‘We can relate’: Bosnia fans bring passion, Palestine support, to World Cup | World Cup 2026 News

Santa Clara, California — It could be the evening earlier than Bosnia and Herzegovina face off towards america within the Spherical of 32 of the World Cup, however at a small restaurant serving up Balkan specialities within the metropolis of Santa Clara, California, the get together is nicely below means.

Waiters dart by way of Euro Grill, whose partitions are adorned with posters from the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, serving heaping parts of cevapi and burek to teams of followers sporting the blue jerseys of the Bosnian nationwide workforce on Tuesday night.

Exterior the restaurant, teams of males smoke cigarettes and snap images of autos decked out with flags and paraphernalia.

Many have travelled lengthy distances – one fan says he drove 25 hours from Canada in a truck coated with faces of varied gamers, a Free Palestine sticker, and an infinite mannequin of the Marvel character, the Hulk, in a Bosnia jersey – to assist their workforce as they combat to advance to the Spherical of 16 for the primary time in historical past.

For members of the nation’s diaspora, a lot of whom have been displaced because of the 1992-1995 Bosnian Struggle, the match has been a testomony to the tenacity of their shared identification.

“It’s like an enormous household,” 60-year-old Senad Durakovic, who moved to the US metropolis of Boston in 1996, mentioned of the various followers who’ve converged on the restaurant from across the US and additional afield. “We’re all right here for a similar purpose.”

“It looks like I’m a part of one thing larger than me,” he provides. “It looks like we’ve already received.”

Bosnian followers have additionally used the match to precise solidarity with Palestine, a connection they are saying is knowledgeable by their very own experiences of violence and displacement.

“There’s a mutual traumatic expertise. I feel they’re going by way of the identical issues that we went by way of,” 22-year-old Aldin Muminovic mentioned. “So we’ll always remember them. We’ll all the time be there for them.”

‘We’ll pull by way of’

Bosnia and Herzegovina certified for the 2026 World Cup with a shock win over Italy in April, sending them to the worldwide match for the primary time since 2014 courtesy of a dramatic penalty shootout that prompted delirious celebrations throughout the nation.

Helmed by the 40-year-old Edin Dzeko, the workforce has benefitted from tenacious defence and a brand new technology of expertise within the type of youthful gamers comparable to Kerim Alajbegovic and Ermin Mahmic.

The workforce received its final recreation, towards Qatar, in convincing fashion, netting three objectives to their opponents’ one and advancing to the knockout spherical of the match, the place they are going to face a formidable US workforce that will probably be keen to maneuver ahead as one of many host nations.

“If we play like we did towards Qatar, I feel we’ll pull by way of,” 20-year-old Elvis Graco, who travelled to California from Jacksonville, Florida, informed Al Jazeera. “We’ll win, in fact.”

‘We are able to relate to what they’re going by way of’

However the match has introduced consideration to greater than Bosnia’s proficient World Cup squad.

Movies of joyous followers marching by way of host cities have positioned the nation’s giant and vibrant diaspora within the highlight, a lot of them scattered world wide throughout and after the battle.

“Previous to the battle, there was hardly any Bosnian diaspora to talk of,” Jasmin Mujanovic, a scholar who specialises in Balkan historical past, informed Al Jazeera, including that many members of the present nationwide workforce have been born outdoors of the nation to folks who had fled in the course of the battle and its aftermath. “However they’ve tried to instil a relationship with Bosnian identification and tradition of their youngsters.”

“I feel this explicit workforce and this explicit World Cup run is a extremely lovely expression of that,” he added.

The Bosnian Struggle was the bloodiest of a sequence of conflicts that came about alongside ethnic and nationwide strains in the course of the violent breakup of previously socialist Yugoslavia in the course of the Nineteen Nineties, with an estimated 100,000 folks killed.

Bosniak Muslims made up a big majority of the victims within the battle, which included systematic ethnic cleaning and the forcible expulsion of enormous numbers of Bosniak Muslims and Croats by Serb forces and paramilitaries.

A bloodbath of 8,372 Bosniak Muslim males and boys by Serb forces within the city of Srebrenica in 1995 was additionally discovered to represent the crime of genocide by the Worldwide Prison Tribunal for the previous Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the Worldwide Residual Mechanism for Prison Tribunals (IRMCT).

Some followers say that historical past has knowledgeable their robust assist for Palestine, particularly amid Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Greater than 70,000 folks, a majority of them ladies and youngsters, have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

Movies shared on social media in the course of the World Cup have proven crowds of supporters chanting “Palestina, Palestina”, and others holding Palestinian flags.

“Many Bosnians see photographs of Palestinian civilians’ struggling that remind them of their very own previous,” Ildaj Husovic, who manages an Instagram account showcasing the connection between Bosnia and Palestine, informed Al Jazeera in a message.

“The followers are utilizing this chance to attract the world’s consideration to the struggling of the folks in Palestine, which they consider must be a prime precedence for the worldwide group on this second,” they added.

“We are able to clearly relate to what they’re going by way of, as a result of our nation went by way of it as nicely,” mentioned Graco, standing outdoors of the restaurant in Santa Clara.

“We need to see justice for Palestine and for the violence to finish. It isn’t within the information as a lot now, however we need to remind those who the Palestinians are nonetheless residing by way of this each day.”