Dragan My Feet Through The Balkans Part II: Bosnia & Herzegovina

[shaunvamos]

 

This might be our biggest win yet, Fenerbahce are a bona fide European mainstays, and we just beat them.

 

 

This is a very, very good group for us. I feel we can beat APOEL and definitely push Rosenborg and Plzen.

 

 

[Minuy600]

Banants in the EL? Without playing in it yourself? What is this?

[shaunvamos]

20 minutes ago, Minuy600 said:

Banants in the EL? Without playing in it yourself? What is this?

 they actually did really really well, they beat Steaua Bucharest and Beitar Jerusalem, and have 4 points from their first two games, and their best player is pretty decent!

 

 

[shaunvamos]

 

 

 

 

Undefeated in the group stages, topping the group, and a 9 goal thriller against Plzen! What an awesome performance!

 

 

 

 

 

I mean, we probably won't get flogged...

[shaunvamos]

 

I'm confused. Why was there only one leg in this?

[shaunvamos]

2023 YOUTH INTAKE

 

 

A very decent looking intake, and for once the determination level seems quite high among the top prospects. A brilliant effort from the HOYD who I was thinking about replacing. Guess I can't now!

 

 

 

 

 

[scousevasey]

1 hour ago, shaunvamos said:

 

I'm confused. Why was there only one leg in this?

Was it a change due to the Winter World Cup? 

Is there anything on the competition rules/info pages?

[shaunvamos]

29 minutes ago, scousevasey said:

Was it a change due to the Winter World Cup? 

Is there anything on the competition rules/info pages?

I just looked it up to see if anyone has had this same issue, and that does seem to be the case. Thanks for clearing that up for me!

[scousevasey]

7 minutes ago, shaunvamos said:

I just looked it up to see if anyone has had this same issue, and that does seem to be the case. Thanks for clearing that up for me!

Was just a guess based on reading a range of careers.  I know that the CL has had odd group stages, but not seen anything in the EL.  I am still on 18 so not experienced it yet

[deltablue]

Doing well in Europe recently

[shaunvamos]

2022/23 Season Review

 

Comfortably in 2nd, but we were powerless to stop Sarajevo again, they're becoming a real force domestically it seems. They also knocked us out in the cup, but it's good to know that there's a bit of a gap to 3rd and 4th.

 

 

Stats Leaders/Best XI

 

 

 

Key Players

 

Barely put a foot wrong this season, remarkably consistent.

 

39 goals in 46 games. What's not to like?

 

 

2nd top goalscorer tops off a great season.

 

 

Other News

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bosnian Clubs in Europe

 

FK Sarajevo

 

Zrinjski

 

Mladost Doboj-Kakanj

 

 

Progress

 

[shaunvamos]

2022 World Cup

Forgot to post this, so will do it here:

 

 

There were a lot of tough groups here, meaning that big nations like Chile, Belgium, Colombia, Holland and defending champions France missed out on the knockout rounds!

 

 

Couple upsets in the second round, most notably Spain being defeated by Poland and Ghana dismissing Germany. The quarter finals progressed normally, bar Ghana also beating Croatia and England beating Brazil in a belter of a game. England then beat Argentina to book a spot in the final against.... Ghana! Sadly for the Black Stars, it was time for the World Cup to come home as England smashed 3 past them to win the tournament.

[shaunvamos]

This should be pretty straightforward.

[shaunvamos]

We now say a permanent goodbye to the best player to date that has come through the academy under my tenure, Ekrem Besic 1B

Here he is on intake day:

 

Here he is now:

 

 

A massive difference, he's come a long way with us! He's also a wonderkid  very proud to have a player like that come through!

 

Career stats:

 

 

I wish him all the best in his future endeavours.

[shaunvamos]

 

Easy.

 

We've beaten Dinamo Zagreb, surely we can beat these guys...

[shaunvamos]

 

A flawless performance at home set this up, and we held a 2-1 lead away until the 85th minute, so this was pretty much wrapped up.

 

 

Off to Kazakhstan to play Shakhter.

[shaunvamos]

 

Pretty comfortable, although we were in danger of going down in the first leg, but the goal was disallowed, and we cracked on to get 3.

 

 

 

Another Croatian team.

[shaunvamos]

 

Rijeka were a step too far unfortunately. At least this will free up our schedule to reclaim the league title.

[kidthekid]

Good to see another Shaunvamos thread. Following as always. Great progress so far.

[shaunvamos]

4 hours ago, kidthekid said:

Good to see another Shaunvamos thread. Following as always. Great progress so far.

Thanks mate, I'm playing when I can as I'm travelling through Europe 😀

[WillHoward42]

This is a fantastic read, will be following.

[shaunvamos]

2023/24 Mid Season Update

 

 

In control at the break, it seems no European football is doing wonders for our league form, and our goalscoring is immense as well. At this point, it looks like our title to lose.

