Esmir Bajraktarevic #20

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Years before he became one of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s biggest talents, a home video filmed in Appleton, Wisconsin showed a five-year-old Bajraktarevic playing football in his backyard wearing an outsized Edin Dzeko shirt, celebrating after putting the ball into a small goal. The clip went viral after Bajraktarevic chose Bosnia and Herzegovina over the United States at senior level. “When people ask me where I’m from, I say I’m Bosnian,” said Bajraktarević, whose parents reached America after fleeing the Srebrenica genocide. “I grew up in a Bosnian family. I speak Bosnian with my parents. It’s my blood, it’s my roots.” There was something poetic about his senior international debut: coming off the bench against the Netherlands in 2024, within five minutes he had set up a goal for Dzeko himself. Fearless in one-on-one situations and seemingly untouched by pressure despite his age, he quickly became one of the faces of Sergej Barbarez’s new generation, and scored the decisive penalty in the shootout victory over Italy that secured Bosnia’s place at the World Cup.

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