January 14, 2020 - Continuing our 'TCN Down Under' series, Daniela Rogulj interviews former Jug captain and assistant coach to Croatia, and current Australia water polo coach Elvis Fatovic in Sydney. 

On a sunny Wednesday morning, Elvis Fatovic and I met in the Bronte neighborhood of Sydney, in front of Australia's famous Iggy's Bread, owned by Igor Ivanovic of Belgrade. It was the Bronte Balkan experience, as passersby greeted us in Croatian and spoke of preparing sarma for Orthodox Christmas. We were served freshly-baked bread and hot coffee to complement the Bajadera I brought over from Split.

For a moment, I'd almost forgotten where we were.

After exchanging sentences mixed in English and Croatian, Elvis shared his life story about how he, a Croatian water polo legend from Cavtat, moved his life to Sydney to lead the national team of Australia. 

Elvis hails from Cavtat, just 30 minutes south of Dubrovnik. Water polo is the pulse of that area, and Elvis grew up in Jug Dubrovnik’s youth system. 

“That is the natural path. Cavtat is probably one of the smallest, most successful water polo towns in the world. For example, in the London Olympics, you had three gold Olympians from Cavtat. Sukno, Boskovic, Obradovic are all from the area. 

In Cavtat as a kid, you have two options - one is to play water polo, and the other is to play in the brass orchestra. And I’ve done both, haha.  But I thought that I was more talented in sport, and at some stage, you have to decide which way you want to go. It’s also common that the more talented players follow the steps of the successful players and move to Dubrovnik, so that is how I ended up in Dubrovnik. Water polo then was very big; we are talking about the ‘80s, a long time ago when Jug won the first European Champions League title. It was hard not to fall in love with the sport. 

It was crazy to watch, and during that time, 4-5,000 people would be at every game. 

Thankfully I had quite a solid career. It’s a dream for the majority of water polo players to play for a great club in your city, and I had that privilege."

From Jug, Elvis played one season at rival club Mladost Zagreb. 

“Yes, that was one season when a lot of things happened in my life. It was after the war, and Jug was at a good level but without a light at the end of the tunnel. It didn’t seem like something big was going to happen. Because of my career, I went to Mladost. Before that, I refused to go to Italy, and at the beginning of the ‘90s, I preferred staying in Dubrovnik, but then I decided okay, it’s time to take a step in my career.  The best part of that was that I met my wife in Zagreb. Though she is not from Zagreb, she’s from Primosten. Not only did we meet there, but it was quite a successful time for the club, and I also met some of the greatest friends I could have, like Vjeko Kobešćak. After that season, my wife and I married and had kids.

Around '94/'95, Jug started to build something great. It was the beginning of the Jug we have now.”

While Elvis played for Jug, they won 5 Croatian Championships and 6 Croatian Cups. He also led Jug to win the European Championship in 2001 and 2006, and won the LEN Europa Cup in 2000.

“The highlight was definitely winning that first European Championship. We played in the old pool, in front of 5,000-6,000 people. I can’t imagine it ever being so packed again. We played against Bečej, which was a Serbian club. In that period, they were an unbelievable team and a big rival. In two years, they didn’t lose a single game. We beat them with a buzzer goal, which I scored, and that was probably the highlight of my career."

What was it like living in Dubrovnik in the middle of Jug's success?

“It was amazing. During that time, athletes were like celebrities. Especially because Jug wasn’t so successful before, and that’s probably part of the reason why maybe even fewer people follow them now. Winning has become the norm, the people expect it, so maybe Jug needs to lose for a while in order to bring the people back, haha. But no one wants that. 

At that time, the majority of the players were from Dubrovnik, and the people really followed us. When we played in Hungary, students from Zagreb would follow us - they’d even travel to Italy. It was extraordinary to be a part of that story.”

We switched gears to the Croatia national team, where Elvis had 128 appearances. Elvis spoke about the moments that stood out. 

“To be honest, I wasn’t the happiest with my national team career because there was a huge gap. I didn’t start playing for Croatia until when I was almost 28, and that's because of a situation when I moved from Mladost to Jug. But even so, I played two Olympic Games and we won the European silver, which was also great. I think, even as a national team player, I had more disappointment than greatness. Especially in the two Olympic Games when we were one of the favorites to win the gold medal. Here in Sydney, during the most crucial moments, half of the team had the flu, and we lost the quarterfinal game, and that was an enormous disappointment. As a player, you need at least six months to recover from that.”

