Croatia national football team

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Croatia

Nickname(s)

Vatreni ("The Fiery")

Association

Hrvatski nogometni savez

Confederation

UEFA (Europe)

Head coach

Slaven Bilić

Captain

Niko Kovač

Most caps

Dario Šimić (98)

Top scorer

Davor Šuker (45)

FIFA code

CRO

FIFA ranking

Highest FIFA ranking

3 (January 1999)

Lowest FIFA ranking

125 (March 1994)

Elo ranking

Highest Elo ranking

5 (July 1998)

Lowest Elo ranking

26 (Oct 2002)





First kit





Second kit

First international

Croatia 2–1 U.S.A.

(Zagreb, Croatia; 17 October 1990)
(but see text)

Biggest win

Croatia 7–0 Australia

(Zagreb, Croatia; 6 June 1998)

Croatia 7–0 Andorra

(Zagreb, Croatia; 7 October 2006)

Biggest defeat

Croatia 0–3 Portugal

(Nottingham, England; 16 June 1996)

Croatia 0–3 Netherlands

(Split, Croatia; 6 February 2008)

World Cup

Appearances

3 (First in 1998)

Best result

Third place, 1998

European Championship

Appearances

3 (First in 1996)

Best result

Quarterfinals, 1996, 2008

The Croatian national football team represents Croatia in international matches and is controlled by the Croatian Football Federation. The current team has been in existence since 1990 and was recognised by FIFA and UEFA in the summer of 1992, one year after Croatia's independence from Yugoslavia. A previous Croatian team existed for a couple of years during World War II.

The team played their first competitive matches in the qualifying campaign for the Euro 1996 and qualified for the finals to make their first appearance in a major international tournament. They have been a strong force in international football ever since, finishing third in the 1998 World Cup, led by Golden Boot winner Davor Šuker. They have qualified for every World Cup that they have entered as an independent nation.

The team was FIFA's "Best Mover of the Year" in 1994 and 1998, are the only team to win the title more than once and have been more volatile in the FIFA World Rankings than any other nation, having been rated as high as third, and as low as 125th (though this low rating was only because Croatia were not ranked prior to their independence, and it therefore took some time to build up points when they started playing independently). They are still undefeated in all competitive matches they played on home soil since 1994. They also qualified for both 2002 and 2006 World Cups without losing a qualifying match.

1 Earlier history
2 Famous past players
3 Coaches
4 Top appearances
5 Top goalscorers
6 Current Squad
- 6.1 Recent Call Ups
- 6.2 Previous squads
7 Last and next games
8 External links

[edit] Earlier history

Football was played in Croatia from the beginning of the 20th century, but until the 1990's the country was not independent. Before that, players from Croatia participated in the teams of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1919–39), Banovina of Croatia (1939–41), Independent State of Croatia (1941–45) and Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945–90).

For the Yugoslav periods, see Yugoslavia national football team.

Due to political circumstances in Kingdom of Yugoslavia shortly before World War II, Croatian sports teams were allowed to compete under Croatian flag, so the first international of Croatia could be considered a 4–0 victory over Switzerland played in Zagreb on 2 April, 1940.

[edit] World Cup record

1930 to 1990 - Was part of Yugoslavia
1994 - Could not enter, was not a full FIFA member until July 1992

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA
1998	Third place	3	7	5	0	2	11	5
2002	Round 1	23	3	1	0	2	2	3
2006	Round 1	22	3	0	2	1	2	3
Total	3/3	-	13	6	2	5	15	11

[edit] European Championship record

1960 to 1990 - Was part of Yugoslavia
1992 - Could not enter, was not a full FIFA member until July 1992

Year	Round	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA
1996	Quarter Finals	4	2	0	2	5	5
2000	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2004	Round 1	3	0	2	1	4	6
2008	Quarter Finals	2	2	0	0	3	1
2012		-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	3/4	9	4	2	3	12	12

[edit] Minor tournaments

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GF	GA
1996 King Hassan II Tournament	Winners	1	2	0	2	0	3	3
1997 Kirin Cup	Group stage	2	2	0	1	1	4	5
1999 Korea Cup	Winners	1	3	1	2	0	5	4
2006 Carlsberg Cup	Third place	3	2	1	0	1	4	2
Total	-	2 Titles	9	2	5	2	16	14

*Denotes draws including knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

[edit] Famous past players

LADIĆ

ŠTIMAC

BILIĆ

ŠIMIĆ

STANIĆ

JARNI

SOLDO

(PROSINEČKI)

ASANOVIĆ

BOBAN

(c)

VLAOVIĆ

ŠUKER

Croatia 3-5-2 lineup during the 1998 FIFA World Cup

[edit] Coaches

[edit] Top appearances

As of June 12, 2008

Pos	Player	Caps	Tenure
1	Dario Šimić	98	1996-present
2	Robert Jarni	81	1990-2002
3	Niko Kovač	79	1996-present
4	Robert Kovač	76	1999-present
5	Stipe Pletikosa	71	1999-present
6	Davor Šuker	69	1990-2002
7	Josip Šimunić	64	2001-present
8	Aljoša Asanović	62	1990-2000
9	Zvonimir Soldo	61	1994-2002
10	Dražen Ladić	59	1990-1999

* The players in bold typeface are still active in football.

