Vedran Bosnic has become the new head coach of the Swedish national team, succeeding Bradley Dean who stepped down just before Christmas.

Bosnic, born in Bosnia & Herzegovina was an obvious choice for coach as he looks to steer Sweden to their second consecutive Eurobasket finals. Despite his Bosnian roots though, the 38-year-old is more than pleased to take charge of the national side.

“Sweden is my home, my son was born here and I’m very proud to be the coach of Sweden,” Bosnic said.

“It is a very inspiring task to take a good team and try to get it and the players to step up to an even higher level.

“It will require hard work and sacrifice, but that is the case with everything in life that is worth achieving,”

Bosnic, currently the head coach of Eurochallenge side the Södertälje Kings retired as a player in Sweden and has since gone on to win two domestic league titles and a coach of the year award.

He started coaching in 2008, but his first collaboration with the Swedish Basketball Federation came in the summer of 2010 when he became a member of the coaching staff on the U16 national team that participated in the European Championship Division B in Estonia.

Four years on and Bosnic will hope to lead Sweden into Eurobasket 2015. They will be in Group F of the qualifying rounds, facing Latvia, Romania and the Slovak Republic.

“We have to work together and very hard,” Bosnic commented.

“I can not perform wonders but I will work to influence everyone to do their job a little bit better.

“When many of us in Swedish basketball do our job just a little but better, we can make together a big leap.”