Vedad Ibišević

Early career

Ibišević was born in Vlasenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then a republic within SFR Yugoslavia. At the start of the Yugoslav War he was a refugee in Tuzla where he and his family stayed until 2000 when they left Bosnia and Herzegovina to move to Switzerland, where Ibišević was signed by FC Baden in Canton Aargau. His family, however, left Switzerland after only ten months, moving to St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States. In St. Louis, Ibišević flourished as one of the region's most promising football players, and after his senior season in 2002, was named by Soccer America as one of the nation's top 25 recruits. He played his high school football at Roosevelt High School in St. Louis. Ibišević signed to play college soccer in his adopted hometown at one of the nation's most respected football establishments, Saint Louis University. He quickly established himself in his freshman year, registering 18 goals and four assists in 22 games for the Billikens, while leading a strong SLU team deep into the NCAA Tournament. For his achievements, Ibišević was named the NCAA Freshman of the Year, as well as a first team All-American. During his college years, he also played in the Premier Development League with both the St. Louis Strikers and Chicago Fire Premier. During training with the team, Ibišević was spotted by Paris Saint-Germain's Bosnian manager Vahid Halilhodžić, who quickly signed him to play for the renowned French team for the coming season.…

Ibišević was part of Bosnia and Herzegovina under-21 team, playing five games and scoring one goal. On 24 March 2007, Ibišević debuted as a starter for Bosnia and Herzegovina in a UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying match against Norway. On 13 October 2007, he scored his first international goal against Greece in Athens, in a 3–2 loss. On 7 September 2012, Ibišević scored his first international hat-trick away to Liechtenstein. He has also set up Edin Džeko for another goal during the match. By scoring the only goal of the match against Lithuania on 15 October 2013, Ibišević ensured Bosnia would make its first ever appearance at a FIFA World Cup. In June 2014, he was named in Bosnia's 23-man squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. He debuted in the opening group game of the competition and scored first ever Bosnian goal at the World Cup finals in a 1–2 loss against Argentina at the Maracanã Stadium. In a penultimate UEFA Euro 2016 qualifier, due to absence of Edin Džeko, Ibišević started against Wales and scored a crucial goal in the 90th minute to keep Bosnia's qualification hopes alive. Ibišević retired from international football at the end of Bosnia's unsuccessful 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign. He, along with Emir Spahić and Zvjezdan Misimović, was called up for a friendly game against Montenegro in May 2018, which Bosnian FA used to commemorate them for all of their achievements in the national team and to give the crowd one last chance to see them in the national jersey. They…

Club

International

Scores and results list Bosnia and Herzegovina's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Ibišević goal.

Ibišević is from a Bosniak family. At an early age, his family moved to Switzerland, and ten months later to St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States. While he has spoken some about his experiences during the Bosnian War that forced his family to leave Bosnia, he is not known to have ever revealed all of the details. According to a profile on Ibišević by American writer Wright Thompson in 2014:

No one in Germany knows the whole story about his escape from the war. During his three years in St. Louis, he never told a single person at school, not a friend, teacher or coach. The most common answers he gives to any question about the war is "It's OK" or "We were lucky." Even his wife Zerina, who lost her father in the war, believes her husband has not told her the whole story; in the Thompson piece, she said, "I still have a feeling that I know maybe 20 percent. I swear." At the time of the Thompson story, Ibišević and his wife lived near Stuttgart with their young son Ismail. Thompson noted that when Ibišević looked for a house when he transferred to VfB Stuttgart, he "found himself drawn" to one that reminded him of the family home in Bosnia that they were forced to abandon during the war. He also bought a home for his father Šaban in Tuzla that had previously been owned by his father's employer, which according to Thompson was "a symbol of what the war had taken". The home is more a spiritual balm for Šaban, since he continues to live in St. Louis, where he manages…