Budimir had earlier spoken about his family’s escape from Bosnia and their settlement in Velika Gorica, a town near Zagreb.

“I was born in Zenica, a city where the hospital was closest to the village where we lived, Ozimica. But I don’t remember anything, because the war moved my family to Zagreb County. I lived in Croatia from the beginning. It wasn’t until I was six years old, once the war in Bosnia ended, that I went back there for the first time. It was complicated. I remember that there were a lot of soldiers at the border, blue helmets from the United Nations. It’s not good to have to rely on other people to arrange entry into a country, but luckily that’s over. In Bosnia there are areas where you see that time has stopped after the war,” Budimir told Spanish newspaper Ara.

Budimir grew up in Velika Gorica, often playing football on the streets. With the Velika Gorica stadium, home to Croatian Football League club HNK Gorica, in the vicinity, a young Budimir later played for clubs like HNK Gorica, Inter Zaprešić and Lokomotiva Zagreb in the Prva HNL, Croatia’s top tier, from 2011 to 2015.

He recalled his early days in football and his desire to train at the Velika Gorica stadium. “I could play all day outside without my parents getting in trouble. That’s where I started playing football. About 500 meters from where we lived was the Radnik stadium, where Velika Gorica played, in the first division of Croatia. When I was seven years old, I told my mother that I wanted to go there to train. She took me there and I haven’t stopped playing football since then. I still have the same passion, feeling and love for football that I had when I was a child. Before, it was a game I shared with my friends, and now, it’s my profession. I feel privileged,” Budimir said.

🚨🌎 | GOAL: ANTE BUDIMIR OPENS THE SCORING FOR CROATIA!

🇵🇦 Panama 0-1 Croatia 🇭🇷 pic.twitter.com/2YMhOGvHHu

— CEe (@CEeBaz_) June 24, 2026

In 2025, Budimir was signed by German club St. Pauli before being loaned to Italian clubs Crotone and later Sampdoria. In 2019, he joined Spanish club Mallorca, then in La Liga 2, scoring six goals in 20 matches to help them secure promotion to the top division.

The following year, after scoring 13 goals in 37 matches, Budimir was signed by Osasuna for a reported €8 million, becoming the club’s most expensive signing. Over the years, he has scored a total of 95 goals for the club and surpassed club legend Sabino Andonegui — famously called the ‘Hammer of San Juan’ — as Osasuna’s highest scorer in La Liga, with his 58th goal for the club coming against Valencia last year.

Beyond his exploits on the pitch, Budimir has also won hearts off it. The Guardian reported how he once helped 78-year-old Mari Carmen, an Osasuna supporter suffering from a tumour, by taking her to the hospital in Pamplona. Carmen’s daughter Myriam posted a cartoon strip thanking those who helped her mother. “I’d like to think if my mum or grandmother needed help in the street people would be there,” Budimir told The Guardian.

Budimir’s time in La Liga has also seen him finish third in the league’s Golden Boot race twice. In the 2024-25 season, he scored 21 goals for Osasuna, behind Kylian Mbappé’s 32 for Real Madrid and Robert Lewandowski’s 27 for Barcelona. In the 2025-26 season, he scored 17 goals, behind Mbappé’s 25 and Vedat Muriqi’s 23.

Osasuna goalkeeper Sergio Herrera spoke highly of Budimir’s influence. “Budimir is special. We have to put up with him sometimes and sometimes we give him some back. He’s so demanding of himself and us that we have to be patient. He might not be the best centre forward in the world, but he’s very smart, he knows how to make the most of his qualities and work on his weaknesses. It’s every day and you see it. We’re proud to have him. He is an example to us all, and not just because he is going to make history,” Herrera told The Guardian.

In 2019, Budimir also enrolled for a degree in economics. He spoke about balancing football with academics, crediting his sisters for encouraging him. “My older sisters encouraged me to study a degree in Economics. They were studying it and told me they would help me. That gave me the confidence to do it and honestly, I’m really enjoying it. Combined with professional football, it hasn’t always been easy to finish work in a timely manner. The rules at the university in Croatia where I study are very strict and you’ve got to do the exams in person. One of the good things about the pandemic is that it can now be done online. The other day I passed two exams. Vicente Moreno doesn’t need to worry though; I won’t be asking him for permission to leave on the day of the Barcelona game for exams! I’ve got time for everything,” Budimir told Mallorca’s official website in 2020.

Over the years, the striker has also had the chance to visit Bosnia, the city of his birth. In his interview with Ara, he spoke about how visiting as a ten-year-old made him realise the after-effects of the war.

“When you’re young, you don’t understand it, but you accept it as normal. We could get around Zagreb speaking Bosnian because the traditions there are very similar. But when you’re ten and go to visit your two grandmothers back in Bosnia, and you see so many houses riddled with holes from attacks, you realise something serious happened there. Once something is destroyed, it’s hard to rebuild. There are places that haven’t been touched, areas where it feels like time stood still after the war. Yet it is a beautiful country, rich in nature, and I hold it very dear. I never want to see anything like that happen in the Balkans again; we are peoples with very similar traditions and customs, and we need to respect one another,” Budimir said.

As Budimir’s football journey continues, the striker will give many chances in the future to the war ravaged countries to respect one another.