Muhamed Besic turns 30 today – a landmark birthday for all professional footballers – but while his time at Everton is now fading into the distance, the midfielder still looks back on his Goodison Park days with great affection. Besic was in essence something of an oxymoron in that he was a Roberto Martinez hatchet man.
The Catalan coach was always passionate about the unwavering principles that forged his personal philosophy over how he felt the beautiful game should be played and while in charge at Everton he once declared: “Too many times you see a team that go for being a parasite, give you the ball, defend, be destructive.” Yet even Martinez was pragmatic enough to acknowledge that all teams need a bit of steel as well as silk and that’s where Besic came in.
While working as a television pundit for ESPN at the 2014 World Cup, the same tournament in which future Everton player James Rodriguez secured the Golden Boot, just weeks after he’d been handed the bumper new five-year contract by Bill Kenwright on the back of a club record points haul in the Premier League era that would ultimately cost the Blues more than £10million in compensation after he was sacked two years later, Martinez spotted Besic playing for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
