{"id":6151,"date":"2026-06-19T03:42:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lets-canada.com\/team-bosnia-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T15:05:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T15:05:28","slug":"team-bosnia-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lets-canada.com\/en\/team-bosnia-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 World Cup Bosnia and Herzegovina Team Profile: Schedule, Star Players, and Team History"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Updated: 2026-06-19 | Real-time information is subject to official announcements<\/em><\/p>\n<style class=\"lc-tbl\">.entry-content table{border-collapse:collapse;width:100%;margin:1.2em 0}.entry-content th,.entry-content td{border:1px solid #d4dcd7;padding:8px 11px;text-align:left;vertical-align:top}.entry-content th{background:#eef3f0;font-weight:600}<\/style>\n<p>Bosnia and Herzegovina is a hard-nosed Balkan side, known for a physical, disciplined, and quick-counterattacking style of football. A nation of just over 3 million people, formed as an independent team after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, they&#8217;ve long carved out a reputation for punching above their weight. This is the team&#8217;s second-ever World Cup appearance, led by head coach Sergej Barbarez, a former Bundesliga and Hamburg striker, with a squad blending the experience of 40-year-old captain Edin D\u017eeko and a wave of foreign-based young talent, seen by many as one of Group B&#8217;s dark horses.<\/p>\n<h4>Star Players (2026 Squad)<\/h4>\n<p>Bosnia&#8217;s attacking core remains the team&#8217;s all-time legendary scorer and captain, <strong>Edin D\u017eeko<\/strong>, now 40, playing for Germany&#8217;s <strong>Schalke 04<\/strong>. The former Manchester City striker holds the national team&#8217;s dual record for goals (73) and appearances (148), with this tournament marking the &#8220;final dance&#8221; of his career. In defense, veteran <strong>Sead Kola\u0161inac<\/strong>, a former Arsenal man now with Italy&#8217;s <strong>Atalanta<\/strong>, is one of the squad&#8217;s few players with major-tournament experience. Up front, the squad also features <strong>Ermedin Demirovi\u0107<\/strong> of Germany&#8217;s <strong>VfB Stuttgart<\/strong>, and <strong>Haris Tabakovi\u0107<\/strong> of <strong>Borussia M\u00f6nchengladbach<\/strong>. The most talked-about rising star is 21-year-old winger <strong>Esmir Bajraktarevi\u0107<\/strong>, born in Wisconsin in the United States, developed through MLS side New England Revolution&#8217;s academy, and now playing for Dutch champions <strong>PSV Eindhoven<\/strong> \u2014 it was his winning penalty against Italy in the playoff round that sent Bosnia to the World Cup.<\/p>\n<h4>2026 World Cup Group Stage (Group B) Schedule and Results<\/h4>\n<p>Bosnia was drawn into Group B alongside hosts Canada, Qatar, and Switzerland. After the first two matches, Bosnia sat on 1 win, 1 draw, 1 loss for 1 point, in third place, facing tough odds to advance, with the June 24 match against Qatar being a must-win. Below are all match dates and scores:<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Date<\/th>\n<th>Match<\/th>\n<th>Location<\/th>\n<th>Score\/Status<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>6\/12 (Fri)<\/td>\n<td>Canada vs Bosnia<\/td>\n<td>BMO Field, Toronto<\/td>\n<td>1\u20131 (draw)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>6\/18 (Thu)<\/td>\n<td>Switzerland vs Bosnia<\/td>\n<td>SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, CA<\/td>\n<td>4\u20131 (loss)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>6\/24 (Wed)<\/td>\n<td>Bosnia vs Qatar<\/td>\n<td>Lumen Field, Seattle<\/td>\n<td>3\u20131 (win, Alajbegovi\u0107 29&#8242;, Abunada own goal 34&#8242;, Mahmi\u0107 80&#8242;; Qatar&#8217;s Al Haydos pulled one back in the 42nd)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>After the group stage concluded<\/strong>: Bosnia finished third in Group B with 1 win, 1 draw, 1 loss for 4 points, advancing to the Round of 32 as one of the 8 best third-place finishers under this tournament&#8217;s &#8220;best third-place team&#8221; qualification system \u2014 marking the team&#8217;s first-ever appearance in a World Cup knockout round.<\/p>\n<p><strong>[Updated 2026-07-10] Round-of-32 result<\/strong>: Bosnia was eliminated in the Round of 32, losing 0\u20132 to the United States, bringing captain D\u017eeko&#8217;s &#8220;final dance&#8221; to a close \u2014 though reaching the knockout stage still marked a new high point in the team&#8217;s history.<\/p>\n<p>Final Group B standings: Canada and Switzerland finished first and second, advancing directly, with Bosnia riding the &#8220;best third-place&#8221; route through as well, while Qatar finished bottom of the group with just 1 point and was eliminated.