We don't think anyone considers Croatia, a country of four million people that gained independence in 1991, to be a footballing superpower.
But when we know that this small country won three medals during its six participations in the World Cup, starting with the World Cup in France 1998, and that Germany is the only country that won the largest number of medals (four medals), then this may open up a little room for thinking about the matter, especially when there is one player. At least from that small country in the last 11 consecutive Champions League finals, despite the lack of presence of any of its local teams in the advanced roles of the tournament.
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Let's add poetry to you a house;
Croatia don't spend as much on football as they can to achieve things.
For example, Zagreb does not spend more than two million dollars annually on the development of young players in the country, while Boris Kupla, an official in the Croatian Football Association, confirms that the country lacks a lot when we talk about the facilities and infrastructure of the stadiums there.
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You may be wondering now;
Is two million dollars a small amount?
It is a question that seems logical at first glance, but once you realize that the major European clubs spent in 2020 the equivalent of 870 million euros on youth academies in their country, and that England topped that list with an average of 6.1 million euros per club, in addition to Germany’s spending. $80m a year on its youth player development system, then Croatia's figure seems close to nothing.
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(Shutterstock)
What England spends on just one club exceeds three times what Croatia spends on its entire system, and what Germany spent in one year Croatia did not spend in 10 years!
We know how difficult it is to comprehend that, and we know how difficult it is to comprehend the results achieved by Croatia with data like that, so today we came to ask: How did that happen?
It takes da Vinci
We do not need to tell you about Leonardo da Vinci, as Mona Lisa speaks on our behalf, and the details that Da Vinci had to take care of, such as landscapes and different shades of color, also speak, and perhaps for this reason it took 4 full years to paint the painting.
The perfect painting needs a creator, and the creator needs time, which also applies to the world of football.
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"Football is full of ingredients, who instead of making up, distort!"
(Laureano Ruiz)
This is what Lauriano Ruiz, the former coach of Barcelona in the seventies of the last century, tells us.
In school, we cannot produce an educated youth with true values and principles without the presence of quality teachers, just as we cannot paint a painting like the Mona Lisa without perfect work and an artistic touch. The same is true in football. It is difficult to produce a number of distinguished players without competent coaches. .
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(Reuters)
Forming just one player is an exhausting process, so what about forming a whole generation of players?
Of course, it is tedious, and requires a lot of preparation.
If we look at most European countries that have adopted long-term football projects - such as Germany and England, for example, but not limited to - we will find among them all a basic and prominent common factor, which is simply the education of coaches, and this is exactly what Croatia did.
"We have trainers of the highest quality in all levels and categories."
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Returning to Boris Kubla again, who talks this time about the extent of the training system's experience in Croatia, stressing that the poor infrastructure and the poor conditions in which the players grow up were not an obstacle to them, only because they gave the most important side its right, and simply did not look under their feet and face reality, because If there is an intention to reform the system, it must start from the formative process.
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In Croatia, as confirmed by Kubla, there is no coach who does not hold a training license from the European Football Association "UEFA", even in the youngest age groups, just as there is no coach who works as a volunteer. All coaches in all sectors, even in the amateur categories, work part-time. or all, and all of them are paid for their work.
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Dinamo Zagreb.. the elite!
(Anatolia)
Although Croatian clubs are at the bottom of the European pyramid when it comes to major tournaments, or even their first elimination rounds, Croatia has one of the best academies in the old continent, which is the "Dinamo Zagreb" academy.
This was not an exaggeration, in fact, in 2011, the academy was ranked by the European Football Association as one of the 6 best academies for producing football talents within the continent, next to Arsenal (England), Barcelona (Spain), Inter Milan (Italy) and Ajax (Netherlands), in addition to Sporting Lisbon (Portugal).
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In the 2018 World Cup in Russia, there were 14 players from the Croatian national team who played for at least three years in their career between the ages of 15 and 21 for Dinamo Zagreb, including 10 players who grew up in the club’s academy, headed by - of course - the captain and midfield legend Luka Modric .
No other club has ever achieved these two figures in the history of the World Cup, until Barcelona and Ajax Amsterdam in the 2010 World Cup. (11) (12)
Perhaps this explains what Saul Isaacson Hirst, a football coach specializing in the basic formation stage, and experienced for years in Premier League clubs, who spent 6 years in the Tottenham Hotspur Academy and 4 others in the Chelsea Academy, said after his visit to the Dinamo Zagreb Academy, where he confirmed that Perhaps the most accurate and organized football academy in terms of dealing with the stages of player development.
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We don't want a bunch of robots
(Reuters)
Those are also among the words of Kubla, through which he refers to one of the most important goals of the Croatian Federation in the process of developing players.
Copla confirms that exercises and exercises, despite their usefulness, promote automation, that is, the shift to routine at the expense of creativity, so they are always looking for ways to make players think, be exposed to different contexts and try to find solutions to them themselves.
Romeo Jozak, who worked as a coach at the Dinamo Zagreb Academy for many years, and also worked for four years as director of the technical department within the corridors of the Croatian Federation, also confirms what Kobla said;
There is always an opportunity for players to be creative and improvise when they have the ball in their possession without restrictions from their coaches. There is no limit to the number of touches each player has each time the ball is in his possession, for example;
Two touches and pass or three touches and pass.
There isn't, players just learn a few basic principles, and then it's up to them to do the rest.
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Perhaps that methodology is what made Croatia possess one of the strongest midfields in the world at the present time. The midfield trio consisting of Luka Modric, Mateo Kovacic and Marcelo Brozovic is a trio that many teams do not have, not even elite clubs, each of them has exceptional abilities, such as driving the ball. , the ability to dribble, contain the pressure, protect the ball, the accuracy of the diagonal and cross-pass, and the ability to break the lines of the opponent's play, which necessarily results from a distinctive peripheral vision.
