The Croatia national team will donate their match-worn jersey against Russia. This is the seventh time Croatia will donate their jerseys in a humanitarian auction for the Vatreno Srce Foundation (Fire Heart Foundation). At the six previous auctions, they collected 156,684 euros or 1,175,130 kuna, reports HNS.
The press conference before the big match at Poljud Stadium was another opportunity to highlight the work of the Vatreno Srce Foundation, founded and led by Croatia national team members and coaches, through which they have been helping children and youth for years, such as donations to children’s clinics in life.
In addition to coach Zlatko Dalić and captain Luka Modrić, the conference was also attended by the President of the Croatian Football Federation, Marijan Kustić, on behalf of the Foundation Dr. Zoran Bahtijarević and Ivan Zelić, on behalf of KBC Split director Julije Meštrović, and manager of the Step into Life campaign, Zvonko Biljecki.
“It is a great honor for me to be a part of the Vatreno Srco Foundation, and I am glad that the national team members have shown countless times how big their hearts are and how human they are. The Foundation does everything to help those who need help the most, and the auctions where players donated their match-worn jerseys were especially successful. We raised funds in many cities; now it’s Split’s turn. The Croatia national team is welcome wherever it comes, and wherever it comes, it does everything to help,” said Zlatko Dalic.
The doctor of the national team, Dr. Zoran Bahtijarević, has been involved in the work of the Foundation from the beginning.
“The Vatreno Srce Foundation was founded on the initiative of the professional staff of the then coach Slaven Bilić and members of the national team. We concluded that the players are individually investing a large amount of money in humanitarian purposes, so we agreed that this would be organized in the future through the Foundation. We initially helped individuals and received more than a thousand individual requests a year, but over time we realized that in that case, there would never be enough money for everyone, no matter how hard we tried. So afterward, we functioned through donor dinners, and just before the pandemic, a fantastic idea was devised to raise money by auctioning worn jerseys from matches. Finally, four years ago, the Foundation’s Board of Directors decided to help one institution for children’s health care and one institution for the education of orphans every year through the Step into Life Association. As far as health institutions are concerned, we helped in Rijeka and Zagreb, this year, it is Split, and next year it will be Osijek’s turn,” said Bahtijarević.
In the middle of the greatest health crisis of the 21st century, any help is welcome.
“I thank the Croatian Football Federation, my colleague Bahtijarevic, Professor Paladin, who is my teacher, coach Zlatko Dalić, captain Luka Modrić, and all other national team members. This is a great action and should be supported in every way. When it comes to KBC Split, we are facing something unimaginable at the moment. Still, at the same time, we are dealing with a great pandemic because we are well organized. To see how dedicated, motivated, and knowledgeable people work, we can be proud of all those people at KBC Split but also of our footballers. We will use this donation to build a pediatric pavilion for children with mental disabilities and neurological diseases. Unfortunately, there are more and more, which are chronic and must be treated multidisciplinary. If it weren’t for this action, I don’t know how we would have achieved it,” said Dr. Julija Meštrović.
Zvonko Biljecki approached the work of the Step into Life Association.
“The Rotary Club Zagreb Kaptol founded the Step into Life campaign in 2008, led by Professor Paladin, and we launched one of the strongest humanitarian associations in Croatia. So far, we have managed to award 250 five-year scholarships to children without parental care, i.e., to those children who wanted to study after high school, allocating more than 25 million kuna. The Vatreno Srce Foundation has been following the Step into Life campaign from the beginning, although we financed the first scholarships with HNS funds when the Foundation did not even exist. After only two years, we became accepted by most, not only Croatian but also foreign companies. In the last year, we have been trying to finance Croats in Vojvodina, Montenegro, Hungary, who have also been left without parental care. I want to thank the Vatreno Srce Foundation, HNS, and the national team members, who have proven themselves, not only on the sports field but also in our normal, often not so beautiful life,” concluded Zvonko Biljecki.
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