a Dudú by any other name…

Its a shame that Croatia cant produce as many talented footballers as they could in yesteryear. Well actually Yugoslavia produced Suker, Prosinecki, Boban (Regretibely) and Jarni. Now they rob from Australia, Argentina, Germany and Brazil.

Posted from  Australia

Actually, all of the players you mentioned above are of Croatian descent. They were considered Yugoslavian only untill Croatia decided to breakaway from a country that had a chokehold on our freedom; and afterwads continued to play under a flag they considered theirs. CROATIA

Historically, Yugoslavia’s success on the world soccer stage has mostly been thanks to players with Croatian roots. This is evident…ever since the Croats formed their own team, Serbia has been a non threat in international play.

Nisi me razumijo bre. Those players that were so awesome for the Croats in 98 were trained and brought up under the Yugoslavian administration, not the Croatian one. I do agree with you that the Croats were generally the most gifted of the ex- Yus (Bobek,Suker,Osim,Zajec) along with the CrnoGorci (Savicevic, Sekularac,Mijatovic) but this is because the old school Yugo Football was one of the best in the world.

Now that the Golden Generation of Croats has gone (Along with Yugoslavia {RIP}), the national team is mediocre at best (Although talent is coming through…Srna, Krancjar ect) Now they need to resort to stealing players from diff nations.

eg.
Niko Kovac (Germany)
Robert Kovac (Germany)
Didulica (Aus)
Simunic (Aus)
ect.

Its just sad. But oh well, we will see this World Cup i guess.

Posted from  Australia

[...] I came across this interesting article today about the number of Brazilian-born players who will be suiting up for other countries this summer at the World Cup. With competition for the selecion so intense, an increasing number of Brazilian players are seeking international opportunities elsewhere. The result is players like Deco for Portugal, Dos Santos for Tunisia and Dud for Croatia will all be playing key roles for their adopted countries this summer. [...]

Posted from  United States

crno gorac your post made me smile. Did Croatian and Serbian talent push the Yugo program or other way around. At least part of the contribution was Croatian and therefore part of that program is now the Croatian program. I guess the rest of Yugoslavia’s nationalities didn’t contribute anything or did you forget to mention them. It is really tragic when nationalistic tendencies overtake objective evaluation. Is it possible that a new Croatian golden generation is upon us? Oh, no you have pronounced it as not possible so it must be so. How awful those ethicless Croatians “robbing” and “stealing” players and forcing to them to run on pitches for endless hours in the name of Croatia. How awful to kidnap these babes in swaddling clothes from their cribs in such a brutal and heinous fashion. Grow up man, these are grown men offering their services and talents as they see fit. It is my guess that the Serbia and Montenegro National team scouts are scouring the world right now for any quality players with an association with the country to assist in pulling the program out of its current “doldrums”. How kind of you to “generally agree” that the Croatian players were gifted. It seems the rest of the world thought they were more than simply gifted judging by let’s say size of contracts, success on the field and oh yes awards like “the boot”. Thank you for the light praise it is really appreciated considering the source. When you realize that all countries have talent and can admit that post something useful. When a small George Mason University can make it to the Final Four in the collegiate basketball tournament in the United States, then possibly little Croatia might make itself heard in the World Cup even when experts such as yourself don’t give it a chance.

Posted from  United States

Crno, I respect the opinion and glad you respond to the posts. A good lively discussion about the great game of soccer is always welcome.

Could it be that the old Yu football worked because of the combining of the two styles of play? In Yu, Croats usually supplied the strikers and midfield and the Serbs gave us the talent at the back, defense and goalies. The Croats to this day have trouble with their back line and cannot seem to pin down a decent goalie. Half the goals we receive are a direct result of our own mistakes.

As to the four players you mentioned before…all four are children of first generation immigrants, and have always professed their dedication and loyalty to Croatia. Never have they tried to attach themselves to their countries of birth. I’m sure the Kovac brothers would have no problems making the German squad….come to think of it, I wonder if Germany is trying to lure them over..gonna look into that.

Soze you seem to believe that the yu program was responsible for success. I was familiar with the Yu program and it was characterized by a heavyhanded totalitarian approach that alienated players and succeeded because talent overcame the obstacles. First off, the leadership of the program was not representational of the country, but led by a small group. Favoritism because of ethic origin was rampant until the end of the program when it was realized that in certain cases talent should be utilized to achieve success. Team effort was a constant struggle due to infighting and resentment. There were basically two camps of players and you might as well have had two locker rooms. There were times when players refused to take the field because of differences. What is not apparent now is that talented players were totally overlooked and not allowed on the team because of the aforementioned favoritism. Old school Yu football didn’t create talent. The talent came from an overwhelming pool of young players across the whole of Yu and their love of the game. In the U.S. its taken 25 years of young players maturing and now providing U.S. talent in colleges and on the U.S. squad. I coached in the late seventies in the U.S. when a majority of U.S. kids didn’t even know what a round ball was for. It is a completely different atmosphere in a program in a country where the majority of participants if not all have the same views and respect for each other. That was certainly not the case in the Yu program.

Posted from  United States

croatia players if there born in different crountry threre still croatia bloodz dumba** serb

Posted from  Canada

Raul, while you don’t state it too eloquently you do bring up an interesting point. Does place of birth determine a player’s right to represent a country or does parentage determine if a player should represent a country if he is not born in that country?

Posted from  United States

Kapcro i couldnt have said it any better myself then you have in your posts. The fact is blood is and always will be more thicker then water and players of Croatian decent or of any nation have a right and in some cases duty to play for the fathers homeland. In the case of Australia these Australian/Croatian players choose to play for adopted or country of birth. Crna Gorac TI SI PERDER who would do anything to back mouth Croatia.

