July 11, 2018 – Today’s the day. England versus Croatia. World Cup Semi-Final. Some thoughts of an Englishman living 16 years in Croatia.
July 4, 1990, is a date which sticks in my memory. I was a 21-year-old bellboy in Munich’s finest hotel, and Italia ’90 was in full swing. My 14:00 shift coincided with the biggest match England had played in a generation – a World Cup semi-final against Germany.
Keeping tabs on the score, Gary Lineker drew England level late in the game, which meant penalties – just as my shift was ending. I went to the canteen to watch the game with 50 German colleagues, I the only Englishman. I watched as first Psycho Pearce and then Chris Waddle missed their penalties, both of which were cheered and led to me being mocked and abused. We had lost.
“This proves that we Germans are better than you English.”
Comment after comment. We Germans are better than you English, due to the fact that two overpaid footballers could not hit a ball between two posts and beat the man guarding the area between them. I took the U-Bahn home and went to bed, very depressed.
I was back on the front desk at 7am the next morning, but not before I had been told several times how much better Germans were than the English. And so when a fellow bell-boy repeated the phrase before my morning coffee, something inside me snapped.
“But you are not very good at fighting wars, are you?” I froze. The front desk of this exclusive 5-star hotel froze. The guest who was checking out froze with a look of incredulity in my direction. As did the receptionist. My fellow bell-boy. And my boss. What the hell did I say that for? And how to recover from such a statement.
“I will go and clean the ashtrays in the foyer,” I said quickly as I unfroze. And in a nano-second, I had disappeared.
Some 28 years later, England is in the World Cup Semi-Final again, as they take on Croatia tonight, my adopted home for the last 15 years. Forget the football, it has been a fascinating few weeks watching Croatian society as – just like England – the Croatian team has exceeded all expectations, and both teams have an equally good chance of reaching the final. Watching England has been marginally more interesting than watching paint dry over the years, but this tournament has been somewhat different, while penalty shoot-out specialists Croatia have claimed some impressive scalps along the way, including Argentina.
And what a difference a few victories can make from 11 men running around foreign fields kicking a ball. Croatia is more united in one goal – winning the World Cup – than in anything I have seen in my time here. Walking around the streets of Osijek last week after the win against Denmark, it was a pleasure to see the celebrations and genuine joy of people in a region who have had little to cheers about in recent years as the epicentre of Croatia’s crushing emigration.
While the World Cup dream continues, the realities of life in The Beautiful Croatia can be put on hold. Croatia at the World Cup is a little like summer in Croatia – everyone posting selfies of summer perfection on the beach with messages such as ‘tko to more platit’ (priceless), escaping the daily reality of life in The Beautiful Croatia, if only for a few days. So too with the World Cup – as long as Croatia keeps on winning, the bubble of joy can continue. But when that bubble bursts…
I got a sense of that watching the quarter-final against Russia. A square packed with passionate and partisan Croatian fans roaring their team onto victory. There wasn’t a Russian fan in sight. And then the unthinkable – Russia scored. Total silence, and tortured looks of pain and the return to reality. It was a fleeting moment, as Croatia quickly equalised and went on to win the game, and so the dream stays alive. And so if Croatia beat England tonight and then kick French ass in the final, I am ok with that. Sport is a religion here, and as I am constantly reminded, we are a tiny nation doing amazing things on the world stage.
But this being The Beautiful Croatia, supporting the national team is only half the story, and from a socio-anthropological point of view, it has been fascinating to watch Croatian society over the last month and their changing attitudes to the national team and some of its stars. Man of the moment, captain Luka Modric, with his three man of the match awards as well as one of the goals of the tournament, is inspiring people on the pitch and is being roared on by the majority (but not all) of the nation. It is quite a transformation from his position as public enemy number one a few months ago, due to his amnesia during the trial of Croatian football’s most powerful boss, Zdravko Mamic. Mamic was subsequently sentenced to 6.5 years, even without Luka forgetting key evidence, but conveniently managed to pop over the border to Bosnia and Hercegovina the day before the verdict – as a dual citizen, he will not be extradited.
A national campaign to get rid of those running the Croatian Football Association has been active for some time, with many boycotting the national team until change was forthcoming. At least until Croatia started advancing into the latter stages of the World Cup – while there are those who advocate for the boycott, they are getting fewer in number. National pride and success on the football field are powerful things. It was interesting to read the comments as Croatia flew to Moscow – many supporting the team all the way, while others did not want them to pass the group stage, in order to keep up the pressure of change at the Croatian Football Association.
That campaign for change included some very high profile incidents which made the international media, including a swastika on the pitch in Split against Italy, and hooliganism at Euro 2016, both directed against the CFA.
And while Croatia’s attractive female president is attracting lots of attention on the world stage with her antics in Russia, those watching from home see a somewhat different picture. The president has strong ties with some members of the CFA, including the convicted Mamic, who organises her birthday parties, and so it came as little surprise to see the president to be watching the game against Russia with the Russian prime minister and a member of CFA who has been sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the Mamic case.
All this we can forget, as long as Croatia keeps on winning. All this – and more – awaits in The Beautiful Croatia once those summer selfies end and the World Cup dream ends. That could be tonight, or it could continue forever with a victory over France on Sunday. This Englishman is ok with that, as Croatians deserve something to cheer about.
It was Nikola Tesla’s birthday yesterday. An ethnic Serb whose birthplace lies in modern Croatia in the village of Smiljan, this birthday tribute on Slavorum Facebook page seemed strangely relevant as a metaphor of how Croatia looks to the world and how it actually is.
And what happens if Croatia do go all the way and Luka remembers where to collect the trophy on Sunday? As my colleague Borna Sor asked recently, will he receive an official pardon? In The Beautiful Croatia, stranger things have happened.
So who will win tonight? The best team, and it is impossible to call, except for the notion that if it goes to penalties, that man Rakitic could well deliver the killer penalty for the third game in a row.
The only certainties are that the crowd will be passionate and the beer will be cold. As well, perhaps, as one other angle which has not been so well discussed in the media – win or lose, there will be thousands of drunk Englishmen all over Croatia, as well as many more passionate Croatian fans. Young Putin has kept the fans very much under control in Russia – let’s hope there will not be any incidents in Croatia.
May the best team win.
