DAVOR SUKER

FORWARD

It is, you have to admit, a heroic chin. Davor Suker was almost a comic- book creation, a Roy Race- like leading man, embodying the pride of a newly independent nation. If you thought Euro 96 was a big deal for England, it was even more significant for Croatia, as they approached a first ever tournament. Suker’s left peg was pretty special, too.

The gifted striker – who made his international bow for Yugoslavia before the war in the Balkans, when he decamped to Sevilla – scored goals from anywhere: corners, curlers, and particularly lobs. In 1996, Real Madrid decided they liked what they saw. It was quite a summer for Suker.

The Croatian scored 12 goals in qualifying for Euro 96 – a record, later broken by Northern Ireland’s David Healy – as newly recognised Croatia topped their group ahead of Italy. Their most intriguing tournament opponents were Denmark, the defending champions, who had replaced

Yugoslavia four years earlier. That game made Suker a superstar: a penalty, an assist, then a sumptuous chip over Denmark’s Peter Schmeichel, celebrated like a matinee idol. No big deal.

“He got a lob that I would’ve done if I’d been playing on my street,” shrugged the striker. To prove his point, he scored another corker in Croatia’s quarter- final loss to Germany.

Two years later, the Vatreni were a more sustained sensation at France 98. Suker scored six and won the Golden Boot. The Chequered Ones were on the map. Eventually he returned to England, at Arsenal, then West Ham, that mid- octane style not wildly suited to the Premier League but still infinitely watchable.

Since retirement, Suker has become an anti- hero back home due to his fraternising with some suspect characters, yet despite this, he still secured a leading role: President of the Croatian Football Association. He did help to establish it, after all.