Elvis finished his career as a player in 2007 and moved onto coaching. But was a coaching career always in his cards?

“It probably was because I captained Jug for ten years and was the right hand of the head coach. We always joked about the staff positions the senior players would take and more or less, everything happened that way. I was always interested in that job and one of the youngest coaches to ever lead Jug. I was the coach of the junior program for one year, and then immediately after, I became the head coach.

At the same time, as I became head coach of Jug, I became the assistant coach of Croatia under Ratko Rudić. It was a fantastic experience to work with someone like Ratko. It’s one thing when you are a player, another when you are the assistant, but it is completely different when you are the head coach. And I am so grateful that I had the chance to work with the best one. Ratko is the most successful coach in the history of water polo, and maybe not only water polo - perhaps of all sports. It was great to learn and see how the game is not only about the tactics; it is about many other things aside from that.”

Croatia water polo won the gold at the 2012 Olympics. Elvis was the assistant coach then. 

“I believe that 2012 was not only about the summer when we won gold. It’s even more important for us, especially with our Croatian mentality, to look at what happened in January that same year. We played the European Championship and finished 9th. We lost so many games and were not performing well, and that was a huge disappointment, but it happened at the right time. We had seven months to set our goals and prepare, and if you ask me, that was perhaps the key to Croatia's success."

After a fruitful period as the assistant coach of Croatia, Elvis was asked to be the head coach of Australia. He moved to Sydney in 2013. 

“For me, as a coach, I needed some time to adjust to everything, because it is entirely different here than in Europe. Europe and Australia have nothing common when looking at the sport, and to be honest, I didn’t expect much. The priority of the players is also different. The majority of them do not play professionally. I had to adjust the training, to read their priorities. It is also different here because there is a significant difference between the Olympics and any other competition, and I believe it shouldn’t be that way. In Australia, the Olympics are huge. 

The most important thing for Australia is to keep consistency with the players. We managed that in the last couple of years and were able to deliver some great results, especially in the previous two years. We have become very competitive with everyone. I think there is still a considerable difference in the approach here and there are definitely a lot of advantages in the European teams, especially with how the national leagues are set up and how much time the teams spend together. If you try to explain to someone how it works in Australia, the majority won’t believe you. I am really enjoying working with the players here. They are a little bit different than us, so when they have a session at 5 or 6 am, they don’t complain, and they do it properly. They don’t just show up. I respect that a lot and I love working with them.”

Elvis has led Australia against Croatia multiple times since 2013. The first time was in the quarterfinal of the World Championships in 2013, while the two nations most recently met at the test series in Sydney last December. Elvis spoke about the emotions that come with facing his homeland. 

“The first time was a bit weird and that was the game when we almost beat them in Barcelona. No one expected that. Croatia came as the Olympic champion and we lost in overtime. It was strange, but you are focused on your team, your performance, as that is your professional job, and from that point of view, that was the first time and maybe the hardest time. Things maybe changed a bit for me when my son joined the Croatia national team - and he always looks especially inspired when they play against us. But again, we beat them last year once, which was a great success for us as we beat them in the quarterfinal of the World Cup. If we talk about quality, Croatia is always in the top two, and they really showed us that in the World Championship this year when they demolished us, even though we were very keen to beat them that game. But okay, that was our bad game and their great game. I respect Croatia as a team a lot, but on the other hand, we will always try to win.”

Elvis is leading Australia to the Olympics for his second time. What are the expectations in Tokyo?

“I want to take it game by game, because if we say ‘we will win the gold’, that is too easy to talk about and a lot harder to do. On paper, you have many stronger teams. On the other hand, I believe the gap between the strongest teams (Croatia, Serbia, Spain, Hungary) and the rest of us is smaller. When there is the special pressure of the Olympics, I believe that anything is possible. I want us to keep progressing. 60-70% of our team has been together for the last 6-7 years, which makes a difference, and I just hope we can keep delivering the results we have over the last few years.”

All eyes are on the European Championships this month. Croatia needs to win the tournament qualify for the Olympics. What do they need to do to make this happen?

“There is just one spot for the Olympics to be won at the Euros. Three teams are coming without pressure - that’s Italy, Serbia, and Spain. Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, and Greece are looking for that one spot. Especially Hungary, who is playing at home. Hungary has a pretty good looking road to the semifinal. Still, I believe that Croatia has a great team, a great chance, and even if they don’t qualify here, I have no fear because the remaining qualifying tournament is this March in Rotterdam, and they are too quality not to qualify.”

