14-year-old Afan Chizmic has become a national symbol
The young Afan Chizmic, whose ingenuity helped Bosnia keep the Italians out of the World Cup for the third consecutive time, has officially been invited as a guest to the upcoming World Championship.
This was reported by RBC-Ukraine, citing Kari Sports.
Also read: Reaction to the fiasco: mass clean-up in Italy after the national team’s disgrace and missing out on the 2026 World Cup
Operation at the goal
During a tense penalty shootout in the playoff final, 14-year-old Afan noticed that Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma had hidden a laminated tactical cheat sheet near his towel. The sheet contained detailed information on the corners where Bosnian players typically shoot.
Seizing the moment while the Italian goalkeeper was distracted, the boy stole the “secret document.” While Italian media criticize the “lack of security” at the stadium in Zenica, Bosnian fans are calling the young man a national hero. Chizmic has already announced that he will auction off the stolen cheat sheet, with the proceeds going to charity.
Afan Chizmic and his “feat” (photo: Kari Sports)
Donnarumma played unfairly
Interestingly, the boy’s act became a kind of “karma” for Donnarumma himself. At the beginning of the same penalty shootout, the Italian behaved extremely unsportingly: while Bosnian goalkeeper Nikola Vasil (by the way, a former goalkeeper for Luhansk’s Zorya) celebrated the opponent’s miss, Gianluigi grabbed his cheat sheet and dramatically tore it up.
Despite such manipulations, the “Squadra Azzurra” lost the shootout 1:4. Italy has failed to qualify for the World Cup for the third consecutive time – the last time the prestigious team participated in the tournament was back in 2014.
Reward for the hero
For his cleverness, local TV channel N1 promised to take Afan to the 2026 World Cup as an honorary guest. By the way, the teenager is also a promising football player himself – at the youth level, he has already scored 18 goals in 12 matches. Now he will attend the World Cup to watch the best play not from the sidelines, but from the stands.
Also find out where the Ukrainian national team ranked in the updated FIFA rankings.
