The Heir to Spahić?

August 28th, 2010 | by: Harun | Comments Off

Next month, Muhamed Bešić turns 18. Last month, he was officially promoted to the Hamburger SV first team, receiving number 34. Although the competition is fierce and Bešić has yet to feature in a Bundesliga match, German media have already pronounced him “arguably the biggest defensive talent in the [league].” If he lives up to the billing, he could well become Bosnia-Herzegovina’s successor to Emir Spahić.

Until this summer, Bešić was virtually unknown amongst even the most dedicated observers of the Bosnian national team. Looking back, I vaguely remember reading about him moving from a lower-league Berlin side (”Tennis Borussia”) to HSV, but I didn’t think much of it. After all, Bosnian teenagers in Bundesliga youth setups come virtually a dime a dozen. Even today, it’s still difficult to find such basic biographical information about him as his place of birth. Given that he was born on September 10th, 1992, however, it’s likely that this was abroad, presumably in Berlin.

This summer, Armin Veh, HSV’s new manager, asked his coaching staff to recommend some players from the club’s youth set-up to train with the first team; Bešić was the top choice. To the surprise of everyone in Bosnia, however, the 17-year-old not only trained with the first team, but started several games as well. For the team’s first few pre-season friendlies in early to mid July, Bešić played alongside the likes of Guerrero, van Nistelrooy and Zé Roberto. He also played pretty damn well, especially in the friendly against Hajduk in Split, where he had little to do with fellow Bosnian Senijad Ibričić’s two strikes. Veh had these words of praise after the match:

“The kid can do some things when he plays the ball forward… in terms of building play, he’s already outstanding. I like players who can do that. And if you can do something well, then I don’t care how old you are. Of course he still needs some time, but we’ll give him that as well.”

Unfortunately, that’s when Bešić picked up a slight arm injury, forcing him out of the remainder of the pre-season. Nothing too serious though, since he’s already back, #34 in HSV and most likely about to make his first league appearance for the club at age 18. Bosnian fans will get their first glimpse of him in the national team shirt in about 6 days, when he makes his first appearance for our U21s in the home qualifier against Italy. The likes of Balotelli and Macheda should prove a definite challenge, but I think we have the right to some high expectations here. After years of exciting offensive talents, it’s good to finally have a ball-playing, technically-gifted center-back coming up the production line as well.