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Asmir Begović
Asmir Begović (born 20 June 1987) is
a Bosnian footballer who plays as
a goalkeeper for Premier League club Stoke
City and theBosnia and Herzegovina national
team.
Aged four, Begović and his family emigrated
from their war-torn home of Trebinje to
Kirchhausen near Stuttgart in Germany. Begović developed a keen interest in football and
played with the a local youth club before their
asylum ran out they moved again this time
to Edmonton, Canada. His play for his youth team impressed officials
enough to earn him a call up to the Canadian youth teams. Those callups gained the attentions of scouts in Europe. He managed to get a
trial with English club, Portsmouth who gave him a contract in the
summer of 2003. After playing with Portsmouth's youth team for two
years he moved on loan to Belgian side La Louvière in 2005 . After
gaining a UK Visa in the summer of 2006 he was able to get match experience in the Football League playing for Macclesfield Town,
Bournemouth, Yeovil Town and Ipswich Town. He finally made his Premier League debut for Portsmouth in May 2009 and took over from
David James in 2009–10. However Portsmouth's financial problems
led him to be sold to Stoke City in January 2010 for a fee of £3.25 million. He began as second choice to the veteran Thomas Sørensen before becoming a regular in the side in2010–11 and 2011–12.
In 2012–13 he played in every league match and his performances
saw him win the Player of the Year award. In November 2013 Begović
became the fifth goalkeeper to score a goal in the Premier League,
scoring from 97.5 yards against Southampton after 13 seconds