“I just remember when the sirens went on. I was so scared because I was thinking ‘bombs’ or that something will happen now."
Dejan Lovren is now a key member of the Liverpool defence as they challenge for the Premier League title under Jurgen Klopp. But the 27-year-old’s childhood was scarred by the war that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia.
"I remember my mum took me and we went to the basement, I don’t know how long we’d been sitting there, I think it was until the sirens went off," Lovren added.
"Afterwards, I remember mum, my uncle, my uncle’s wife, we took the car and then we were driving to Germany.”
In a new documentary by LFCTV, "Lovren: My Life As a Refugee", the Croat opens up about how as a toddler his family had to flee their home in the sleepy Bosnian town of Kraljeva Sutjeska when war broke out in 1992.
Lovren speaks openly and honestly about his turbulent childhood, how his family drove 550 miles to settle in Germany before being told to leave and start a new life in Croatia.