Three Croatian clubs are competing in the Champions League this season, while Croatian clubs always lead the Regional League. How does Elvis see the current state of Croatian water polo?

“Croatia surely has the best teams in the Regional League. The club structure is still one of the strongest. The only stronger league is probably the Hungarian league, which brings over a lot of international players. The structure and competition in Croatia is quite good, but the problem with European clubs is that they play too many games. In my opinion, Croatia has slowed down a bit in the development of the players, which I believe could be better. Some of Croatia’s junior and youth results in the European and World Champs are outside the top eight, which means that something is wrong, and something needs to change.” 

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page. 

January 9, 2020 - Total Croatia News interviews former Aston Villa, Manchester United, Chelsea & Socceroos goalkeeper, and current analyst for Fox Sports Football. An afternoon with Mark Bosnich at the Clovelly Hotel in Sydney.

I booked my first trip to Australia back in October 2019, though the reality didn’t set in until I flew over Singapore. “Wait a minute, I’m making my way to the other side of the world!” And then the thick humidity at Changi Airport was the best reminder that I would be arriving in Sydney in just 8 hours, in the heart and heat of an Australian summer, two days before New Year’s Eve. 

While I was worried about sweating through 40 degree temperatures and the impact of the bushfires, I was also preparing to meet the closest friends and family members of my boyfriend, who have been only visions in my head for the past year and a half. Our itinerary was loaded, and we needed the stars to align to ensure we could achieve everything we set out to do in just 15 days. 

However, while this trip had quite a few different end goals, as a member of the diaspora and writer for Total Croatia News for the last three-and-a-half years, I knew that connecting with the Australian-Croatian community was also a crucial piece to getting the most I could out of this trip. 

The TCN boss and I had discussed potential interview candidates before I left, though I found it hard to believe we could set one up with THE Mark Bosnich. 

But there we were, sitting in the beer garden of the Clovelly Hotel on a Tuesday afternoon, talking about the fascinating life of this goalkeeping legend. 

Mark arrived with his precious daughter Allegra in tow, whose eyes lit up at the golden box of Bajadera I brought from Split to say, “thank you for meeting me in Sydney, at 4 pm, on a summer day”. Mark was cheerful from the start and greeted me as if we were old friends. 

I figured asking about his Croatian heritage was the perfect place to start. 

“Mum was born here. But her parents, whose maiden name is Padovan, originally come from Blato in Korcula. They came out here between the First and Second World War. Dad came out here from Blato in 1959 at an early age - he was only 15. After the Second World War, his father sat the three boys down, cut their hair, and said he could afford to send the oldest one to University, and he’d become a professor, as he was involved in politics then and lived in Split. The middle one could stay here and help on the farm, and my dad could either go with his uncle ‘stari Barba Donko’ to San Francisco, or with his sister in Australia. His sister had sent him a soccer ball from there once and he just loved soccer, so he decided to go to Australia. He worked on a farm out here, then went into the fibreglass business, and now has his own pool fibreglass business. 

My mum’s father and my dad’s brother-in-law had become good friends in Australia, and that’s basically how my parents met. Today, we have family all over -  in Split, Zagreb, and even in Kiseljak, which is just outside Sarajevo. 

I asked Mark if he visits the homeland often. 

“We do. We didn’t go the last two years because we just had another little one, little Cassius, and with him, we’d have no chance traveling haha. But before that, we used to go back every summer. We would always go two and a half weeks to Croatia, and we always have to visit the family in Blato. Sara, my fiancé, who is half Samoan and half Australian, really likes the Radisson Blu Hotel in Split, which is great for the kids. So we will usually spend a few weeks there then one week in England because I spent so much time in England.”

Mark turned around to ask his daughter Allegra how many times she’d been to Croatia - two or three?

“Three!” she said with a smile stretching from ear to ear. 

I was curious about Mark's exposure to the Croatian community growing up in Sydney.

“Growing up over here, there was a variety of Croatian communities. You would have the ones who were staunchly, staunchly Croatian, then you had the moderate ones, or families that didn’t want to get into anything, and then you had other ones who were scattered all around. We grew up in the west of Sydney, where everyone knew each other. I left in 1988 to go to Manchester United, but I had to come back because I couldn’t get a work permit in 1991 when the war was going on. To be honest, it was really good to see at that time that the vast majority put all issues aside and came together as one. 

