If Edin Dzeko played for a bigger footballing nation, this wouldn't be just his second appearance at the tournament. But 12 years after Bosnia-Herzegovina failed to make it out of the group stage in Brazil, the now 40-year-old striker and his country are back on the game's biggest stage.
Although Bosnia, which gained its independence in 1992, has only made it to the one previous World Cup and never qualified for a European Championship, Dzeko has played an incredible 148 times (scoring 73 goals) for his country.
Growing up in a besieged capital
That independence came at a heavy price, as it was engulfed in one of the wars that followed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. The capital, Sarajevo, was particularly hard hit, enduring almost four years of siege by Yugoslav National Army and the newly formed Bosnian-Serb army who held the mountains surrounding the city. Between 1992 and 1995 more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed through shelling and by snipers in Sarajevo alone.During the war Sarajevans would routinely sprint to avoid getting hit by snipersImage: picture-alliance/ dpa
Dzeko was six years old when the war broke out and during the siege, kicking a ball around on the streets of the ever-more battered capital was a welcome distraction.
