APPLETON, Wis. — Wisconsin will be well-represented at the FIFA World Cup this summer.
Esmir Bajraktarević, who was born in Appleton, was named to the World Cup squad for Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday. A winger who currently plays club soccer in the Netherlands with PSV, Bajraktarević could line up alongside former Premier League champion Edin Džeko.
Bajraktarević rose the ranks of the New England Revolution’s system, debuting with the MLS team in 2022 before hopping the pond to PSV last year. He has appearances in the UEFA Champions League and recently won his second Dutch league championship with the club.
While he did make some appearances with the United States national team at the youth levels, Bajraktarević ultimately swapped allegiances to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2024 and now plays a much more prominent role for their squad.
Bosnia and Herzegovina are set to make their second-ever World Cup appearance, and first since 2014, after a dramatic trip through FIFA’s last-chance qualifying playoffs.
The squad defeated both Wales and Italy in penalty shootouts, with Bajraktarević scoring the winning penalty against Italy to ultimately send Bosnia and Herzegovina to the World Cup.
The Bosnians now face a difficult road in the World Cup, but not one that’s unwinnable. They’ve been drawn into the same group as Qatar, Switzerland and co-hosts Canada.
FIFA’s latest world rankings put the Swiss atop the group (19th overall) with Canada (30th) in second and Qatar (55th) in third. Bosnia is a close fourth, ranked 65th in the world.
Switzerland has advanced out of the group round in four of the last five World Cups, while neither Canada nor Qatar have ever won a World Cup match despite each qualifying for the torunament multiple times. Bosnia and Herzegovina was able to get a group stage win over Iran during their previous World Cup campaign.
Bosnia and Herzegovina will open this summer’s World Cup campaign on Friday, June 12 against Canada at 2 p.m. CT in Toronto.
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