Bosnia Head Coach at FIFA World Cup 2026 is a Former Poker Pro

Sergej Barbarez: footballer and poker player

The World Series of Poker is not the only major competition going on in the United States right now. Along with co-hosts Mexico and Canada, the US is hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

There is a little overlap between the two events: and that is Bosnia and Herzegovina head coach Sergej Barbarez. As Defector.com points out in a piece, he has quite an impressive live tournament resume.

In fact, when Yahoo Sports profiled him in their lead-up coverage of the World Cup, they claimed that Barbarez played poker professionally for 10 years after retiring as a football player, and before becoming a coach.

Carplayer.com lists Germany as his “Country of Origin” in their database, despite Barbarez having been born in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1971, when the country was still part of communist Yugoslavia.

What’s more interesting is that he has $143,628 in lifetime tournament earnings, which he accumulated across 26 individual cashes. His first ITM finish on record is from a $400 PLO event in June 2016. The Bosnian sportsman came in 20th for $939.

His biggest score to date is $24,385, which he got in another Pot Limit Omaha event — PLO seems to be his speciality. He played in a €2,200 PLO Eight Max event at the 2017 World Series of Poker Europe in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, where he made the final table and ultimately finished in 5th place. Famous American poker pro Allen Kessler was also at that final table; he finished second.

Barbarez’s last cash on his Cardplayer profile is May 2022, also from a PLO event.

Bosnia and Herzegovina at FIFA World Cup 2026

Bosnia have already played their first game in the World Cup, tying co-hosts Canada 1–1 in Group B.

Their qualification was quite a story in itself. They played 4-time World Champions Italy in the second round of the play-offs. That game also ended 1–1, and Barbarez’s boys came out victorious in the penalty shootout. Thus, Bosnia and Herzegovina made it to the second World Cup in their history (their first appearance being in 2014). Meanwhile, Italy missed out on the World Cup for the third time in a row, despite traditionally being a great footballing nation.

As a player, Sergej Barbarez played in the German Bundesliga as a striker at the height of his career. He played for such clubs as Borussia Dortmund, Hamburg, and Bayer Leverkusen. In 2001, he even finished as the shared top scorer of the Bundesliga.

Other Poker Playing Football Stars

Brazilian football superstar Neymar is known to be an avid recreational poker player. In fact, he stirred up controversies multiple times by playing poker while recovering from one of his numerous injuries. His Hendon profile shows $116,632 in live tournament cashes for him.

One of the best-known football stars in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal, was even featured in a series of commercials for PokerStars back in 2016.