Football legend Zvonimir Boban is remembered for much more than just being a fantastic player.
The Croatian midfielder won four Serie A titles and the Champions League in a glittering spell with AC Milan. But he was also involved in an on field kick which it has been claimed played a pivotal role in starting a war – a kick not of a football, but on a police officer.
While playing for Dinamo Zagreb, Boban kicked out at a police officer for assaulting a Dinamo supporter when a riot broke out in the stadium. The game was against Serbian side Red Star Belgrade. However, back then, both Croatia and Serbia were part of Yugoslavia.
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As much as the kick was an act of violence, it was a key action in the display of Croatian independence, and one heralded as playing a part in sparking the eventual war in Yugoslavia. The war would take 100,000 lives and last for 10 years.
The riot on the pitch saw many fans wounded, with some even being shot, stabbed, and tear gassed. Discussing the incident in the documentary A Kick For Independence – More Than A Game, Boban, who turned 55 last week, said: ‘That derby reflected everything that had been going on in our society and everyday life. Yugoslav football reflected Yugoslavia.
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“I swore at one of the police officers, he hit me and that’s how the brawl started. As you can imagine it was very difficult but I think I would do the same again. I could see the police were only treating our (Dinamo’s) fans badly and I got increasingly frustrated as I was thinking about all the great injustices that had been done to people over the years, to the fans and also to us.”
The match that was actually meant to take place had little meaning to it in a sporting sense. Red Star had already secured the league title. But before the game had begun, it was clear it was going to be more than just a game of football, and the moment – broadcast live on television – cemented the former Milan player among Croatians as a symbol of freedom and for independence in Croatia.
Boban was suspended by the Football Association of Yugoslavia for six months. This ban caused him to miss the World Cup in 1990. And when Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia, Boban chose to play for the Valtreni, going to be a key figure in the Croatian side that finished third at the 1998 World Cup.
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“I don’t regret it at all,” Boban later told the Financial Times in an interview about the kick on the policeman. “It was a fight for freedom against the regime.”
Speaking in Vuk Janic’s documentary, The Last Yugolsav Football Team, he expanded further: “The hooligans from Belgrade were ruining our stadium. The police at the time, who were absolutely a regime police, did not respond at all.
“Here I was, a public face prepared to risk his life, career and everything that fame could have brought, all because of one ideal, one cause; the Croatian cause.”
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In January 2011, the match was named by CNN as one of “five football games that changed the world”. The police officer later forgave Boban for his actions.
“(Boban) said something to me but I couldn’t understand him,’ recalled the officer, Refik Ahmetovic. “He kept looking at me and I could see in his eyes that we might be about to clash.
“I looked over my right shoulder, and saw he was already in the air with his knees and arms together. He kicked me and knocked me to the ground.”
Since then, the former midfielder has spent time as a commentator, worked as Deputy Secretary-General at FIFA, and early this year resigned from his position as Chief of Football at UEFA.