 

Now up to Superb and Excellent respectively.

 

 

Maxed out

 

 

Missed the screenshot but Faris Zubanovic is our new all time top goalscorer, with 120 goals and counting.

 

 

Bosnian National Team

 

 

 

 

Qualified for consecutive EUROs in a pretty tough group.

[shaunvamos]

2024 Youth Intake

 

 

Another good winger, and finally a centre mid. We are massively weak up the middle, so hopefully in due time he can plug that gap.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sheriff7]

On 01/12/2018 at 10:49, shaunvamos said:

 

I'm confused. Why was there only one leg in this?

This should be a bug mate... 

[shaunvamos]

2023/24 Season Review

 

 

Champions

We sealed the League and Cup double, and did it against Sarajevo. We beat them 3 times in a row, 3-0 and 2-0 in the cup final and 3-0 in the league, which put enough distance between us to finish 1st.

 

Stats Leaders/Best XI

 

 

 

 

Key Players

 

 

I bumped my formation up to 2 strikers to accommodate for the development of Filip Pedisic 2B, but Goran blew him out of the water in a big way. 22 goals in a debut season is awesome considering he had a 3* PA when he came in. The fairly pro personality he had coming in helped his development massively.

 

 

Standard season for Zubanovic, joining Goran as the leagues top two goalscorers.

 

 

 

Bosnian Clubs in Europe

 

FK Sarajevo

I know I'm supposed to hate them, being a rival club and all, but this is impressive.

 

Zrinjski

Also impressive.

 

Siroki Brijeg

 

 

Other News

 

 

I love European money.

 

 

Our loyal keeper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a joint effort, and I'm really happy about that.

 

 

Progress

 

 

[shaunvamos]

44 minutes ago, Sheriff7 said:

This should be a bug mate... 

I'm not so sure....

I've heard that this is because of the World Cup in 2022 messing schedules around, but I'd say it would've been recorded as a bug by now if people have gone that far into a save, I know loads have progressed on this edition on the forum, so I'm not sure if it's been the same for them.

[shaunvamos]

 

We beat them 5-0 on aggregate when we played them in the Europa League 2 seasons ago.

[dolph11]

Another interesting thread. Keep it up, dude!

[shaunvamos]

 

 

 

We made this a lot harder than it should have been, but luckily we are through anyway.

 

 

 

Aw man....

[shaunvamos]

After a poor EURO performance, the Bosnian manager left. I applied for the bants, never expecting to get it.

 

 

So I got it.

[shaunvamos]

 

 

 

The brilliant performance at home in which we blew Partizan away lay the foundation for the second leg, which we lost but still dominated.

 

 

 

Never played them before, but we have never lost a match against an Israeli team.

[shaunvamos]

 

 

 

Through to some sort of European group stage

Once again this was set up by a fantastic display at home despite going down to 10 men early and then doing enough to hold on away.

 

 

 

Europa League it is then.

[shaunvamos]

 

 

 

It's clear we don't have the quality just yet to be in the Champions League, but I'm happy to be back in the Europa.

 

 

 

 

 

Man this is a tough group. I'm not looking forward to see Ekrem Besic 1B* tear us apart.

[shaunvamos]

2024/25 Mid Season Review

 

Another solid opening half to the season, beating Sarajevo in the last game of the year to put a considerable distance between them. Our one loss, funnily enough, was to last placed Modrica, who we beat 6-0 earlier. I mean it's not that funny, but at least it doesn't mean much at the moment.

 

Europa League

 

 

3 wins, 3 losses. I'm really surprised with how easily we disposed of Braga, and PAOK proved to be a tougher test than I thought. We even managed to keep it respectable against Arsenal. But was it enough?

 

 

Sure was

 

 

 

 

Bosnian National Team (from when I took over)

 

 

 

A flawless Euro League sees us promoted to Division A.

 

 

 

 

EURO 2024

 

 

 

No real shocks in the group stage, although you could count Slovenia topping their group over Belgium as a bit of one. Bosnia didn't qualify out of a group containing Switzerland and two thirds of Switzerland.

 

 

 

A pretty normal knockout stages, Germany win, smashing defending champions France along the way.

 

 

[shaunvamos]

 

This is a really, really good draw for us. We can beat them.

[shaunvamos]

 

 

 

Couldn't do it that being said, I'm still pleased to get out of that group!

[shaunvamos]

2025 Youth Intake

 

 

This is possibly one of the best intakes I've ever received in this edition of FM. You'll find out why soon, but there's players all through the middle, which is a massive weakness for us still.

 

 

It's unfortunate he's only a Croat, but what matters is his incredible starting attributes. 15 finishing at 16? His speed is impressive too, and don't get me started on that determination. In 2 years he gains Bosnian nationality, so I hope Croatia doesn't snap him up by then.

