Dinamo and the Foundation ”Nema predaje” hosted a 15-year-old girl Antonija Bošnjak and her parents in Zagreb. After we saw an article on the Index.hr website last weekend about a girl from the small town of Branjin Vrh in Baranja, near Beli Manastir, who is a big fan of Dinamo and who has a lifelong desire to meet Dominik Livaković, we couldn’t do anything else but start making that happen.
Antonija is a cheerful 15-year-old girl, quiet and extremely sweet, and a year and a half ago she was diagnosed with leukemia. Since then, Antonija has been undergoing treatment in Osijek and Zagreb, and is currently in the process of treatment at Rebro hospital in Zagreb. Her parents, Ksenija and Željko, are a great support for her in the struggle that befell her as a little girl at the age of 14. When she was diagnosed with leukemia, Antonija was in the 7th grade, and the situation was completely new and unknown to her family. The entire treatment and what followed required large financial costs, which the family alone is having a hard time coping with. Mother Ksenija is employed, while father Željko is a retired war veteran.
In the first part of the meeting in Zagreb, the family was welcomed by representatives of Dinamo and the Nema Predaje Foundation – GNK Dinamo Board Member and Foundation Board Member Darko Podnar, Foundation Board President Iva Cigrovskij and Foundation Board Member Ivan Kelava, in order to make a donation for the girl. The club and the foundation decided to help Antonia with a monetary donation for treatment in the amount of 10.000,00 euros. Along with the signing of the donation agreement, the club gave them annual tickets for Dinamo matches this season, and a special gift was Dominik Livaković’s jersey. Dinamo chronicler and club employee Miroslav Tomašević took the family on a short tour of the stadium and a walk.
We visited the players and the coaching staff, led by coach Igor Bišćan, at the Hitrec-Kacian training ground, where Antonia was welcomed and embraced by her idol Dominik Livaković, who presented her with his signed goalkeeper gloves. The Bošnjak family, in agreement with the club and the foundation, watched the derby match Dinamo – Hajduk from the VIP box of the Maksimir stadium, and we believe that this is only the first of many future meetings.
Antonija adores Dinamo, and her love grew especially during her stay in Zagreb, when she passed the Maksimir stadium with her mother every day while she was undergoing exhaustive treatment and staying in the hospital. In one period, she stayed in the hospital alone for 40 days, and those moments were very difficult for both her and her parents, for the first time they were separated.
After visiting Dinamo, we headed to ZOO Zagreb, where we were greeted by director Damir Skok, who gave the family a special visit to the ZOO and a unique tour experience.
With all our hearts, we wish her a speedy recovery and that she will forever be the cheerful and smiling girl.
