Hasan Salihamidà ¾ià(; born 1 January 1977), nicknamed Brazzo (, , "Little Bro"), is a Bosnian former professional footballer who last served as sporting director of Bundesliga club Bayern Munich. After starting his club career with German side Hamburger SV, he made a name for himself while playing for Bayern Munich for nine seasons with whom he won the Bundesliga title six times, DFB-Pokal title four times, the 2000âÂÂ01 UEFA Champions League and the 2001 Intercontinental Cup. He also played for Italian club Juventus for four seasons.
During his career, Salihamidà ¾iàusually played as a right midfielder or full back. He was a quick and energetic player with an extremely high work rate. He was also gifted with good crossing and passing abilities, which allowed him to create chances for his teammates.
He earned 42 caps and scored six goals for the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team. He is regarded by many as one of the most successful Bosnian football players.
Following the end of his one-year contract with VfL Wolfsburg in 2012, Salihamidà ¾iàretired from professional football. He then worked for Sky Deutschland, RTL and ZDF, before re-joining Bayern Munich as sporting director in 2017.
Salihamidà ¾iÃÂ's father Ahmed and mother à  efika gave him the nickname "Braco", meaning "little brother" in Bosnian, since Hasan has an older sister, hence his current nickname "Brazzo". He finished elementary school and played for local club Turbina Jablanica. Then, Salihamidà ¾iàmoved to Veleà ¾ Mostar where he stayed until 1992. That year, Salihamidà ¾iàwas called up to the Yugoslavia under-16 team, for a match against the CIS under-16 team in Belgrade. Days after the match, the Army of Republika Srpska began a siege on the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, forcing his father to look for opportunities in Western Europe for his son.
In November 1992, Salihamidà ¾iàmoved to Hamburg, Germany, with the assistance of Ahmed Halilhodà ¾ià(cousin of football coach Vahid Halilhodà ¾iÃÂ), who was also a Jablanica native and had emigrated to Germany. Through Ahmed Halilhodà ¾iÃÂ's help, Salihamidà ¾iàjoined the youth team of Bundesliga side Hamburger SV. He remained within the club's youth system for three seasons before being promoted to the senior squad. In his first season with the seniors, Salihamidà ¾iàmade nine appearances, scoring two league goals. The following season, Salihamidà ¾iàbecame an integral part of the squad as he would make 37 appearances and score an impressive seven goals between Europe and the league. He would go on to make 31 league appearances, scoring ten goals during the 1997âÂÂ98 season, which would be his last for the club before his high-profile transfer to Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich.
Salihamidà ¾iÃÂ's transfer to Bayern Munich was completed during the 1998 summer transfer window, for an undisclosed fee. In his first season with his new club, 1998âÂÂ99, Salihamidà ¾iàwas instantly inserted into the club's starting line-up and made an impressive 43 appearances in all competitions, scoring five goals. During his first season, he came on as a substitute in the 89th minute of the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final against Manchester United.
Salihamidà ¾iàwould make an additional 46 appearances with three more goals in his second season for the Munich giants, in 1999âÂÂ2000. His third season proved very successful as well, as he would score six goals in 46 appearances. Between 2001 and 2003, however, Salihamidà ¾iàlacked in appearances, mostly due to injury; he made just 50 appearances between both seasons in all competitions.
For the 2003âÂÂ04 season, the Bosnian international worked his way back into the starting line-up for the entire season, making 47 appearances and scoring five goals, also tallying 43 appearances and five goals the following season.
Salihamidà ¾iàwas limited to just 29 appearances for the 2005âÂÂ06 season, but made 42 seasonal appearances in his final season with the club, in which he also scored five goals. One of Salihamidà ¾iÃÂ's most memorable plays in 2006âÂÂ07 was in the Champions League round of 16 second leg against Real Madrid, where he dispossessed Roberto Carlos and fed the pass to Roy Makaay, who beat goalkeeper Iker Casillas and set the record for the fastest goal in tournament history, at 11 seconds after kickoff. This helped Bayern overcome a 3âÂÂ2 loss from the first leg to level the tie at 2âÂÂ1 and advance on the away goals rule.
As he spent many years being so loved in Munich and his children are from the city, Salihamidà ¾iàsettled there when his playing career was over.
On 15 January 2007, Salihamidà ¾iàsigned a four-year pre-deal with Juventus. He joined them the following June after his contract with Bayern had expired. In his first season, under coach Claudio Ranieri, Salihamidà ¾iàwas a regular starter, albeit with injury lay-offs, and made 30 official appearances for his new club, scoring an impressive five goals which included two in a 3âÂÂ2 victory against Milan on 12 April 2008. His second and third season with the club, however, proved to be less successful as he suffered from several injury lay-offs.
In the 2010âÂÂ11 season, new coach Luigi Delneri excluded Salihamidà ¾iàfrom the team's plans. Along with Fabio Grosso, Salihamidà ¾iàwas the only healthy first-team player that was excluded from the 25-men 2010âÂÂ11 UEFA Europa League squad. Salihamidà ¾iàwas released from Juventus when his contract expired in June 2011.
On 4 July 2011, Salihamidà ¾iàmoved to VfL Wolfsburg on a one-year contract. On 9 July 2011, in a friendly game against local team Bismark, Salihamidà ¾iÃÂ's left arm was broken in a challenge with another player.
Salihamidà ¾iàmade his international debut for Bosnia and Herzegovina on 8 October 1996 against Croatia. On 6 November 1996, he scored the team's first goal in a friendly 2âÂÂ1 win over Italy. During his 11 years with the national team, the closest they came was falling one goal short in a match against Denmark that would have enabled them to qualify for UEFA Euro 2004. He has earned a total of 42 caps, scoring 6 goals and his final international was an August 2006 friendly match against France.
After retiring from professional football in 2012, Salihamidà ¾iàstarted to work as a regular pundit for Sky Deutschland. From summer 2013 to spring 2014, he worked as a football expert for RTL and was a color commentator for during the 2013 Audi Cup. He was also an expert for ZDF from February 2014 until the UEFA Champions League Final and during the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
On 31 July 2017, Salihamidà ¾iàwas appointed sporting director of Bayern Munich, following his predecessor Matthias Sammer's withdrawal from the job for health and family reasons a season prior in 2016. Salihamidà ¾iàsigned a three-year contract until 30 June 2020. Bayern's Chairman, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said, "In Hasan, we have brought a man to FC Bayern who knows the club very well. He is a very hard-working, serious, loyal and very alert person with great integrity and he speaks five languages. His time in Italy means he has a great network that will definitely be very helpful in his job. We have complete confidence that he will be able to do the job as he should do."
Salihamidà ¾iàofficially assumed his position on Bayern's executive board on 1 July 2020 as the "board director of sport".
He was sacked as sporting director on 27 May 2023.
Salihamidà ¾iàhas three children: Selina, Nick and Lara June, all born in Munich, with his wife, Esther Copado. Footballer Francisco Copado is his brother-in-law, whose son Lucas (Salihamidà ¾iÃÂ's nephew) is a footballer for Bayern Munich, alongside Salihamidà ¾iÃÂ's own son, Nick.
Salihamidà ¾iàalso holds German citizenship.
Bayern Munich
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