Croatia’s saviour this World Cup, who once fled Bosnia with family
Ante Budimir not only kept Croatia’s World Cup hopes alive with his match-winning goal against Panama on Wednesday but also etched his name in the country’s history as its oldest ever goalscorer in the tournament. At 34 years and 337 days, Budimir broke the previous record set by Ivica Olić, who scored against Cameroon at the 2014 World Cup at the age of 34 years and 277 days. Budimir, who was born in Zenica, Bosnia, was just six months old when his family fled the town of Ozimica amid the Croat-Bosniak war in the early 1990s. The striker came on as a substitute in Croatia’s match against Panama and scored in the 54th minute to seal a crucial victory. 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 …
