Samir Avdić

Samir Avdić — Biography

Samir Avdić is a Bosnian who went from the basketball court to the mayor's office in Sarajevo. On July 16, 2025, the city council elected him the 41st mayor of Sarajevo; on taking office he said he saw his mandate not as a political function but as a call to serve the citizens of Sarajevo. In basketball, at 2.05 meters, he captained the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team.

He came through the youth system of the club Bosna, where he began his professional career, and later played abroad for Unicaja Málaga in Spain and for Tofaş and Tuborg İzmir in Turkey. With Yugoslavia's youth teams he won Balkan, European and World Championships, including the 1987 FIBA Under-19 World Championship. For independent Bosnia and Herzegovina he played at EuroBasket 1993, 1997 and 1999, and the team reached the quarter-finals in 1993. He is remembered as one of the national team's leading scorers, and after retiring he served as its sporting director.

He entered politics in 2012 by winning a seat on the Novo Sarajevo Municipal Assembly and joined People and Justice (NiP) in 2018. He was Minister of Culture and Sports of Sarajevo Canton from January 2021 to March 2023 and deputy mayor of Sarajevo from July 2023 to November 2024. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in sport management from the University of Sarajevo and, besides Bosnian, speaks English, Spanish and Turkish.