<\/p>\n<p>Bosnia first reached the World Cup finals at Brazil 2014, its only previous appearance, under legendary manager Safet Su\u0161i\u0107. Drawn into Group F, they lost their opener 1\u20132 to Argentina at the Maracan\u00e3 (Edin D\u017eeko scoring the team&#8217;s first-ever World Cup goal), lost again to Nigeria in the second match to be eliminated early, then closed the group stage with a 3\u20131 win over Iran \u2014 the team&#8217;s first-ever World Cup victory. The final group-stage record was 1 win, 2 losses, 5 goals for and 5 against, finishing at the group stage. In other words, simply qualifying for the finals remains this young nation&#8217;s greatest achievement to date \u2014 and this tournament marks its second appearance.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, this Bosnia squad is generally seen as weaker than the golden generation of 2014, leaning heavily on the 40-year-old D\u017eeko, with the first two matches already exposing defensive fragility against Switzerland (conceding 4 in a single match). Ultimately the team finished third in the group, riding the best-third-place route to the Round of 32 and marking its first-ever appearance in a World Cup knockout round, only to fall short against the United States. The qualifying campaign was genuinely inspiring, and with rising foreign-based talents like Bajraktarevi\u0107 emerging, the squad retains real drive through this generational transition, building momentum for the next tournament. For Bosnia&#8217;s fans, D\u017eeko&#8217;s &#8220;final dance,&#8221; and the fight brought by this diaspora generation spanning both Europe and North America, remain the most compelling storyline of this tournament. Final results are subject to official FIFA announcements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated: 2026-06-19 | Real-time informatio\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lc_last_content_reviewed_at":"2026-07-20T10:00:00Z","_lc_last_fact_checked_at":"2026-07-20T10:00:00Z","_lc_fact_check_status":"verified_with_corrections","_lc_source_grade":"A","_lc_source_titles":"","_lc_source_publish_dates":"","_lc_source_accessed_at":"2026-07-20T10:00:00Z","_lc_claims_checked":"date_time: 2026-06-19 \/ 2026-07-10 | sports_result: 2026-06 \/ \u9032\u7403 \/ \u7d00\u9304 \/ \u51a0\u8ecd \/ \u6bd4\u5206 \/ \u6392\u540d \/ 2026-07 | superlative_record: \u5b98\u65b9 \/ \u552f\u4e00","_lc_claims_corrected":"Unsupported material claims removed from public display; original content retained in protected post meta; URL retained as noindex historical archive.","_lc_unresolved_claims":"","_lc_correction_note_required":"1","_lc_reviewer_notes":"","_lc_fact_check_source_urls":["https:\/\/api.fifa.com\/api\/v3\/calendar\/matches?language=en&count=200&idCompetition=17&idSeason=285023&from=2026-06-11&to=2026-07-20","https:\/\/www.fifa.com\/en\/tournaments\/mens\/worldcup\/canadamexicousa2026\/articles\/match-schedule-fixtures-results-teams-stadiums"],"_lc_affiliate_widget_allowed":"","_lc_affiliate_widget_type":"","_lc_affiliate_widget_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45,235,716],"tags":[128],"lc_primary_section":[777],"lc_location":[808],"lc_topic":[817],"lc_freshness":[833],"class_list":["post-6151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-cup","category-235","category-world-cup-schedule","tag-world-cup-2026","lc_primary_section-historical-features","lc_location-canada","lc_topic-sports","lc_freshness-historical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lets-canada.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lets-canada.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lets-canada.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lets-canada.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lets-canada.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6151"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lets-canada.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12019,"href":"https:\/\/lets-canada.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6151\/revisions\/12019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lets-canada.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lets-canada.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lets-canada.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lets-canada.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6151"},{"taxonomy":"lc_primary_section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lets-canada.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lc_primary_section?post=6151"},{"taxonomy":"lc_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lets-canada.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lc_location?post=6151"},{"taxonomy":"lc_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lets-canada.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lc_topic?post=6151"},{"taxonomy":"lc_freshness","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lets-canada.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lc_freshness?post=6151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}