Asmir Begovic understands pressure.
It isn’t playing against Lionel Messi at the World Cup, nor is it struggling to reclaim a first-team spot for your club and country.
Pressure is dealing with the premature birth of your first child while not being paid.
Begovic is eager to talk and has a lot to say. Unlike some footballers, he finds the shackles imposed on voicing his opinion in the modern game a deep frustration. So when he sits down with The Athletic at the Roast restaurant in London’s Borough Market, he calmly states that nothing is off the table.
Advertisement
The turmoil engulfing both Bury, who were expelled from the EFL on Tuesday night, and Bolton Wanderers, given 14 days to avoid the same fate, has resonated with the Bournemouth goalkeeper.
Last week, there were extraordinary scenes on national radio when Bury owner Steve Dale challenged the claims of one of his own players, Stephen Dawson, that he was not paying his staff. Dawson pleaded with Dale to sell up to prospective buyers because he was facing the prospect of losing his home.
The exchange on talkSPORT struck a chord with Begovic. Back in 2010, the Bosnia goalkeeper also faced the fear of not knowing whether he could afford his next mortgage payment as Portsmouth too faced collapse under the weight of financial mismanagement.
“It was a nightmare,” Begovic tells The Athletic. “My wife (Nicolle) had just moved to the south coast. We had a young baby (Taylor) whose birth had been problematic. She was born two months early and was in intensive care for a month.
“The whole thing, when you’re not getting paid, it leaves you thinking, ‘What the hell is going on here?’. Maybe football is not what it’s cracked up to be.
“I can only imagine what the players at Bury and Bolton are going through.”
Despite the immense upheaval, Portsmouth are a club that remains close to Begovic’s heart. He is still in contact with many people he met during the formative years of his career at Fratton Park, including the man who signed him, former academy director David Hurst, secretary Ashleigh Emberson and goalkeeping coaches Mark O’Connor and David Coles.
It was Portsmouth who gave him the chance to progress and to play in the Premier League. But they also gave him one of the biggest challenges of his life.
“I’d just had my first child, I’d just bought my first house, I was paying a mortgage and all of a sudden, you’re not getting paid,” adds Begovic. “I wasn’t on a great salary so thankfully, I had a little bit of savings but you’re making ends meet.
Advertisement
“You think, ‘I can’t pay for the mortgage and I just had a baby!’.”
He pauses for a moment, shifting uncomfortably in his seat before clasping his hands together as he leaves the memory to return to the room.
“Thankfully, my wife’s parents lived close by and were helping out. You have other players that ask if they need to lend you money. It’s like, ‘what the hell? What’s going on here?’” Begovic continues.
“Then of course, other clubs come in, Portsmouth have to sell their assets to try and stay alive. Two or three offers came in, and it’s offers you have to take.
“You have to go. It’s for financial security so you can live your life. I picked the best football opportunity at the time that I could and I thought Stoke was the best way for me to go.
“It gave me the chance to work again with another high-level goalkeeping coach in Andy Quy, and a top manager in Tony Pulis. In the end, it was a situation that worked out really really well for many years.”
The move to Stoke would turn out to be a silver lining for Begovic. He established himself as one of the most reliable goalkeepers in the Premier League, eventually earning an £8 million switch to Chelsea in 2015.
Encouraged by the prospect of challenging Thibaut Courtois for the No 1 jersey at Stamford Bridge, his time with one of English football’s elite was a stark contrast from coping with the struggles of Portsmouth. It was a change that offered an insight into the opposite end of the football spectrum. Despite featuring only 33 times over two seasons, he did not regret it.
“As an athlete and as a competitor, no matter when I was five years old or now, you want to play at the highest level possible and you want to keep pushing yourself,’” says Begovic.
“You always want to be better, strive to be stronger and play at the highest level. That was always my thing. At Stoke, I had an amazing time but if I can challenge for trophies on a regular basis at the world’s biggest clubs then that’s what you want to do and that came with (Jose) Mourinho and Chelsea.”
Begovic celebrates Chelsea’s 2016-17 Premier League title win with wife Nicolle and daughter Blair Rose (Photo: Matthew Ashton – AMA/Getty Images)
Moving to Chelsea and picking up winners’ medals in the FA Cup and Premier League meant Begovic had experienced some of football’s highs after some shocking lows. This leaves him uniquely placed to pass on that knowledge to the next generation, which is he able to do through his two goalkeeping academies.
Advertisement
It is clear that discussing his endeavour matters a great deal to Begovic. He shifts his imposing frame upright, looming over the table, as if reinforcing the importance of what he has to say.
Based in Sarajevo, and soon to be in Cobham, Surrey, too, the academies each aim to take on 35 boys and girls and offer them high-performance, specialised goalkeeper training. They are extremely popular and subsidised places sell out within minutes. It is a way for Begovic to provide aspiring players with the opportunities that he feels he was lucky to have, thanks to his father Amir.