 

 

He looks like the solid foundation of the midfielder we've been looking for.

 

 

 

 

These three also look like fine additions.

 

 

 

 

[shaunvamos]

2024/25 Season Review

 

 

Excellent and dominant, although we capitulated against Sarajevo in the cup final. But we managed to retain!

 

 

Stats Leaders/Best XI

 

 

 

 

Key Players

 

 

He's ridiculously short, but also ridiculously good this season.

 

 

 

 

Transfers

 

 

 

Just a few loans, and selling our backup LB to Dinamo, who must see something in him. They have a bit of a habit of poaching Bosnian players in this game.

 

Other News

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bosnian Clubs in Europe

 

FK Sarajevo

 

Siroki Brijeg

 

Zrinjski

 

 

Progress

 

 

[shaunvamos]

 

A pretty difficult opening fixture!

[shaunvamos]

 

 

 

A bit of a slow start in the first leg, but obliterated them in the second. We have a killer combination up front.

 

 

Vardar have actually been quite successful given their stature, being on the verge of European groups for about 3 or 4 seasons. It's probably due to the fact that I've got their leagues loaded.

[shaunvamos]

 

 

 

A  much more difficult tie than I was expecting, but still through.

 

 

 

We played them last season in the CL playoff and went down 5-3. We meet them a round earlier, and I don't think we are any better.

[shaunvamos]

 

 

 

Well then.

I would say we FM'd Celtic in the away leg, given they had 32 shots, but we had more clear cut chances, and we really should've won at home. A brilliant performance and now we are one step away from Champions League football.

 

 

We've never played Molde, and they've only qualified for any European GS once. Can we do it?

[shaunvamos]

 

 

Goddamn, we got out butts kicked. I didn't expect that at all!  

 

 

 

 

Seeded 2nd for the draw, but we get a fairly tough group in terms of Lazio and Levski, the latter of which have made the last 16 of the EL twice. Speaking of the Bulgarians, 3 clubs from there are in the EL. Impressive!

 

Meanwhile, Molde drew Porto, Tottenham and Shakhtar. Horrible, but there are no easy draws in the Champions League.

[Sir_Liam]

You're making great progress and got some amazing players in that last intake.  I think you'll make the Champions League group stage soon.

[shaunvamos]

1 hour ago, Sir_Liam said:

You're making great progress and got some amazing players in that last intake.  I think you'll make the Champions League group stage soon.

Thanks mate, although I think it will be so e time before they start featuring for me consistently. I really thought Molde was our one way ticket into the Champions League groups, but they definitely shocked me.

[shaunvamos]

2025/26 Mid Season Update

 

We've dropped results and been quite disappointing, our lack of depth is beginning to show, we have no immediate quality in the midfield and serious depth problems on the left.

 

 

Europa League

 

 

 

 

Very, very disappointing. To lose to Levski and Lazio is understandable, but to APOEL? Inexcusable.

 

 

National Team

 

 

Undefeated in our WCQ group except a surprise defeat to Ireland, and unfortunately that cost us a spot in the World Cup. We missed out on the second place qualifying on goal difference, but I still have my job.

[shaunvamos]

2026 Youth Intake

 

 

Another deep intake, and the determination level is through the roof, except for the one with the most potential.

 

1 determination 

 

 

 

He looks pretty good, but there's far too much competition for strikers at the moment.

 

 

 

 

 

[shaunvamos]

2025/26 Season Review

 

I resigned myself to the fact the league wasn't ours this year, but we almost finished 4th, which for my expectations would've been unacceptable. Sarajevo were a class above, buying whole host of players for a total of 1.6M. They flogged us in the cup final too, the league suddenly looks a lot more difficult.

 

 

Transfers

 

 

In what would be considered a very unpopular move, I sold our starting keeper and all time appearance leader because Botev Plovdiv met my transfer guidelines so I sold him, and made a decent price out of him. My backup keeper has 5* PA so it wasn't a massive loss that we couldn't cover. Dinamo Zagreb continued their despicable ways and poached my players for free, this time taking our number 1 centre mid and not even using him.

 

Stats/Best XI

 

 

 

 

Key Players

 

 

I almost sold him to CSKA Sofia for 1.8M, but he rejected the contract to stay with us, and I'm hugely grateful, as he was by far our best player. He's not far away from his first cap in my opinion.

 

 

 

 

Top scorer in the league, and off the mark for his country.

 

 

Other News

 

 

 

 

Bosnian Clubs in Europe

 

FK Sarajevo

 

Siroki Brijeg

 

Zrinjski

 

 

Progress

 

 

 

 

[shaunvamos]

 

This is a much less ideal start to the campaign than I was expecting.

[shaunvamos]

 

 

 

We absolutely dominated them. They didn't stand a chance!

 

 

 

We are rewarded with just as difficult a task in Poland.