Boban's kick: the harbinger of the start of the Balkan War

To get to start of the Balkan War we have to leave at the beginning of the 90. It was a war conflict, piercing, in the heart of Europe and already at the dawn of the 21st century. Is civil war of old Yugoslavia, marked many generations of today and ended a broken country in many countries. But the tension had already been chewing for a long time and we could see that on the day when a kick and a football game, had a marked political significance, very marked.

The party that heralded the start of the Balkan War

Was a 13 May 1990, a week after Yugoslavia held in the first democratic regional elections and he left Franjo Tudjman's nationalist as the most voted. They had to play more than half a league on Dinamo de Zagreb and the Red Star Belgrade. Independentismo against centralism. Two feverish swollen face to face, Even more so when they came from the Yugoslav capital over 3.000 souls willing to heat the Balkan derby excellence.

Some quite heated prelegomena that are turned on more when you begin to hear shouts of Zagreb is Yugoslavia or when you hear “We kill the Tudjman”. Nothing matters that the party has not started yet, that stars from both teams as Suker, Prosinecki, Peternac Stojkovic, Savicevic, Stosic or Pancev are heating.

A battle led to the beginning of a pre-war climate in Croatia. PHOTO: Brand

Suddenly, los Delije (Red Star fans) They begin to climb to the upper tiers, where there were also some fans of Dinamo Zagreb, and flying chairs and stabs. It is the beginning of a contest, a battle where the bodies and security forces lose the north. Police, surprisingly, charge against Croats, using without any water hoses repair and tear gas. What causes the rest of the stadium invade the turf and run on the hunt for Serbs while Dinamo players will be changing rooms and Red Star come by helicopter.

The kick that started the Balkan War

It was more than just a kick, a simple gesture. It was a vindication, political and social struggle moved to a football field. A global amplification of something that had been going on for some time in a country seemingly united but actually chopped into pieces. It happened that day and it could be said that it was the beginning of the Balkan War.

In the middle of the bedlam, a man of exquisite technique left an image forever. It was about Boban, future AC Milan star of Sacchi, who decides to go to the aid of a fan of his Dinamo de Zagreb he's being mercilessly shaken by two cops. without thinking, He throws himself on him and kicks him that serves to deter the authorities from the beating they were giving the individual in question.

The stadium, action witness, celebrates, welcomes him as a hero. Quickly it is elevated to the status of a nationalist hero, symbol resistance. Is the start of the Balkan War that will start with firearms in just two weeks. That nobody has doubts.

A bronze relief located at the Stadion Maksimir Croatian, in which it is represented amateurs becoming soldiers, and under which an inscription: “For fans of the team, who started the war with Serbia at this stage the 13 May 1990” remember forever. Football never meant so much for a people like the Croatian, that curiously eight years later it was already the third soccer power in the world in the France World Cup 1998, with Boban in front. How could it be otherwise.