“If I didn’t have my dad, who was an ex-professional and able to coach me on a regular basis, would I become what I am today? No,” he says.
Amir was a professional goalkeeper and continued to play semi-professionally after his family, including four-year-old Asmir, fled Trebinje in Bosnia for Germany in 1991 during the Bosnian War.
“I was like a team mascot,” he says. “I’d be on the team bus when there were no kids allowed but I’d say, ‘I’ll sit on the steps, don’t worry!’. There were probably no health and safety regulations back then. I would clean his boots on match days, get his gear and bag packed, go to the games home and away in the car and in the bus. It gave me a feel for it.”
The Begovic family moved to Canada when Asmir showed promise. He is acutely aware of how fortunate he was not only to have a supportive family but to have a father who had played the game professionally. It was his insight as a goalkeeper that helped Asmir to standout it has made the Bosnia international determined to ensure that other young goalkeepers are given specialist training.
“Goalkeeping is funny because, at a grassroot level, there aren’t any goalkeeping coaches,” he says. “I think it is a specialist area and the kids get neglected. It’s just the typical, ‘You go in goal’ in training sessions, so who will take the goalkeeper to train and encourage them to want to learn about goalkeeping and have fun as a goalkeeper?
Advertisement
“I think providing that coaching, providing that training, that we can fill a gap and give aspiring goalkeepers a chance to do something really special.”
Begovic’s struggles at Portsmouth form are as vital a part of the teaching process within his academies as technical coaching. Mental preparedness is seen as the key to dealing with difficult circumstances and being able to cope with errors — which, for goalkeepers, frequently have drastic consequences.
That normally also entails being able to cope with the resultant abuse. It is not a new phenomenon in football but, over the course of Begovic’s career, the rise of social media has offered new, anonymous platforms for trolls to target professional players.
Begovic detests the culture of abuse that surrounds football more broadly, which he sees as giving rise to situations where it can cross the line, but there are some things you for which you cannot prepare.
The recent attack on his international team-mate and friend Sead Kolasinac in north London is one such example. Kolasinac and Mesut Ozil were the victims of a car-jacking attempt. It affected Begovic deeply.
“It was shocking,” he says. “You can’t even go in the street anymore. You drive your car and you’re looking behind your back.
“I’ve spoken to Sead. They had to contact the police and security. They’ve had to have 24/7 surveillance. You shouldn’t have to do that.
“I don’t know what the cure is (for abuse in general). It’s like one of those questions: ‘How do we cure cancer?’. I don’t know. Can we just change the culture in games, can we not abuse the referee?”
Begovic will no longer contemplate taking his children to a football match.
“At most sporting events, 50,000 people aren’t calling the referee a fucking wanker,” says Begovic. “It’s such a unique thing (to football). I watch all other sports and yeah, there’s plenty of heckling. In football, there are thousands of people coming together to call one person a name.
Advertisement
“I find football atmospheres vile. I don’t take my kids to game. I don’t go to games myself unless I have a friend to watch or support but even then, I don’t sit with fans.
“I have two kids. The language that people use, the abuse that people give; they went to one match and my daughter was asking questions like, ‘Daddy, why is this guy calling you names?’. They hear it when they get to an age, and I thought, ‘No. I’m not doing this anymore.”
Finding a solution, particularly in the online sphere, is not easy or straightforward. For Begovic, the solution for players is to accept it is going to happen and again, to make sure they are prepared to deal with the negative aspects of being an elite level athlete.
“You have to understand that it’s going to happen,” he says. “It’s like going to Alaska and asking if it’s cold. You have to know it’s going to happen. You’ll be freezing, so you get well dressed and cover up. I think the more you prepare for these eventualities to happen, the easier it is.
“My goalkeeper coach once told me when I was younger that this is going to happen. It helped me deal with it but it’s not nice, it’s never nice. Should we accept it? No. Of course not. It’s zero percent acceptable.”
Goalkeeper coaching has evolved considerably in recent years to deal with off-the-field matters but it continues to innovate on the field too. The position has changed considerably since Begovic made his professional debut in 2005, with the modern game placing a new emphasis on stoppers to do more than just block shots and prevent the ball from crossing the line.
Clubs frequently try new things each week to keep their keepers on their toes and to find an edge. Bournemouth last week took all four of their goalkeepers to a boxing gym. Begovic also recalls using reaction lights and boards to improve hand-eye coordination while at Chelsea.
Advertisement
He is determined to ensure that his academy features coaches who are still active in the game. England under-18 coach Coles, who has worked with Begovic throughout his career, will be involved in the new Cobham-based academy, along with Chelsea youth-team goalkeeper coach James Hadley.
But the need to stay relevant perhaps shows why Begovic — who sips only sparkling water during our interview and believes he can play “for another 10 years” — is not content with his current situation at Bournemouth.
