DAVOR SUKER

1998

There’s nothing like an underdog story to help warm your cockles, and the 1998 World Cup found the perfect protagonists in Croatia and their talisman Davor Suker.

The forward smashed six goals to collect the Golden Boot, as the seven-year-old nation upset the odds with an astonishing charge to the semi-finals.

Suker wasn’t exactly an unknown quantity, having scored 10 league goals for Real Madrid in the run-up to the tournament, but that didn’t stop him filling his boots.

The pick of Suker’s super six was a stunning effort against Germany in the quarter-finals. The frontman latched onto a diagonal ball from Aljosa Asanovic, flicked the ball up over the helpless Ulf Kirsten, cut inside to beat Jorg Heinrich and fired through the legs of keeper Andreas Kopke.

The 85th-minute strike set the seal on an emphatic 3-0 Croatia win, before hosts France ousted the Vatreni in the last four.

Suker then bagged the clincher in the third-place play-off.