Croatia is the fastest growing and most improved team in international football , the speed from obscurity to limelight is truly sensational having joined FIFA in 1994 ranked 125th in the world they were ranked third best team in the world as early as 1998 just within four years, a record, have been improving since, from reaching the quarter finals at their first major tournament the European championship in England 1996 which was a flagship announcement of their arrival in international football to their third place finish in their first world cup in France 98. Croatia’s successive back to back semi-finals at the 2018 and 2020 world cup adding a silver and bronze medal respectively to the bronze medal which they won at their debut world cup is their best run. they have only missed one world cup and one European championship in 25 years. Croatia have been in the corridors of the summit of world football and have beaten all the major football nations at least once.
Croatia’s breakthrough in ranking and against the best
Since their entry as an independent nation in football they have been able to compete against the very best, they beat Germany as at that time 1990 world champion and 1996 European champion in the quarter finals in France and took the lead against host France in the semi finals before being pegged back by a brace scored by Thuram. They defeated Netherlands in the third place match. they won against two giants of the game and it did not end there, it wasn’t an exception but a beginning of great things.The Vatreni have beaten all the world champions(Uruguay,Italy,Brazil,Germany,England,Argentina,France and Spain) and are undefeated against 4 time world cup winners and current European champions Italy, apart from Portugal have also defeated all the European champions(Russia,Spain,Italy,Germany, Czech Republic, France,Netherlands,Denmark and Greece) they reached their peak Elo rating of 2012 points in June 2023 and their 1876 points is the sixth highest ever average rating in football the rating system was created by Arpad Elo for Chess and used in various other sports such as baseball, basketball and e sports even in the rating for AI model in the chat box space, In chess, grand masters that reach a rating of 2700 and above is considered a super grand master in football, Croatia is rightly in that category of super teams in world football with their remarkable rankings and consistent solid performances.
Factors behind their rapid growth.
They had their first golden generation which was not usually seen that way as a result of the disintegration of the great Yugoslavia team, the core of that team were junior world champions in 1987 and had players that won several champions league titles, a lot of analysts felt that Yugoslavia had a better team and experience. paradoxically, Croatia went on to have a sudden impact that had never been seen, they rose from being amongst the lowest ranked teams to a transformation into an elite team, their star players such as world cup top scorer Sucker and the mercurial Boban the major inspiration, they even finished higher than Yugoslavia at France 1998, Croatia’s third place finish better than their quarter finals run and also beating their conquerors the Netherlands in the classification match. Croatia’s second golden generation took over European club football from 2013 they had at least a player in the champions league winning side for ten consecutive years, it was a better individual performance when compared to Stimac,Prosinecki, Boban and Suker’s that won the U20 world cup in Chile with Yugoslavia’s golden generation, individually more of their star players reached the highest level in club football and winning the champions league, their first set of super stars had just two Boban with AC Milan in 1994 and Suker with Real Madrid in 1998. In this recent era they had six, Mandzukic for Bayern Munich in 2013, Modric and Kovacic with Real Madrid from 2016-2018 Modric alone in 2014, 2022 and 2024 and Rakitic with Barcelona in 2015, Lovren for Liverpool in 2019 and Perisic for Bayern Munich in 2020 and again Kovacic with Chelsea in 2021 he joined treble winners Manchester city, the high point being the crowning of Lukas Modric as FIFA best player and ballon D’Or winner in 2018 the first player from any country to win it since 2007 before then, Messi and Ronaldo had shared a duopoly.
He had also being awarded the best player in Russia and at the world club tournament a year before this exposure at the highest level have a great impact at the international level, the Croatian federation was also able to pick eligible and promising talent from other countries which has become a trend with the most celebrated case when they convinced Rakitic from Switzerland to play for them. Croatia had core players, playing and winning at the highest level , they have been consistently playing in the best clubs from the big 5 leagues and when they play for their national team are provided the right ambience devoid of egos and other vices enabling them to give out their best a very crucial aspect of success. They could also thrive under adversity a difficult period in their history which provided resilience.
Croatia’s peak 2018-2023
In Russia 2018, Croatia came out from a difficult world cup group that had Argentina, Nigeria and Iceland, winning all three matches even the last match against their European opponents with a relatively weaker team after guaranteeing first position from just two matches. at the knockout stages all three matches went into extra time with the defeat of both Denmark and Russia on penalties they then defeated England in the semi finals, after conceding an early goal, they equalized through Perisic and Mandzukic scored the winner in extra time. they lost an exciting final against France, the Croats were a bit exhausted from their exertions having played more than 90minutes in all their previous three matches but the French were also in great form and had unleashed the talented Mbappe at the global stage, they were the best team in the tournament.
