not only made just one appearance at the World Cup, they’re currently lying in last place in their CONCACAF qualifying group with a grand total of zero wins and a -7 goal difference. Say what you will about Bosnia’s modest results since independence, but we’re still far ahead of Canada as a footballing country by any objective account.

Furthermore, the number of people who actually care about football in Canada could fit into Koševo, while the number of people who actually know about Begović would probably fit comfortably into Otoka. In choosing between Canada and Bosnia, Begović has a choice between either playing against Barbados and Honduras in half empty empty stadiums or facing some of the top players in the world in the seething cauldron that is Bilino polje with an entire people on its feet. If Begović prefers the former, perhaps he isn’t the kind of player we’d want to see in a Bosnian shirt anyway.