Husnija Arapović – Behram CV (eng)

Husnija Arapović was born in Zenica . In his youth, he expressed great affinity towards sports, football in particular. Football was always the most popular sport in Zenica and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was and it still is. Football Club
”Čelik” from Zenica has been a symbol of the town for years.

Husnija Arapović has passed all stages in selection of the FC ”Čelik”. As a player in the team and a captain of  ”Čelik”, he draw attention on himself by many football specials in B&H and ex-Yugoslavia.

Career as a player

Apart from paying in his basic team ”Čelik”, Arapović played as a first team player for ”Borac” from Banja Luka. This football team was also a member of the First League of ex-Yugoslavia and was one of the best and most popular football clubs in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

After playing in different teams in ex-Yugoslavia, Husnija Arapović continued his career in Switzerland. He played there for six years. For three years he played for ”St. Gallen” and three years for ”Wintertur”. He achieved a final of the Switzerland Cup in 1970 with this team.

Career as a trainer

His career as a player Husnija Arapović finished at 32, in Austrian team ”Rankvatl”. There starts his successful career as a football coach.

After Austria, he takes over a team from Switzerland, ”Schafhausen”. Ten years after his career in Europe as a footbal player and as a trainer, he returns to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He takes over the team from Kakanj – ”Rudar”, and later on his own first football club – ”Čelik” from Zenica. As a head of proffessional board of ”Čelik”, Arapović has been leading this team in it's four different phases.

At the hardest moments of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992 to 1995), Arapović showed his patriotism and the wish to save B&H football. He gave an enormous contribution to survival of some football teams, to creation Football Assotiation of B&H, to affirmation of the best B&H football players and promotion of football in general.

The best B&H players in Europe, such as Elvir Bolić, Mirsad Hibić, Mladen Krstajić, Nermin Šabić, are the first fruits of his work.

After the war was finished, he established (together with a small group of entusiastics) respectable football team ”Zenica”. Almir Tolja came from that team, the goalkeeper of national representation. Thank to Husnija Arapović, Zenica in those years became a football centre of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It will be remembered as such to all football fans in B&H, especially famous for football matches od national football representation.

It's first official footbal match national representation had in Zenica and all significant national victories were achieved in Zenica. A part of that football image in Zenica is certainly Husnija Arapović.

Husnija Arapović as a football selector

In the meantime, Husnija Arapović lead football teams ”Velež” from Mostar, ”Budućnost” from Banovići, ”Čelik” from Zenica, as well as a Mediteranian representation and A2 representation of B&H.

All this shows the high social and sport respect that Husnija Arapović has in B&H sports, footbal in particular. Excellent sport results contribute to that, as well as his professional and pedagogical work in all teams he worked for.

Especially important are the results of national representation at Mediteranian games in 1997. Husnija Arapović made a selection and did necessary preparations with the players who played in Bosnia and Herzegovina. And they came to the very final of the Mediteranian games, almost.

As a football selector of the A2 national representation, Husnija Arapović achieved significant result at the ”Millenium Cup” in India. Our representation was second.

In year 2001, Arapović achieved great results with the national representation at the tournaments in Amman and Malasia at ”Medreka Cup”, as well as te ”LG Cup” in Iran.

Many young B&H players were successfull promoted at those tournaments and they play in football leagues in all over Europe.

All those players remember and mention Husnija Arapović with great respect. They often visit him in Zenica.

As a football selector for the national representation, Husnija Arapović was with our team for 20 times. He has 13 victories, three remies and 4 failors. That is respectable achivement for every football coach and selector.

Husnija Arapović today

Today he leads quite family life. His main life inspiration are his wife, his doughters and a son, and his grandchildren. That idilic peace is sometimes distributed by invitations from teams and football selections from all over the world to engage him working for them.

Husnija Arapović still has enough energy, strenght and ambition to add another trophy for representation or a football team to his career.

Arapović is regular lecturer and instructor in all football trainer's seminars in the region or in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has been passing his experience to younger generations for 30 years.

Zenica as a town, and its football team ”Čelik” are symbols of footbal tradition. They are proud on such a expert and football professional among them.