UIC soccer star Baggio Husidic a long way from Bosnia
By Luis Arroyave | Tribune reporter
January 11, 2009
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Baggio Husidic remembers waking up early the morning after he came to the United States in May 1997 and feeling disappointed.
He stared out of the back window of the temporary home the government had provided his family and saw a different image from the one he imagined while growing up in Bosnia and Germany.
"When you're in Europe, you picture an America where you have your own house, your own room and everyone is successful," said Husidic, an Illinois-Chicago junior who is projected to be a first-round pick in Thursday's MLS draft.
"All I saw was an alley and a bunch of garages. There was nobody on the street. It looked bad."
Husidic was born in northwest Bosnia and grew up idolizing Italian soccer legend Roberto Baggio. His father began calling him Baggio instead of his given name, Adis, and the new moniker stuck. Zarif Husidic, a former professional soccer player, owned a nearby mall and called it Baggio for his son.
But Zarif had to leave the mall behind because of the civil war raging in the region. The bombs were getting closer to his home each day, forcing him to move his family to a refugee camp near the Croatian border. While in the camp, they slept on the floor in rooms that contained up to 15 people.
"We lined up like sardines because there was no room," said Baggio, who believes he was 6 or 7 at the time. "There were mines around the area and you would hear about kids stepping on them."
He would find grenade launchers, machine guns and bullets on the streets. He said children in the camp often blew on bullets to make whistling sounds, leaving them with rashes around their mouths.
After four months in the camp and then 31/2 years in Hamburg, Germany, with other refugees, Husidic and his family moved to the Chicago area with no money and no grasp of the English language. His father got a job in construction and moved the family out of government housing to Franklin Park right before the school year started.
"It was hard," Husidic said. "I didn't know any English except for 'thank you' and '[expletive] you' because that's what everyone knows. Kids would tell me to say things like 'I'm stupid' and laugh at me when I said it because I didn't know what it meant.
"I got picked on a lot and didn't want to go to school. My mom would say, 'Go, you'll be fine.' "
Husidic learned English by playing Uno with a teacher. Eventually his family moved to Libertyville so that he and his brother, Alen, could have a better education.
Through soccer, Husidic was able to continue his education at UIC.
UIC coach John Trask offered scholarships to Husidic and his brother, who was playing at the College of Lake County at the time.
Husidic played right away at UIC, appearing in 19 of his team's 21 games his freshman year in 2006. It was during a NCAA tournament game that year that Trask realized he had something special.
"Baggio terrorized Notre Dame for 20 minutes in that game," Trask said. "They didn't know what to do with him."
Although he made the All-Horizon League first team his sophomore year, the spotlight didn't start shining on Husidic until last season. The 6-foot-1-inch midfielder led UIC to the NCAA tournament round of 16 in November and was named a first team All-American.
"I'm not sure a lot of other coaches [initially] saw what I saw," Trask said. "Last spring [Northwestern coach] Tim Lenahan told me, 'I had no idea he was that good.' "
On New Year's Eve, Husidic signed a five-year deal with Major League Soccer worth about $150,000 per season.
"The first thing that went through my head is that I'll be able to help my parents pay for their house," Husidic said. "My family has gone through a lot. My parents have had to work hard jobs and I've had to struggle to get to this point, but now I've made it."
Chicago Tribune -
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/ch ... 8490.story
Trenutno igra za Halmstads BK, kao i njegov brat Ajsel. Emir ima samo 20 god.
. Ovakvih talenata će uvijek biti širom Evrope, ali u našim repkama će ih završavati 2 posto (maksimalno) 
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. Šehić kiksao kod drugog gola Crnogoraca.
.,,,jebiga ko kad nemamo nasih igraca tamo da se u to uvjerim.....