List of Croatia national football team appearances

[edit] Top goalscorers

As of June 12, 2008

Pos	Player	Goals	Tenure
1	Davor Šuker	45	1990-2002
=2	Darijo Srna	16	2002-present
=2	Goran Vlaović	16	1992-2002
4	Niko Kovač	14	1996-present
=5	Franjo Wölfl	13	1940-1944
=5	Eduardo da Silva	13	2004-present
7	Zvonimir Boban	12	1991-1999
8	Robert Prosinečki	11	1993-2002
=9	Alen Bokšić	10	1993-2002
=9	Boško Balaban	10	2000-present
=9	Ivica Olić	10	2002-present

* The players in bold typeface are still active in football.

List of Croatia national football team goalscorers

[edit] Current Squad

Staff

Head Coach

Slaven Bilić

Assistant Coaches

Aljoša Asanović
Nikola Jurčević
Robert Prosinečki

Goalkeeper Coach

Marijan Mrmić

Team (caps correct as of June 12, 2008)

EURO 2008 squad
Date announced	05 May 2008

No.	Pos.	Player	DoB (Age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	GK	Stipe Pletikosa	8 January 1979 (1979-01-08) (age 29)	71	0	Spartak Moscow
12	GK	Mario Galinović	15 November 1976 (1976-11-15) (age 31)	2	0	Panathinaikos
23	GK	Vedran Runje	10 February 1976 (1976-02-10) (age 32)	4	0	RC Lens

2	DF	Dario Šimić (vice-captain)	12 November 1975 (1975-11-12) (age 32)	98	3	AC Milan
3	DF	Josip Šimunić	18 February 1978 (1978-02-18) (age 30)	64	3	Hertha Berlin
4	DF	Robert Kovač (vice-captain)	6 April 1974 (1974-04-06) (age 34)	76	0	Borussia Dortmund
5	DF	Vedran Ćorluka	6 February 1986 (1986-02-06) (age 22)	22	0	Manchester City
6	DF	Hrvoje Vejić	8 June 1977 (1977-06-08) (age 31)	2	0	Tom Tomsk
15	DF	Dario Knežević	20 April 1982 (1982-04-20) (age 26)	9	1	Livorno

7	MF	Ivan Rakitić	10 March 1988 (1988-03-10) (age 20)	9	1	Schalke 04
8	MF	Ognjen Vukojević	20 December 1983 (1983-12-20) (age 24)	6	1	Dynamo Kyiv
10	MF	Niko Kovač (captain)	15 October 1971 (1971-10-15) (age 36)	79	14	Red Bull Salzburg
11	MF	Darijo Srna	1 May 1982 (1982-05-01) (age 26)	57	16	Shakhtar Donetsk
13	MF	Nikola Pokrivač	26 November 1985 (1985-11-26) (age 22)	1	0	AS Monaco
14	MF	Luka Modrić	9 September 1985 (1985-09-09) (age 22)	28	4	Tottenham Hotspur
16	MF	Jerko Leko	9 April 1980 (1980-04-09) (age 28)	53	2	AS Monaco
19	MF	Niko Kranjčar	13 August 1984 (1984-08-13) (age 23)	43	6	Portsmouth
22	MF	Danijel Pranjić	2 December 1981 (1981-12-02) (age 26)	13	0	Heerenveen

9	FW	Nikola Kalinić	5 January 1988 (1988-01-05) (age 20)	1	0	Hajduk Split
17	FW	Ivan Klasnić	28 January 1980 (1980-01-28) (age 28)	29	8	Werder Bremen
18	FW	Ivica Olić	14 September 1979 (1979-09-14) (age 28)	56	10	Hamburger SV
20	FW	Igor Budan	22 April 1980 (1980-04-22) (age 28)	6	0	Parma
21	FW	Mladen Petrić	1 January 1981 (1981-01-01) (age 27)	26	9	Borussia Dortmund

[edit] Recent Call Ups

The following players have been called up to the Croatia squad in 2008.

Goalkeepers

Name	Date of birth	Club	Caps (goals)	Most Recent Call up
Marin Skender	August 12, 1976	NK Osijek	0 (0)	v. Scotland, 26 March 2008

Defenders

Name	Date of birth	Club	Caps (goals)	Most Recent Call up
Manuel Pamić	August 20, 1986	Red Bull Salzburg	0 (0)	Euro 2008 provisional squad

Midfielders

Name	Date of birth	Club	Caps (goals)	Most Recent Call up
Marko Babić	January 28, 1981	Real Betis	49 (3)	v. Netherlands, 6 February 2008
Jurica Vranješ	January 30, 1980	Werder Bremen	26 (0)	v. Netherlands, 6 February 2008
Anas Sharbini	February 21, 1986	NK Rijeka	0 (0)	Euro 2008 provisional squad