6 hours ago
7
At the end of last year Tyler Burey was playing out of position in defence for a team doomed to relegation from the Football League. Seven months later he is preparing to make his Champions League debut after leaving England behind, seeking to rediscover his love for the game in an unlikely location.
Burey moved to Igman Konjic, a club in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in January on a short-term deal and impressed to such an extent that the country’s title winners, Zrinjski Mostar, signed him on a two-year contract. On Tuesday they visit Virtus of San Marino in the opening leg of their Champions League first qualifying round tie, allowing Burey to live out a lifelong dream.
It is not the first time Burey has sought a new chapter away from what he knows best. The London-born winger had a five-month spell with Odense in Denmark, where he used his spare time to learn how to cook Jamaican food. The 24-year-old is on his eighth club, having started out in the youth setup at AFC Wimbledon, where his performances earned a move to Millwall in the Championship.
“I left Millwall in 2023 and if I’m being totally honest there were more dark times than light,” Burey says. “I didn’t have free-flowing football. I went to this place, didn’t work; went to that place, didn’t work; went to this place, didn’t work; and it was just constantly down, down, downwards and there were times when I wanted to give up. Whenever I was going through problems or anything I just went straight back to my Bible and just kept going, kept going and now it’s like I’ve seen the light from all the downs that I went through and I can say to myself that I’m proud of myself because I never gave up.”
After exiting Odense early, Burey moved to Carlisle on a short-term deal with the hope of getting minutes. His spell at Brunton Park in League Two was irritating, playing at right-back when he is a left-winger. There was little desire to extend the deal and Burey felt the need to cast his search wider than the English pyramid. The former Preston midfielder Jeffrey Monakana, acting as an agent, offered a solution in Konjic, in a town with a population of about 25,000. “I have had a couple of players say to me: ‘Well done, oh my gosh, it’s crazy what you’ve done,’” says Burey. “And I just said: ‘Look bro, I just took a risk and I trusted God and that’s what happened.’”
Coffee culture in picturesque Mostar makes for an idyllic life for Burey, whose main problem in the country he calls home is staying away from the local delicacy burek, a pie filled with meat or cheese. The city has a population of 113,000 and Burey is easily recognisable when he pops out for his favourite snack, happily posing for selfies and signing autographs for his new fans. Burey enjoyed a short break in England over the summer but once the option to return to Bosnia arose, he packed his two suitcases, one of clothes and the other of football equipment, put his PlayStation in his rucksack and flew to Sarajevo. Burey has made a concerted effort to learn the language to smooth interactions on and off the pitch as he seeks to integrate into Bosnian life.
“The best players always play in the top division and they play in Europe at the end of the day,” says Burey. “If I want to be in that bracket, I’ve got to allow myself to go to places that may be uncomfortable for me to go and get that opportunity that I may not get, for example, playing in England if I was in League One or the Championship. I didn’t feel respected or anything and I said to myself: ‘I need to put myself into places where I’ll be recognised for doing well.’ I think a lot of English players, they don’t realise … They would rather stay in the Championship their whole life if they could, whereas I don’t think like that.”
Zrinjski are almost certain to defeat Virtus and would then face Slovan Bratislava, who played in last season’s Champions League league stage. Zrinjski have been regulars in the early stages of Uefa competitions in recent years, and played Aston Villa in the Europa Conference League group stage in 2023, drawing at home and losing 1-0 away in a proud moment for the club.
Last season, Bosnia’s Champions League representatives, Borac Banja Luka, ended up in the Conference League league stage, progressing to the last 16. Zrinjski’s chances of making it through Champions League qualifying are slim but they have the chance of a prolonged period of continental football because defeated clubs fall into the Conference League or, after the first qualifying round, into the Europa League. Whether in San Marino or at San Mamés, when the anthem plays, a player knows what they have achieved.
“Any time I’ve watched Champions League football, I’ve always said to myself: ‘I will get there one way or another,’” Burey says, “and I’ve always been big on European competitions because the way I see football compared to the normal Englishman, I think it’s a bit different. Every English player has a dream of playing in the Premier League but you don’t see a lot of English players having a dream about playing abroad. It’s like living a second dream that you never had.”
