Croatia battles history to script a Cinderella

Croatian President Franjo Tudjman whose interest in his country’s football team stretches to making sure the team is properly dressed displaying the red and white checks of their national flag was in the stands too. “I have believed all along in my players. For me, sports is the best promotion for a country,” said the strongman of the Balkans.

It’s a Croatian weekend forthis nation of 4.7 million people. On Sunday Croats turned their attention to tennis favourite Goran Ivanesevic’s third Wimbledon final on Sunday. In the mixed doubles, another Croat Mirjana Lucic teamed with India’s Mahesh Bhupathi.

For a moment, it looks as if sports has done for Croatia what the Dayton peace accords that stopped the Bosnian war failed to do. It has made the nation respectable in the eyes of a world that tended to regard the country as former Nazi supporters and warmongers with the president himself making anti-Semtic statements.

It has been a spectacular climb-back for a people who became a nation just seven years ago after breaking away from former Yugoslavia to become the first team since Portugal in 1966 to advance to the semifinals in their first World Cup. The Croats meet France on Wednesday at the Stade de France just outside Paris for the right to play in the finals against the winner of the Brazil-Netherlands semi-finals. “This is not the end, we are going all the way,” saidCroatian goalkeeper Drazen Ladic after the win against Germany.

The Croats are using the word “historic” to describe their performance. They might take a lesson from history if they are to beat France on Wednesday and reach the finals on July 13. Four years ago in the USA, another unfancied east European team Bulgaria stunned the world when they defeated Germany in the quarters. But in the next match against Italy, Bulgaria looked burnt out as it went down 2-1. The Croats, judging by their comments to the local press this morning, appear determined that their dream will not end at the semis. The country has broken into celebrations not seen since its 1991 independence. “Victory by Knockout,” “All of Croatia is with the footballers,” “Cindrella who became princess” are some of the newspaper headlines on Sunday.

“This means a lot for the Croatian man, for our homeland,” said the 76-year-old Tudjman. Another man, coach Miroslav Blagevic, must be happy too and his image has undergone atransformation overnight. Before the match graffiti in Zagreb called him a homosexual in a remarkably harsh reference to what was seen as his failure to play football “like a man.” The coach, who trained in Switzerland for some time was quoted by the local papers as saying, “I am no longer Ciro (short for Miroslav) the homosexual, but Ciro the master.”

No one’s complaining. Croats say Yugoslavia has traditionally had good football. Now, the game is seen typically as a poor country’s passport to fame and money and most of Croatia’s top players play in other parts of Europe. Young men have turned to football in large numbers in a country where the economy is struggling to take off after the war.

But there was more to the win on Saturday. Croatia’s striker Davor Suker said after the victory, pre-match comments by German coach Berti Vogts has upset Croatians and spurred them on to win. “Berti spoke at a press conference yesterday about the small size of our country and made a reference to David andGoliath…that was unfair but I would like to thank him for those comments because they motivated us,” said the Real Madrid frontman who scored the third goal. “Remember, it is not always the big guys who win,” said Suker. True. In sports.