Posted from  Australia

“Crna Gorac TI SI PERDER who would do anything to back mouth Croatia.”

Ahhhhh the old Croat mentality of, if youre not with us, youre against us. Just because your Fascist ears ddnt hear wat it wanted to, you accuse me of been racist. Im from Zagreb, and I have many Croat cousins. The fact of the matter is that the old Yuoglsavian Football system produced the best players, end of. I know how hard Franjo Sranjo worked to demonize everything about ex-Yu during his Nazi term in office, but its not worth fighting for my Ustasa friend.

Posted from  Australia

Thanks Milane for the kind words. What alot of people don’t realize is that Croatians outside of Croatia have left in most cases because of political and economic oppression and not by choice in the pre-Croatia era. Therefore these Croatians live with Croatia on their mind everyday in their adopted countries. The overwhelming majority of emigre Croatians would give their right arm to represent Croatia in an international venue, let alone something as prestigious as the WC, the pinnacle of football. That’s why Croatians outside Croatia find a place on the Croatian National team. (Go Cro)

Posted from  United States

I appreciate everyong stopping by here and offering their thoughts. I would ask that we try to stick to football talk if possible. After all, we all love this game regardless of our backgrounds, politics, religions, hair color, etc.

This should be a very interesting tournament for Croatia and I for one am excited to see how they do.

Thanks again for reading the blog!

Posted from  United States

Crno the tone of your post speaks for itself. Is your only point the YU program produced the best players? How relevant is that? Please refrain from insulting the Croatian National team program, Croatia and its past Presidents. It only serves to cheapen what you have to post, which it seems is very little.

Posted from  United States

Crno your only aim is to bad mouth Croatia and suggest that any of its successes were due to the fact that Croatia was once apart of yugoslavia. If you have socialist views we can then clearly assume that you have no care for anything else other then serbia and crno gora itself even though serbs hate you guys more then they do Croatians. If you wish to post here again try to make an effort of having some intelligence in the content.

Posted from  Australia

It’s incredible how a simple player profile can spark such intense conversation.

No matter what background we carry…Croat or Serb…we are all here to show our support for our team, and if that team sometimes includes some hired guns, so be it.

I suggest this post contines with a look at a good question kapcro asked before…

“Does place of birth determine a player’s right to represent a country or does parentage determine if a player should represent a country if he is not born in that country?”

If those are the only two criteria…then Dudú is s**t out of luck.

All I know is that at the end of the day, no matter what my feelings are on the subject of foreign players, naturalized or through parantage, I want to see Croatia bring home the cup.

Soze thanks for bringing it back on track. I posed the question with the Bilos issue in mind. Thankfully he bowed out because of the Johnny-come-lately aura. Since there are no official criteria for choosing players, its pretty much up to the National teams to decide how to choose its players. That allows for the hired gun approach. Fans basically have to voice their opinion for what its worth to their National Team leadership about how they feel about outsiders playing. Seinfeld the comedian said of pro teams “we’re just cheering for the jerseys now”. That seems to be where the National teams are heading. It definitely is gauling to purists but what’s pure anymore. The world is a global village now.

Posted from  United States

Very well said. No matter how the majority of people feel, it is up to the National Team bigwigs to decide who plays and who does not…and that includes ‘forigners’.
I’m glad Bilos is out, he is the worst kind of ‘National’…opportunistic.

I was just reminded in a comment on another blog that Maradona’s grandmother was Croatian. If she’s around do you think she can play intead of Bilos for Croatia.

Posted from  United States

[...] With 48 days left ’till kickoff, I’m gonna start putting up some player profiles. I wrote one already about our very own Brazilian Dudú, so here is one on homegrown talent. Niko Kranjčar is the son of the Selection Trainer, Zlatko. Born in Zagreb and the youngest ever captain of Dinamo, Zagreb at the age if 17, he currently plays for Hajduk, Split where he is the leading scorer. [...]

Posted from  United States

[...] The absence of Rapaic and Vugrinec has been known about for some time. The only player I thought would have been on the starting 24 would have been Dudú, but instead, his place is on the provisional squad (substitution players in case someone is injured up to 24 hours before the first match) alongside Mladen Petrić (Grasshoppers) and Dario Knežević (Rijeka). [...]

Posted from  United States

Crno Gorac, I wonder if you were overjoyed with the news that 55.4% of Montenegrins voted for independence – but your “Yugoslavia {RIP}” comment suggests you might form part of the 44.6% against vote.

It took everyone 88 years to realise that “bratstvo i jedinstvo” actually means “Greater Serbia”.

Anyway, back onto the football:

How do you guys think the vote for Independence by Montenegro will affect the “Serbia and Montenegro” team in the World Cup?

Posted from  Australia

Well now that its over for croatia and serbia, what was that about the serbians having the more talented defenders. Historically Croatia have been one of the more difficult teams to score against, and this world cup showed it again. Unfortunately we always have one idiot who stuffs it up for us, Jerkan in 98 and Tomas in 2006. Why the hell was he put on anyway? Shouldn’t Tudor have played back, and Cico brought on a midfielder, Leko or Modric?? Anyway, I think you’ll see a different CRO team at Euro 2008. Niko, Prso and co might have to hang up their boots, and make way for the younger bread who will be hitting there peak. The oly reason Australia went through was because of our heartless effort against Japan. Japan were terrible, and we failed to punish them. Jebiga.

Posted from  Australia

wow your jelous crno gorac…all the players you mentioned are croatian ..i.e niko kovac,robert kovac..so shut up

Posted from  Canada