Just about anyone who’s been following the World Cup 2018 has seen the already iconic photos Yuri Cortez took during Croatia – England game.
The 109th minute of the game was played, Mario Mandžukić has managed to, once again, be Mario Mandžukić and he scored yet another of his amazing goals, giving Croatia lead of 2:1 against England in the semi-finals of the World Cup. He and the rest of the team began celebrating, and what happened next is every photographer’s dream-come-true (or worst nightmare, depending of how attached to his equipment he is): they all fell on Yuri Cortez, who is usually a Chief Photographer in AFP Mexico, but who’s been working on taking photos of his fourth World Cup.
Croatian players celebrated, oblivious to the fact that there’s a photographer below their pile, and he did the only thing he could at the moment: he took photos. Those photos are amazing, probably the best ones taken during this World Cup, and you can see them everywhere:
Some images of the dramatic celebration of Croatia’s second goal against England during the semi final of the world cup #FifaWorldCup2018 #EnglandvsCroatia #CRO #CROvENG #CROENG #RussiaWorldCup2018 #Russia2018 #Rusia2018 #Nikon #CroaciaInglaterra pic.twitter.com/4wTwObDT8t
— Yuri Cortez (@YuriYurisky) July 12, 2018
Unpublished photos of the entire sequence before and during the tumble #Croatia #fifaworldcup2018 #fifaworldcup #russia2018 #CroatiavsEngland #CROENG #Croacia #luzhnikistadium #afpsport @AFPphoto @AFPSport @AFPMexico pic.twitter.com/Yyz9IWopCw
— Yuri Cortez (@YuriYurisky) July 14, 2018
Croatian players helped Yuri get up, once they realized he was in (or in fact, below) their pile, the cameras showed how nice they were to him, as he explains in an interview to the Goal.com portal. And his smile also made it around the globe, which lead to some people (let’s not name any names now) to suggest that Croatian Tourist Board might do a really nice, positive thing and invite Yuri to visit Croatia as their guest:
But the smile on his face, priceless!
Ajmo, @Croatia_hr, pozvati @YuriYurisky k nama, na jedno lijepo promotivno putovanje po Hrvatskoj s fotićem! https://t.co/cgfKvQPACs
— Iva T (@Iva_T) July 12, 2018
And lo and behold, that’s exactly what they did! Today, Croatian Tourist Board announced that Yuri Cortez and his family have accepted their invitation, and that they will be visiting Croatia in late August or early September. They will spend a week here, visiting Zagreb, Croatian coast and islands and the best there is to see of continental Croatia. Yuri says that he has supported team Croatia in the finals, and that he feels a sort of a special bond to our country and our players, and that he can’t wait to visit.
We just hope that Yuri will bring some of his cameras along for the trip, and can’t wait to see his photos of Croatia!
Well played, Croatia Tourist Board!