Croatia lost another final at the European nations league in 2023 losing an intriguing encounter against Spain
they came close to matching their best performance, at the first edition they almost reached the semi finals of the inaugural Europe nations league having a chance to qualify if they won their last game despite taking the lead but lost to England. They failed again in the next edition finishing behind group leader France and Portugal, in the third attempt they had again world champions France and Europe’s form team Denmark and they defeated them topping the group comfortably despite losing their first match to Austria. few months later at the world cup pundits did not expect much from them considering that their star players were in transition, integral players Rakitic and Mandzukic had retired and Modric seemingly on the decline. In a group that had title contender Belgium, ranked world number one as at march, the other opponents were Canada and Morocco they still found a way, finishing behind surprise package the north Africans, in the second round they defeated Japan(the Asians had defeated Spain and Germany at the group stage) and tournament favorite Brazil in the quarter finals both on penalties. In a match most expected Brazil to prevail it was score less until extra time Neymar gave the Selecao the lead and inspite of the limited time Petkovic pulled one back within 3 minutes before the end of extra time, Brazil had never lost in extra time and Croatia had not lost on penalties at the world cup having won three in a row. Croatia won again joining Argentina(they now have six) and Germany with at least four wins and with the Germans a 100% record at the world cup, they achieved it in just two tournaments, two wins each in both.
in the semi finals their chances looked promising, undefeated against the inexperienced Moroccans that reached this level for the first time a record for Africa, while the other semi finalists France and Argentina had been beaten before, Croatia had defeated the defending world champions once and drew the other in June during the European nations league, Argentina had been thrashed at the last world cup, they genuinely fancied their chances if you regard Brazil’s knockout as a victory, it was a confirmation of their confidence especially with the fact that they had beaten the best teams in the world. they lost to the South Americans led by Messi which went on to lift the title. in both world cups they only lost to the winners, a reflection of their strength and current level in world football. they are unarguably the best nation from Yugoslavia and have arguably outperformed football nations like England, Belgium, Portugal and Netherlands in the last twenty five years, Portugal had won the European championship in 2016 and the inaugural Euro nations league in 2019 and Belgium had been the number one team several times with their longest reign from September 2018 until march 2022 but, in terms of consistency at the world cup from Croatia’ s first bronze medal win until their recent bronze medal win both sides have not been at par with Croatia.they missed a great opportunity to win silverware in the final against Spain at the 3rd edition of the European nations league despite taking them to penalties where they were favorites.despite the setback it was a great achievement for a team that is pulling punches above their weight. no new time winners of any major trophy from Europe had won within a short time from their formation. Apart from Italy(First international match was in 1910 won the world cup in 1934 and the Olympics in 1936) and Belgium(First international match in 1904 won the Olympics in 1920), it took Spain about 50 years to win the European championship in 1964 Portugal had missed with Eusebio the key man in arguably Portugal’s first golden generation with captain Coluna, Torres,Simoes and Augusto part of the great Benfica side that won the champions league and other titles in the 60s it was until 2016 in France that they fulfilled their title expectation with the Netherlands, the Cruyff set of the 70s were the first of their golden generation, runner up in two world cups it took another golden generation another decade to achieve victory in the 1988 European championship even Greece surprise winners of the 2004 European championship had being playing international football since the 1920s. Denmark winners in Europe in 1992 started playing much earlier. Croatia is still on track in their football journey and if international football was similar to club football that have different teams at different competitions they would have won at least a title, a perfect analogy is Sevilla the dominant team in the Europa league, if all the great teams were competing only in a particular competition it would have been difficult. this also put in context the great stride Croatia have made from their first world cup participation in France to their recent involvement in Qatar, they have reached 3 semi finals equal with Brazil and Holland and only behind France and Germany with 4 appearances, it is more than Argentina’s two and Spain,Italy, England, Belgium, Uruguay and Portugal with one each. When winning is considered only France with two titles, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Italy with one title are the teams that have performed better. those great teams started playing at the world cup since the 1930s, it will put into significance what Croatia with a relatively small population size of about 4. 2million have been able to achieve at such a short time. it has been possible as a result of the blending of their quality players into a world class team.
At the European nations league arguably the most difficult competition to win,they are the fifth team to reach the finals, not even Germany,Italy or England has and it is instructive to note that the three winners Portugal, France and Spain have also won the European championship showing the required winning experience needed. Croatian football has given a lesson on how size does not determine success and how success can be achieved.
