News round-up 3

This week’s news round-up. Featuring: an upcoming friendly against Uruguay, me complaining some more about the Premijer liga and hefty transfer speculation surrounding Emir Spahić and Semir Štilić. Let’s begin.

- Looks like Bosnia-Herzegovina is set to play a friendly against Uruguay next month. There’s been talk of this for a while, but FIFA’s page for the Uruguay FA seems to imply that the date has been set as February 11th. On the other hand, general secretary/dirty crook Munib Ušanović (currently indicted for tax evasion) claims that nothing has been finalized. I can’t say I know much about Uruguay’s team, but I think it’s great we’ll finally be playing someone other than Japan or Iran. We’ll see how things develop here… more to come.

- The Bosnian Premijer Liga was just ranked 98th best league in the world. I kind of make snide remarks about our domestic competition all the time, so originally I was going to use this opportunity to elaborate a little further. On second thought, however, it just makes me frustrated. Instead I leave you with this classic footage of a match last season between Orašje and Zrinjski:

- With most of the flashier players determined to stay at their current clubs, Emir Spahić looks set to be the biggest Bosnian name of this transfer window. Where is Spahić going? Well, the three candidates seem to be an unnamed Premiership club, Wolfsburg and Panathinaikos – roughly in that order. Until today, Wolfsburg seemed like the clear favorite, since Spahić himself said that Edin Džeko and Zvjezdan Misimović would make for an easier adjustment. Now, however, it turns out that Spahić is on his way to England for a medical check up with the above-mentioned premiership squad. The question of which premiership club remains a mystery, since he had rejected Wigan a few weeks ago; you’d assume he’d only be looking to move up from there. Personally I’m fine with either choice, although Wolfsburg carries the added bonus of seeing three Bosnian regulars in one foreign club. You can read my earlier description of Spahić here

- More press drama regarding Celtic’s pursuit of Semir Štilić. I’m not sure how much I’ve written about this before, but basically the Scottish giants seem pretty determined to bring our young midfielder to their side. Štilić himself has repeatedly hinted that he’d love to join them, but now officials from his current club, Lech Poznan, have told the Scottish press that Štilić isn’t “physically ready” for the move. Although the Poles seem to be referring to Štilić’s endurance, my biggest “physical” concern has to do with, well, his “physical” play. That is to say, Semir has carried a rather unfortunate reputation as something of a lightweight since his days in the Premijer liga. Granted, the Premijer liga is particularly physical (see above); Luka Modrić, who spent a year on loan there early in his career, famously quipped that a player who survives the Premijer liga can manage just fine anywhere. And Semir himself has accused officials at Željezničar of “trying to turn [him] into a gladiator.” That said, he really doesn’t seem to have fared quite as well against rougher sides this season, and that doesn’t bode well for Scotland’s rugby league. I’m sure Štilić has the talent for Celtic, but I think it’d probably be best if he stayed in Poland for at least this season.