Football
Even though Croatia gained its independence only in the early ‘90s, football has always been present on this territory. Regarding that fact, let’s say that Croatian football players participated in the teams of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Banovina of Croatia, Independent State of Croatia and Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Before switching to recent years, we'd like to offer some information that you might find interesting. In 1940 Croatia was allowed to compete under the Croatian flag which left a huge mark on the Croatian sports history. On April 2nd Croatia took victory over Switzerland. The final score was 4:0. That victory, that event is marked as the first international match of Croatia.
Since the independence declaration to these days, the Croatian Football Team has achieved remarkable results. The success of the team was a surprise to all. Their first notable appearance and also the first competitive matches were in 1996. They qualified for the Euro 1996 and made it into the quarterfinals. Two years later, this little nation ended up 3rd at the World Cup in France. The most valuable player back then was the Golden Boot winner Davor Šuker who scored 6 goals. Croatia qualified for every World Cup since gaining its independence.
It leads us to mentioning 2 more World Cups which took place back in 2002 and 2006. The Croatian Football Team qualified for both without losing a single qualifying match. They made it to the first round.
The team was not that successful at the European Championships. In 2000 they didn’t qualify and in 2004 they made it to the first round.
The Croatian Football Team stayed undefeated in all competitive matches they played in Croatia since 1994.
Some of the remarkable players who have always done their best on the field are Aljoša Asanović, Robert Jarni, Robert Prosinečki, Goran Vlaović, Dado Pršo, Zvonimir Soldo, Alen Bokšić, Slaven Bilić, Zvonimir Boban, Stipe Pletikosa, Milan Rapaić, Niko Kranjčar, Mladen Petrić, Eduardo Da Silva…