I went back in February 1992 to Aston Villa and followed the war and helped as much as I possibly could from over there in England. In the beginning, it was tough. My mum, who liked to stay away from politics, said that my father, who was a moderate, would be in tears about what was going on. In the beginning, it wasn’t easy. But from England to witness how they not only held on eventually, but also built themselves up, and then basically retook their lands in that stunning operation… I was really proud. There are a lot of people on the other side who tried to besmirch what was a fantastic operation. 10,000 kilometres in 3-4 days was absolutely phenomenal. I am very, very proud of what they went through and how they fought and like I’ve said many times, we’ve won the war. There is no need to fight that again. We’ve won the war and we won it well, and now we have to win the peace - and that is more difficult. 

Winning the peace will take time. Just remember, we had close to 600,000 refugees, or nearly 10% of the population, so that would be like 35 million people coming to America,” Mark estimated. 

We moved on from his Croatian upbringing to his early football days. 

“Our club here was Hajduk; the other was King Tom. There was a really good Australian goalkeeping coach named Ron Cory, who was at the Italian club Marconi and he wanted me to come there. He used to take me training with the first team as well. Then he went to King Tom, so I went to King Tom as well. That was around ’86/’87. Then I was at King Tom until I went to Manchester United when I was 16. Liverpool originally wanted to sign me at 15 but my dad wanted me to finish school, so I finished the basic schooling and went to Manchester when I was 16. And basically, Sir Alex Ferguson turned around and said, ‘you’re coming here’. 

I remember getting him to ring up my parents saying, ‘he’s coming and that’s it’. And my dad was going ‘listen, you’ve woken us up’, so he put my mum on and Ferguson said ‘he’s coming here, and he’s going to have a 2,000 GBP signing on fee, and we will put it straight into your account.’ Mum said, ‘signed!’

I was there for three years and I played three games. I was a young kid and they had a really good apprenticeship and all that, and I couldn’t stay because of the work permit thing. So I came back here for those six months, and January/February 1992 I went to Aston Villa. I had seven great years at Aston Villa, which was really good.”

I couldn’t forget to mention that TCN’s Paul Bradbury is a massive Villa fan - and my job could be on the line if Mark didn’t share his favorite moments at the club. 

“The two trophies, definitely. It was two League Cups. We won in ’94 against my old team Manchester United and we beat them as massive underdogs. And then against Leeds United in ’95/’96. There is nothing better than when you win at Wembley - that is a very special thing that no one can take away from you.

The first year of the Premier League was good too. We were going for the title against United and Norwich, funny enough. We came second, but it was still great. 

Mark Bosnich was also lucky enough to work with Sir Alex Ferguson… twice. 

“Haha yeah, the second time around. It was great, and I got to fulfil my real big dream, which was to win the Premier League title - and by a record amount until two years ago when Man City beat it. And we won the World Club Championship, which was fantastic. I would have loved to have stayed there, but I had a big falling out with him. As my dad used to say, rule number one, the boss is always right. And rule number two is that if the boss is wrong, refer to rule number one. Looking back now, I probably was a little bit too bulletproof at that age. I’m willing to compromise a little bit, although, that whole situation was really his doing and it was really that rule in a nutshell. I should have just bit my tongue and been smart, but I couldn’t. So, after one year, we won two trophies, and the writing was on the wall. He basically said 'we will see who will win this battle' and signed another goalkeeper even though the poor thing didn’t do great, but whatever, I was on the way out, and I left probably halfway through the following year and went to Chelsea.

Mark then spoke about his turbulent Chelsea days. 

“I had a great time at Chelsea on the pitch. Off the pitch, I divorced, and I met somebody who wasn’t as fortunate as me, didn’t grow up in a loving family like I did, and was a drug addict. I took it upon myself to try to help somebody who was less fortunate than myself, and I was injured at the time - but her habit became my habit. I was found guilty of having cocaine in my system even though at the time, I had 18 tests before, which never showed anything. But anyway, I was found guilty, and I was banned for nine months, and that’s where I let myself down. I said fine, if you think I am on drugs, I will show you about taking drugs. I had the money and the time on my hands to do what I wanted and I did. Was it the right thing to do? No. If I had the chance to do it over again, would I have? Yes, I would have done things differently. But I was devastated, because I had what I lived for, which was playing football, taken away from me, and I kept thinking to myself something is being taken away from me only because I was trying to help someone else. It would have been good to have a brother or somebody to come and knock me around the head. Dad tried to, but I just wasn’t in the mood. 