After a pre-season that saw manager Eddie Howe rotate equally between four senior goalkeepers, Aaron Ramsdale, 21, was given the No 1 jersey for the first three games of the new season. Begovic, meanwhile, is yet to make the squad.
Howe said this week that Begovic remains a “valuable member of the squad” and has every chance of fighting for his place in the starting XI but the 32-year-old is eager to play regularly. He is now actively looking for a move away from the south coast before the international transfer windows close at the beginning of September.
“My current situation is not ideal. I’m not involved in the first team. I’m not in the plans at the moment,” says Begovic. “I’m not playing games and I have always played games throughout my whole career so of course, I’m trying to find a solution but there are many different sides to it.
“First, you have to find the right option and the right option has to fit financially for the club. I’m still under contract for another three years, so it’s such a tricky situation to find a solution for everyone, so that’s why I haven’t gone anywhere.
“I’m trying to find the right solution for everybody and hopefully in the next (few) days, until the end of the transfer window, we will find a solution for me to go and play games. I feel physically as fit as ever.“
Advertisement
After signing for £10 million in 2017, Begovic had been the Cherries’ undisputed No 1 until January last year. He was dropped for veteran Artur Boruc after conceding 14 goals in four matches.
His omission led to reports of a ‘fallout’ with Howe but Begovic insists that while “emotions ran high”, they both moved on after the conversation.
“He made a decision as the manager,” says Begovic. “Of course I didn’t like it. Any time you don’t play, you don’t like sitting on the bench. We had a discussion, we had a conversation about it, and we moved on from there. And obviously now, the manager feels like going in a different direction is the best thing for the club, for the team.
“We’re in a sport where emotion runs high, of course, (and) we all want the best for each other but we’re different kinds of animals that want the best for themselves.“
While things are not going to plan domestically, on the international stage, things are not much clearer for Begovic either.
He has not played for Bosnia and Herzegovina since a 2-1 World Cup qualifying victory over Estonia in October 2017. He has not once been selected by new coach Robert Prosinecki, who was appointed in January 2018.
Begovic says he missed Prosinecki’s first two matches through injury, which were explained, and then again in November with a broken thumb. After that, he adds, he has heard nothing.
He remains passionate about his country, however. Bosnia currently has one of the highest rates of youth unemployment in the world, peaking at 57.5 percent in the past five years and one the highest rates of youth emigration.
In sport, it is a similar story. Neighbours Croatia and Serbia have recovered from the devastating conflict in the early 1990s to become dominant forces in sports such as basketball, water polo and tennis — not to mention football. Bosnia, though, has seen little progress.
Advertisement
The country failed to capitalise on their outstanding qualification for the World Cup in 2014. Earlier this month, Bosnian Premier League side Zrinjski Mostar were prevented from playing the home leg of their Europa League third-round qualifying tie against Malmo in their own stadium as it did not meet UEFA requirements. Facilities for everyone else are sparse to non-existent.
Begovic set up his charity, the Asmir Begovic Foundation, in 2013, with aim of providing facilities for people to play sport in Bosnia while also working the UK to encourage participation.
“We went to a special needs school in Sarajevo,” he says. “We went in and asked: ‘Where do you guys play sports?’ They replied: ‘Nowhere. We play on gravel.’
“That’s not good enough, so we turned a car park into a multi-purpose facility with basketball hoops, surfaces, football goals. That’s what it’s all about it. They can use that for many, many years now.
“The kids in Bosnia are lucky to have a house to live in. You look at the poverty, the economics, the political corruption; so, if we can provide the facilities where we can encourage them to go and play and have fun, to open up opportunities, to let them chase their dream in the right way, then that’s exactly what we’re about.”
But making a difference remains a frustratingly slow process. He has been trying to build a state-of-the-art multi-purpose sports facility in Mostar, near to where his family have a home, for some time but obstacles continue to block it.
“It’s not a frustration. It’s an outrage, is what it is,” Begovic says. “The sports centre would be the first of its kind in Bosnia, so we really need to do this. Nobody’s ever done it. It’s the first time that someone can do it and the difference it would make is incredible.
“It has support from local schools and everyone but to try and get permission and acquire the land is… you wouldn’t believe it.
Advertisement
“It’s like I was trying to do something completely wrong. So instead of getting help, it’s a constant battle. I’m heading there now in early September to sit down with people and demand that I get this facility because we want to help the next generation. It’s now or never. Otherwise, we’re continuing to keep going in the wrong direction and get deeper and deeper into a hole and it’s a madness.”
Begovic plans to run another charity golf fundraiser in spring next year and continue to use sport as a means of helping young children gain opportunities and progress. He may have left the country as a child, but he remains determined to give back.
“I want to make a difference,” he adds. “I want to make things improve — I’m desperate for that — and I feel very passionate about trying to make the difference that I can.”
(Photo: AFC Bournemouth/AFC Bournemouth via Getty Images)
