Bosnia and Herzegovina receives homecoming welcome in Utah during World Cup stay

SANDY — For only the second time as an independent country, the flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina will fly over the FIFA World Cup hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada.

In between matches between Toronto, Los Angeles and Seattle, the flag will also fly over Sandy, Utah.

That's what brought a few thousand soccer fans to America First Field on Monday night: a chance to catch a glimpse of the national team that represents 3 million back home — and many, many more across the world.

That includes Real Salt Lake goalkeeper coach Mirza Harambasic.

The 34-year-old coach was born in Bosnia, but immigrated to the United States with his family in the early 90s during the war that followed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.

"For our national team to be in the same city that I live and work, it's unbelievable," Harambasic told KSL within a few hours of returning to Salt Lake from his native home. "A lot of pride, and a lot of happiness."

He wasn't alone.

Bosnian fans and supporters — some of them former refugees like Harambasic's family — packed the east side of Real Salt Lake's home stadium Monday night to catch a glimpse of their national team just three days after Jovo Lukic helped the squad to a 1-1 draw with Canada in a Group B opener for both teams.

Invitations went out to around 14,000 Real Salt Lake season ticket holders, as well as select members of the community with roots and ties to Bosnia. At least 6,000 people showed up to Monday's open training sessions, with many cooking food and brewing coffee found in their native country.

That included the world's largest coffee pot, certified by the Guinness Book of World Records, that was made in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2004. The 48-inch tall pot with a base diameter of 37.4 inches will follow the national team around North America during group play — and whatever comes next.

For a country with roughly the population of the state of Utah, the international outreach by Bosnians living abroad has been felt each step of the way.

"The Bosnia diaspora has been spread around the world because of the war that happened in the early 90s," Harambasic noted. "A lot of the team was born outside of Bosnia.

"There are Bosnians everywhere," he added. "And if they are not there (where games are played), they will certainly travel to where ever the national team is like the ones you see at open training today."

Wide-ranging travel is not uncommon during the World Cup.

England, which is based in Kansas City, will face group-stage games in Dallas, Boston and New York. Spain's base camp near Atlanta is a nearly four-hour flight from one match in Guadalajara, Mexico.

But no country will rack up the airmiles quite like Bosnia, which will travel nearly 5,200 miles across Canada and the United States for matches in Toronto, Los Angeles and Seattle.

Bosnia's base camp was a bit unique, one of the last teams to set up for the 2026 FIFA World Cup after qualifying from a playoff bracket over Northern Ireland, Italy and Wales.

Real Salt Lake is one of 12 MLS clubs hosting international teams during the league's World Cup break, which concludes July 16. That includes Sporting Kansas City hosting both Argentina and England, as well as FC Dallas playing host to Czechia and Sweden.

"I think Utah is still a bit of a hidden gem in the United States," Harambasic said. "I think people still don't realize how special it is here. It's a great way to showcase how great Utah is, how great Salt Lake City is, and also how great of a job RSL has done to provide such a state-of-the-art facility that the team is using to prepare for competition."

Bosnia will travel to Los Angeles to face Switzerland on Thursday afternoon (1 p.m MT, FOX) before wrapping up Group B play next Wednesday, June 24 against Qatar in Seattle.

Contributing: Garna Mejia, KSL-TV

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