Meanwhile, in other news

Besides transfer speculation, a brief round-up of other stories of interest. Featuring: rumors linking Vedad Ibišević to Inter Milan, FIFA’s latest rankings and the annual exodus of Bosnian talents to more successful post-communist states.

- We’ve moved up six places in the latest FIFA World Ranking.We’re now #61 in the world, just in front of Gabon and Burkina Faso and breathing on the necks of Norway and Wales. Needless to say, FIFA’s calculations probably aren’t the best indicator of a team’s quality and international standing (I’m still not sure what Saudi Arabia and Slovenia are doing in front of us, but whatever). In a perfect world, Bosnia would consistently be in the sub-30 range. Ironically, the only time we’ve ever scaled that high (#25), it was a complete fluke during the chaos of the Euro 2008 campaign. With a little luck against Belgium and in our next friendly fixture, we’ll be back in the top 50 soon.

- While Edin Džeko is being linked to AC Milan, his partner in our attack, Bundesliga top-scorer Vedad Ibišević, is reportedly near the top of Inter’s wish-list. The idea of a Bosnian tandem at one of the world’s top clubs is enough to make any Bosnian fan salivate, but Vedad seems set on staying at Hoffenheim until the end of the season. “You can’t go higher than Inter… but I’ve already said that I will stay in Hoffenheim until the end of this season. That’s my final decision,” he said in a recent interview, nothing that “Anything is possible in the summer. [But] I don’t want to miss the chance of winning the German championship title with my club, or to spend my whole life wondering whether I could have been the Bundesliga top-scorer.” Personally I agree with Vedad’s reasoning 100%, but I hope this possibility will still be around at the end of the season – an Ibišević-Ibrahimović partnership would be too good to pass up.

- Bosnia’s domestic league, the infamous Premijer liga, is arguably the most corrupt, disorganized and kafkaesque sporting competition in Europe. Nonetheless, the actual level of footballing talent there is comparable to Croatia, Poland or any number of somewhat more highly regarded leagues. Lech Poznan found out that secret this season with the acquisition of 21-year-old Semir Štilić (see magazine cover above), who was just voted the Polish league’s foreign player of the year. Now Lech have gone in and purchased three more young Bosnian talents: Jasmin Burić and Fenan Salčinović from FK Čelik, and Haris Handžić from FK Sarajevo. Salčinović has been loaned to a Norwegian club, but Burić and Handžić will have the chance to earn playing time right away.

Burić was a highly-touted goalkeeping prospect from the same U21 generation as Štilić. When he was just starting out, he was heralded as the best keeper in Bosnia, but in the year since then his career has stagnated a bit. Lech provides him with a great opportunity to prove himself. In terms of quality of play, the Polish league really isn’t that much stronger than what Burić has seen in BiH, and if he can establish himself as a regular there, then he’ll probably become our #2 keeper. I’ve heard good things about Salčinović as well, but we’ll see whether he can use Norway as a spring-board or if he’ll get stuck there. 18-year old Handžić is probably the most exciting prospect of the three, and arguably the best product of FK Sarajevo’s youth school in this decade. He’s been more hyped than Štilić was at that age, and as long as he works hard he should be able to achieve similar success in another year or two. Here’s a clip of a nice goal he scored against Burić’s club this last season.

- Various other transfers have already taken place, mostly involving the exodus of young Bosnian players to other eastern European states. Ognjen Vranješ, a youth team national from FK Borac Banja Luka, is set to join either Hajduk Split or Red Star Belgrade. Vranješ is a promising young defender, which is why the news is particularly exciting (although I hope he won’t end up staying at either club too long). You can see a short highlight reel of him here. Meanwhile, Armin Pašagić, a previously unheard of prospect, has just joined VfL Bochum (there’s a nice youtube video of him as well). Also, veteran player Adnan Čustović, one of the Belgian league’s top scorers, has left R.E: Mouscron for the more notable K.A.A. Gent. Meanwhile, Edin Junuzović, the 22-year-old at the top of Slovenia’s scoring charts, is set to join Amkar Perm. It’s always nice to see our players move to stronger clubs, and the transfers of Vranjes and Pašagić in particular bode well for our U21 team.