Guest Post: A Refugee’s Search for a Home in the Beautiful Game

In this guest post, Vedran Dedić – originally a refugee from the Yugoslavian Civil War in the 1990s – discusses his new book, Wanderer’s Journey: A Refugee’s Search for a Home in the Beautiful Game, which is a memoir through the lens of football.

Boca Juniors. Borussia Dortmund. AFC Mobile. Although they are football clubs who do not play in the same league, same country, and are not even on the same continent, the connection between them is not only the colour yellow, but also me, a refugee from the former Yugoslavia.  Wanderer’s Journey: A Refugee’s Search for a Home in the Beautiful Game is my life’s story through the football lens.  

The book begins with my escape from Yugoslavia with my family after the start of the Civil War in the early 1990s. Leaving family behind and everything that we had built, we sought refuge in a unified Germany, staying with extended family members initially until being placed in refugee housing. 

Although I played some football in the schoolyard, I did not begin to support a professional football club until I was introduced to Borussia Dortmund by an elementary school classmate. The black and neon yellow stood out along with Dortmund’s playmaker Andreas “Andy” Möller. I became a fan and eagerly anticipated watching BVB on those famous European nights. Apart from that, my exposure to BVB was limited to highlights as most of the league’s matches were behind a paywall.  

As the World Cup rolled around in 1998, Croatia would play my host country in the quarter-finals. Croatia was the de facto representation for the refugee camp where I lived. This was the first time the topic of identity in the football context crossed my mind. Although Germany had welcomed refugees from the former Yugoslavia, a certain segment of the population did not like our presence there. And some of those unwelcoming people lived on the other side of the fence behind the refugee camp. So when Croatia won, it was a big middle finger to those people.  

After the war ended in late 1995, the German government slowly began informing the Yugo refugees that they needed to leave. It was either return to Bosnia in its post-war state or take a chance and move to the United States for me and my family. Although we didn’t have to make that choice until 1999, we chose the latter. The land of opportunity awaited us. Flying across the ocean and into JFK Airport, I saw a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. It was indeed the “Welcome to the United States of America” sign. With having to start over yet again from zero and the move to a different continent being a break with a familiar culture, my affinity and love for the beautiful game vanished for the time being as well having to learn about this strange, new land that I inhabited. The fact that the game wasn’t really available on TV except for international tournaments didn’t help the matter. 

It took several years for the game to rear its beautiful head on United States soil and when it did, it drew me back in. It was specifically Zlatan Ibrahimović playing for Internazionale where I found the lost magic of the beautiful game again and later Pep Guardiola’s FC Barcelona. While the magic was there, the community aspect was missing for me. And in that regard, I looked back towards the familiar — Borussia Dortmund. With Klopp at the helm and Dortmund winning the league back-to-back, this was all so reminiscent of the mid-1990s, including a Champions League final. However, the winner wasn’t the same. As it was my desire to see Dortmund live at the Westfalenstadion, something I never had the chance to do while living in Germany, I finally accomplished that goal in April 2019. It was the Ruhr Derby against eternal rivals Schalke 04. Gazing upon the steel fortress that is the Westfalenstadion, it was a work of industrious labor with the club’s colours as part of the fabric. Although Dortmund lost, it was a dream fulfilled.   

Unfortunately, the search for a community by supporting BVB was really a search for the unfulfilled dream and for nostalgia. In the mean time, a local team named AFC Mobile was formed. With a local team now available to watch in person, I hoped I would find myself here and become a part of a football community. The excitement of something new and the potential of having finally found the final destination made me think that this was it and that feeling lasted for a while. You could call this the honeymoon phase. However, once things simmered down, I realised that I saw football differently than my fellow supporters. My past with Dortmund and my present state with Mobile would not be tied together in holy football matrimony.  

So the journey continued. And the journey took an unexpected turn, south of the border. It led to the land of silver, to the Paris of South America, to the barrio of La Boca, to Club Atletico Boca Juniors. The existence of Boca Juniors made its way onto my radar in the late 2000s when GOLTV in the States would carry the Argentinian league. Glimpses of the blue and gold would be caught. Some years later, when I met someone from Brazil, another dose of the Argentinian league was injected into my veins. I experienced my first Superclásico between Boca and River Plate. And thus the seed was planted.  

And in late 2018, with the monotony of European football settling in as well as the aforementioned later on, I began dreaming of more… and I remembered. I remembered flashes of blue and gold that looked like glory, and I remembered a crowd that jumped and sang with all their hearts. Tension ratcheted up as a match that promised drama approached: Boca were in a Copa Libertadores Superclásico final against their northern neighbours from Buenos Aires, and the choice was obvious. It was time to take a chance and plunge deep into support of the club from La Boca. It was time to see whether this was the home I had longed for in my soul.  

The format of the book is my life’s events interspersed with events in the football world that are meaningful to me and that I experienced. The story is one of perseverance in the face of adversity and hope. It is universal in its themes and unites people through the most beautiful game. I hope you enjoy it.

Wanderer’s Journey: A Refugee’s Search for a Home in the Beautiful Game by Vedran Dedic is available on Amazon.