Kramaric wary of ‘young and hungry’ Three Lions line-up
ANDREJ KRAMARIC can talk for days about his memories of playing for Leicester, but hopes to be able to “speak for years” about what he achieves with Croatia, starting with tomorrow’s World Cup semi-final against England.
The 27-year-old was Leicester’s record signing at £9m when they bought him in January 2015 and he scored three goals in 15 games during the rest of that season.
But he could not break into Leicester’s title-winning side the following season and he moved on loan to Hoffenheim 12 months after joining the club.
“My stay in England is a great story for me, it was my first time outside Croatia and everything was new,” said Kramaric.
“I didn’t play much because the team was playing well and no coach would want to change a winning team.
“It was a great experience – I could talk about it for days – but I hope to be able to speak about this experience with Croatia for years.”
As he only played twice for Leicester that season, Kramaric did not earn a Premier League winner’s medal and he joined Hoffenheim permanently at the end of his former team-mates’ glorious campaign.
There are clearly no hard feelings, though, as he described his time in England as “a magnificent story” and called his former strike partner and England forward Jamie Vardy a “great guy”.
A regular scorer for Croatia’s age-group sides, Kramaric has also rediscovered the form that tempted Leicester in the first place, netting 36 times in 93 games for Hoffenheim and scoring Croatia’s first in their quarter-final win over Russia.
Asked what he thought of England’s run to the last four in Russia, Kramaric said: “England was one of the favourites for me before the tournament because they have a young and hungry team without any big movie stars, so it won’t be easy.”