Football has always been part of Croatians’ identity

Acouple of weeks before the Croatian national team left for Russia and the start of a surprising World Cup run that has carried it to tomorrow’s final, fans of Dinamo Zagreb, the country’s most important club team in its largest city, gathered before a monument at Maksimir Stadium, a spot they consider hallowed ground. It was there, at a football stadium, the fans say, that the country’s battle for independence kicked off. “To all the Dinamo fans for whom the war started on May 13, 1990 and ended with them laying down their lives on the altar of the Croatian homeland,” an inscription on the monument reads.

Football has been more than a sport to many Croatians ever since that day, with the country’s national team and their iconic red-and-white checkerboard shirt becoming as much an emblem of pride as the flag. And it’s why the players have embraced their underdog status and used their difficult route through the knockout stage as proof of both courage and resilience, which they say are national traits.

After a 2-1 semi-final victory over England, team captain Luka Modric, put it succinctly: “England have suffered less than us.”

Few things have come easy for the players on the Croatian team, 17 of whom lived through at least part of the bloody dissolution of Yugoslavia, the most brutal conflict in Europe since the Second World War and one that left more than 140,000 dead and displaced millions more. Before the break-up, Yugoslavia were known as the Brazil of Europe — which was more a compliment to the Brazilians since Yugoslavia at the time were much better.

But the winds of war were already blowing and shortly after the World Cup ended the conflict began. Before it ended, Yugoslavia had been divided into seven states, four of which — Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Serbia — have made it to a World Cup as independent countries.

Of the four Croatia have been the most successful.