Many poems can be written about this trio, which is the most prominent point of strength in the national team.
The national team's midfield trio of Luka Modric, Mateo Kovacic and Marcelo Brozovic is a trio that not many teams, not even elite clubs, possess, each with exceptional abilities.
(Reuters)
Even the substitutes like Pasalic, Nikola Vlasic, Maier and Milan Badelli are all very good on the ball.
Four of the seven names mentioned played in the Dinamo Zagreb Academy, that academy that Isaacson Hurst said he had not seen in his long training career in the academies any similar academy in terms of interest in the technical and artistic side of the players.
In order to reach this level, you must start the journey early.
In the Croatian Federation's development plan for young players, the coaches follow a gradual approach in training children. When the player is 8-10 years old, he learns to play ball from the ground up;
How he moves with and without the ball, how he passes and receives the ball, and things develop with age.
With the child reaching the age of 11 or 12 years and beyond;
More complex methods and harder exercises are applied to improve tactical aspects, such as defending the area and mastering transitions, and instead of playing 4v4 matches, we switch to 6v6 matches, until we reach the stage of playing 11v11 matches. (13)
Meanwhile, the Croats attach great importance to street football and its value in raising players to make better and bolder decisions as well, which was confirmed by Romeo Jozak, stressing that street football and the players' constant contact with the ball since childhood greatly affects their understanding of the game at very early stages.
“When I was young, I used to practice 3 to 4 hours a week at the Ajax Academy, but on the other hand, I used to play 3 to 4 hours a day in the street, so where do you think I learned to play ball?”
(Dutch football legend Johan Cruyff) (5)
For the aforementioned reasons, and despite the modest material capabilities compared to the rest of the countries, the Croatian national team is constantly present in the circle of competition with the adults, and what happened in the World Cup in Russia (and now in Qatar) was not a fleeting coincidence or a temporary achievement, so that Boris Kopla strongly objected to the phrases Which requires Croatia to benefit from a golden generation that does not happen often in Russia 2018.
Cobla draws attention to what he called the "production line of players" in Croatia. Although the composition of the national team that qualified for the final of the World Cup in Russia may bear many similar names to the bronze medalists of the Qatar World Cup, there are differences in several positions.
Like the right-back Yoranovic, the goalkeeper Levankovic, and the 20-year-old Josep Gvardiol, who is considered one of the best emerging defenders currently in Europe.
Those names added a stronger defensive aspect in the Qatar 2022 edition, as Croatia conceded only three goals before the semi-finals, this is less than what France and Argentina - the final parties - received in the same number of matches.
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The ball as a "mind game"
(Reuters)
We often hear that sentence, and it refers to moments such as Kylian Mbappe's second goal against Argentina in the World Cup final. It is no secret that Mbappe before this goal was not playing his best matches, but what distinguishes Mbappe, especially at that moment, is his strong mental presence. , which enabled him to focus enough to kick the ball with the precision and power needed to score a goal, despite the mediocre game he played for 70 minutes and more with his teammates.
Let's leave Mbappe, it's not about him here, but about what makes him - and also makes the Croatian national team - a strong presence in the big dates;
It is the mental factor.
When it comes to Croatia, it has many aspects.
For example, the war (we mean here the Croatian War of Independence between 1991-1995), which Modric spoke about and said that it contributed greatly to the formation of his mentality, and caused in general the formation of an athletic generation with an iron mentality, and this was not limited to football only, but to many sports too;
Such as tennis, skiing, high jump and rowing.
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Sport, specifically football, is the way the Croats send their message to the whole world that they are on the scene, and the pride of the country and its football-loving people (Anatolia)
According to Igor Stemak, the former national team player in the 1998 World Cup, sport, and specifically football, is the way in which the Croats send their message to the whole world that they are present on the scene, and the pride of the country and its football-loving people, which is the same as what Romeo Yuzak refers to, saying: " It's an opportunity to show the world that we exist. The athletes are great ambassadors for us, and it's a source of inspiration and great pride for everyone to represent Croatia."
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What then?
You may have had this question as you read, and the answer is that the time has finally come to improve the football infrastructure in the country, as the country plans to build 100 stadiums before 2023, and to improve the game facilities that have lagged behind compared to other European countries.
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Football doesn't make sense all the time, and Croatia is a perfect example of that.
In abstract calculations, we probably shouldn't have seen the Croats where they are now;
They always struggle with adults while they are far behind them in terms of many equipment and capabilities.
But in the face of a lack of potential, the Croats had a great surplus of motivation, and that is why they have not missed any major occasion for the national teams since 1998 only twice out of 11, which are Euro 2000 and the World Cup 2010, and for this they also succeeded in reserving their permanent place among the elite despite everything.
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Sources:
1- The Croatian independence referendum - Sabor
2- Croatia achieves another World Cup medal – the official FIFA page via Facebook
3- Croatia has a player in the Champions League final for the tenth year in a row - Croatia week
4- The quality of coaches is the secret of Croatia's success
5- The amazing transformation achieved by Croatia after a devastating war
6- Major clubs' spending on their academies in 2020 - Inside world football
7- Investment and youth development scheme are the secret of Germany's success - Reuters
8- The Mona Lisa painting - Leonardo Davinci
9- Leonardo da Vinci's biography
10- The training history of Oriano Ruiz - Transfermarkt
11- Inside the Dinamo Zagreb Academy - My personal football
12- Dinamo Zagreb achieves a record in the World Cup finals - GNK Dinamo
13- The Croatian Curriculum for Youth Development
14- How does the small country of Croatia consistently succeed on the world sports stage?
Croatia week
15- “Living Evidence” – Croatian football project highlights the added value of the European sporting model – UEFA