Former Manchester City man has immense pedigree and at the tournament he will be Carrying Bosnia Forward
When Bosnia and Herzegovina walk out for their second World Cup, Edin Dzeko will lead them once again. Twelve years after captaining the country at its first tournament in Brazil, he remains the face of the national team and the player around whom expectations continue to gather.
Dzeko’s career has been one long epic tale with many twists and turns. After a successful spell with Manchester City in the early years of their rise, few expected the man who left the club in 2015 at 29 to still be playing 11 years later, and fewer still would have predicted he would be leading his country to the World Cup at 40.
“I didn’t think I would be playing at 40,” Dzeko says. “If you asked me 10 years ago, I would have said no.”
Bosnia, a southeastern European nation of 3.4 million inhabitants that was first under Austro-Hungarian and then Yugoslavian rule up until 1992, have only been to the World Cup twice in their history. The first time was in 2014, when they were grouped against Argentina, Nigeria and Iran and finished third, exiting at that stage.
“For us, it was the first big competition,” Dzeko says. “To play it in Brazil, in the country of football, was amazing. The only thing that was missing was to go through to the next round.”
Their qualification for the tournament again 12 years later was in no small part thanks to Dzeko, whose equalising goal against Wales in Cardiff kept their hopes alive before they overcame Italy in the playoffs.
Much of the discussion afterwards centred on Italy’s failure to qualify yet again for the World Cup but the achievement meant a lot to Dzeko and Bosnia and they deserved greater recognition.
“Almost no one talked about us as a team,” Dzeko says. “We truly are an excellent team with many young players who then also demonstrated their value against Italy.”
The current squad is younger than the one that reached Brazil in 2014, but Dzeko remains its central figure. His role has changed with age. He is no longer expected to decide every game himself. Instead, he has become a guide for a generation of players who grew up watching him.
Experience, he believes, is what allows him to continue competing at the highest level.
“When I was 17 or 18, people were telling me experience is something you get by playing for so many years,” he says. “When you arrive at this age you know experience is fundamental.”
The work required to maintain his level has increased significantly. Dzeko describes arriving early for training, spending time in the gym before sessions and staying afterwards for recovery and preventative work.
“When you’re young, maybe you say: ‘I don’t have time for this,’” he says. “When you get older, you realise your body needs something like this if you want to compete at the best level and stay so long in football.”
Dzeko’s career since his five years at City has seen him play for Roma and Inter Milan for a combined seven years. He then played for two years from 2023 to 2025 for Fenerbahce in Turkey before joining Fiorentina in June last year. After struggling in Italy, he moved to Schalke in Germany’s second division in January and helped the club secure promotion back to the Bundesliga.
His challenge now is to help Bosnia achieve more than they managed at their first World Cup. Bosnia are in Group B with Switzerland, Qatar and co-hosts Canada. Dzeko views the Swiss as favourites to top the group but believes qualification is possible for his side, if they can finish second or third. What next for Dzeko after the World Cup?
“Sometimes there is an end for all of us,” he concedes. “Maybe mine is coming soon.” Leading Bosnia to the knockout for the first time would be a perfect way to end it, at least on the international stage.
