From refugee to coach – Plymouth boss Muslic plots Liverpool upset

Miron Muslic will try to plot a win for his bottom-of-the-league Plymouth Argyle team against Premier League leaders and six-time European champions Liverpool in the FA Cup on Sunday.

But compared to the story of Muslic’s start in life, beating Liverpool seems relatively easy.

Muslic, who replaced Wayne Rooney as Argyle head coach last month from legendary England international Wayne Rooney, was forced to flee his Bosniac hometown of Bihac when he was just nine years old.

They got out just in time. In the middle of a bitter civil war, Serb-led forces laid siege on Bihac in June 1992, just a month or two after the Muslic family had left the island.

“We had to leave Bosnia, and Bihac, our hometown, literally overnight, grabbing things you can grab with your hands”, he explains powerfully to BBC Sport.

Without any knowledge of what they would discover, Muslic, his sister, and their parents travelled 400 miles (650 kilometers) to Innsbruck in Austria, where they were unable to understand the local German accent.

“We struggled our whole life, and this part of struggling is part of my journey, and that’s why I’m always very optimistic and very positive”, says Muslic, who guided Cercle Bruges to the Uefa Europa Conference League this season.

“I’ve faced a potential draw or defeat at the weekend in my life in more challenging circumstances than being a head coach.”

And that’s also the message I want to consistently send to players: that life is full of beautiful surprises and that fighting is never ending.

“Nothing was easy for me, or for my family or for my sister. We became refugees, and it’s not a pretty thing, but I never had the feeling that I missed something in my life.

My parents made an effort to give us the things we needed, and they tried to do this despite my father working as a waiter for over 30 years and my mother working as a cleaner.

“Over the past 30 years, everything that has happened to me has contributed to who I am today and some things that have perhaps never been possible.”

If Liverpool, who finished top of the Champions League group stage and hold a respectable six-point lead over Arne Slot, want to upset them, they will need that conviction and commitment.

Conversely, Muslic inherited an Argyle side spiralling towards League One and bottom of the Championship.

To add to his tough start, he saw his best defender, Lewis Gibson, and star forward, Morgan Whittaker, leave the club during the transfer window.

But, just like Muslic’s new life in Austria, the shoots of recovery could well be sprouting under him at Argyle.

The Pilgrims defeated play-off hopefuls West Bromwich Albion 2-1 last Saturday, putting an end to a 15-game winning streak in the league by paying a club record fee for defender Maksym Talovierov.

And it is football, and a love of its ups and downs, that made Muslic, a child who couldn’t speak English, his rousing opening address to the players of Argyle, available to the equivalent of four million people on social media.

Prior to moving on to Wacker Innsbruck as a teenager, his career included top-five positions in Austria and a short stint in Croatia.

He credits the sport with helping him adapt to his new homeland, allowing him to” have the privilege to call not only Bosnia, but also Austria, my home. “

” That’s why football is so important, because it’s universal, “he says.

” Because when you’re on a football pitch or somewhere on the street, it’s not about your name, your last name, it’s not even about your refugee status or not, it’s only about the game.

“Where religion, nationality, is my mother a cleaning lady or a lawyer has no impact, has no influence.

Muslic’s passion is apparent to anyone who meets him.

Ask anyone who watched the video of his first speech to the players to find out if he has a steely look in his eyes, a warm and welcoming nature, and a capacity for conversation.

It all comes down to his background”. It’s the definition of who I am today as a coach, but most important, who I am today as a human being, “he says of his early life.

Muslic demonstrates that you can overcome any obstacles that stand in your way, whether his team wins or loses against Liverpool on Sunday.