'If I had done that, I tell everyone, the war in Yugoslavia would not have happened. I still regret it!'

In a poignant reflection on a pivotal moment in football and history, former Yugoslavian national team stalwart Faruk Hadžibegić has shared a deeply personal and controversial theory: that his missed penalty kick against Argentina in the 1990 World Cup quarter-final might have been a turning point that could have averted the devastating war in Yugoslavia.

Hadžibegić, a celebrated figure for FK Sarajevo and the national team, recounted the dramatic penalty shootout in Italy. Despite playing with ten men after Refik Šabanadžović's red card, Yugoslavia held Argentina, even seeing Tomislav Ivković save Diego Maradona's penalty. However, the dream ended when Goycoechea denied Hadžibegić's decisive spot-kick. He now posits, with profound conviction, that reaching the semi-finals could have altered the course of Balkan history, preventing the subsequent conflict.

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Da sam dao gol, uvjeren sam da bismo prošli u polufinale, i ne zvuči pretenciozno, ali mislim da kasnije ne bi došlo do rata.

Speaking from the heart, Hadžibegić lamented, "If I had scored, I am convinced we would have advanced to the semi-finals, and it doesn't sound pretentious, but I think the war would not have happened later." He further elaborated in the 'Balkan rules' podcast, expressing certainty that had the war not occurred, Yugoslavia would have contended for the World Cup in 1994. He attributes this belief to the extraordinary generation of talent the team possessed, naming stars like Zvonimir Boban, Robert Prosinečki, and Davor Šuker.

Hadžibegić's reflections extend beyond the pitch, touching upon the cyclical nature of conflict and the failure to learn from past tragedies. He observes that current global events suggest history's lessons, particularly those from the Yugoslav wars, remain unheeded, implying that political motivations, rather than popular will, may drive nations towards conflict. For Hadžibegić, the memory of that missed penalty remains his greatest life regret, a symbol of what might have been, both for his team and for his fractured homeland.

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Da nije bilo rata, bismo svjetski prvaci na sljedećem Svjetskom prvenstvu u SAD-u 1994. godine. To govorim s punim uvjerenjem i rekao bih to pred Bogom i narodom.