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

Santa Clara, California — It could be the night time earlier than Bosnia and Herzegovina face off in opposition to 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 occasion is nicely underneath manner.

Waiters dart via 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 staff on Tuesday night.

Outdoors the restaurant, teams of males smoke cigarettes and snap photographs 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 help their staff as they struggle to advance to the Spherical of 16 for the primary time in historical past.

For members of the nation’s diaspora, lots of whom had been displaced because of the 1992-1995 Bosnian Conflict, the match has been a testomony to the tenacity of their shared id.

“It’s like an enormous household,” 60-year-old Senad Durakovic, who moved to the US metropolis of Boston in 1996, stated 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 cause.”

“It seems like I’m a part of one thing greater than me,” he provides. “It seems 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 via the identical issues that we went via,” 22-year-old Aldin Muminovic stated. “So we’ll always remember them. We’ll at all times be there for them.”

‘We’ll pull via’

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 staff has benefitted from tenacious defence and a brand new era of expertise within the type of youthful gamers corresponding to Kerim Alajbegovic and Ermin Mahmic.

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

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

‘We are able to relate to what they’re going via’

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

Movies of joyous followers marching via host cities have positioned the nation’s massive and vibrant diaspora within the highlight, lots of them scattered around the globe throughout and after the struggle.

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

“I feel this specific staff and this specific World Cup run is a extremely stunning expression of that,” he added.

The Bosnian Conflict was the bloodiest of a collection of conflicts that befell alongside ethnic and nationwide strains through the violent breakup of previously socialist Yugoslavia through the Nineteen Nineties, with an estimated 100,000 individuals 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 Legal Tribunal for the previous Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the Worldwide Residual Mechanism for Legal Tribunals (IRMCT).

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

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

“Many Bosnians see photos 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, advised Al Jazeera in a message.

“The followers are utilizing this chance to attract the world’s consideration to the struggling of the individuals in Palestine, which they imagine ought to be a high precedence for the worldwide neighborhood on this second,” they added.

“We are able to clearly relate to what they’re going via, as a result of our nation went via it as nicely,” stated 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 via this each day.”