After three years of doing nothing I realised that was pretty much it, and then in 2007/2008, some people from Australia came over and asked if I fancied coming back. I said ‘are you sure? I’ve got more luggage than the queen.’ But they wanted me to come back and try it. The funny thing is, I took half the fee - the fee was 300,000 USD, and I had taken 150,000 to go on this celebrity rehab. That blond-headed guy from Lethal Weapon, and the girl from Rocky 4, Brigitte Nielsen, were going to be there. I had to come back to Sydney to do some stuff, and I told everyone I was going. Mum and Dad said, ‘you can’t go and do this’, and I didn’t get why. I said I’m clean anyway now, and I’ve never been a drinker. I told them I’ll be fine, that I’ll kill it on the show, and they begged me not to put them through it. I told them I had already taken half the money, I had an American visa, and I was going. 

Anyway, my cousin on my dad’s side is a dentist and asked me to see him before I went. We called him ‘Mali Peter’. He then turned around and said, ‘buddy, I don’t want to sound funny, but you’ve got an abscess, you can’t fly. If you fly, you could die.’

I asked him if he was serious and he said he was. I had to ring up the people and give the money back and apologise. Anyway, a week later, I went back to the dentist and my cousin said, ‘I know you’re going to think this is odd, but the abscess is not as bad as I first thought.’ I thought my parents maybe had a word with him haha. 

Since then, I played maybe six games for the Central Coast Mariners and I hadn’t played in six years. Then they asked me to take the Premier League and the local league working for Fox Sports, and it’s been lovely. The last three years they gave me and this other chap Bill Woods, who has been around for 30-40 years, our own sports show. It’s four nights a week and it's been great. 

And Mark’s love life? 

“I’ve been married twice, this is going to be number three now, and I have two great young kids. If I don’t get this one right, I’m out of the will apparently, haha. That’s what Mum and Dad joke.”

Mark only had 17 caps for the Australia national team.

“The Australian national team was never a priority for me. I don’t want people to think that is unpatriotic - it wasn’t. The main reason was that there was no international calendar back then. In other words, when Australia played, I’d have to miss a game in the Premier League. There was not one coach that I had over there who did not say ‘all the best, go, but don’t expect to get your place back.’ That's why I was very, very limited with the times that I could play. I remember we had a World Cup qualifier against Canada and it was on the opening day of the Premier League. And I just said to the coach, please, I’ll play the second league, and they suspended me - and I didn’t get my place back for 13 games. So I said I am going to retire now, that’s it. Things got better, but in the end, my club career was a priority for me.” 

Most Australian football fans remember the day Australia and Croatia drew in the 2006 World Cup. The draw pushed Australia into the round of 16, while Croatia was eliminated from the competition. How have these two football nations progressed since then?

“I’m trying to help Australian football as much as I can, but I’ve always been seen as more of an outsider, because I spent so much time in England. Even growing up in Australia at that time, the vast majority of people saw you as Croatian. They didn’t see you as Australian. And that was just a fact. But it was funny, when I went to England at 16, they started calling me an Aussie haha. 

So, I am always very wary when I give advice because you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. If they ask me, I tell them. 

The team Australia beat to qualify was Uruguay in 2005. The next World Cup, Australia got knocked out in the next round, but you know where Uruguay finished? Third. 

Australia drew with Croatia 2:2. Great result, they got through. Croatia didn’t. Croatia since has been in the final. Australia again has not progressed past the first round. 

We are supposed to have the most participated people in the country of Australia playing football - over one million. But you know what, that would be lucky if we had that in Croatia. The country is only 4 million people itself. Their average crowd in Croatia is about 3,000 in the 10-team league. Not last summer, but the summer before, they sold talent worth 74 million EUR. So that goes to show, in my opinion, something has either gone wrong or was wrong before. I always say to them ‘look, no, football is not the number one sport here, but neither is it in the States.’ But some things can be done that we are not doing and there are places to learn from that do it on a shoestring. And you guys have got more money in this sport here than you’ve ever had.

Do you realise how much it costs to play football over here? Here’s an example. There is a program for talented youngsters called SAP- Skills Acquisition Program. It costs 2,500 AUD a year for that. One guy wrote to me on Twitter saying he has two sons playing and has to tell the third one he isn’t good enough because he can’t afford to pay that fee. That’s extortion. 

Australia truly is a lucky country in that it hasn’t been through war, even though right now we are experiencing natural disasters. We are a very wealthy nation, we are in the G20, and this sport is very, very popular. And for whatever reason, it never has filled its potential. It came close in 2006, but I really can’t see that happening again for quite some time.

And the question needs to be asked - and I’m sure it’s asked all the time - as to why.”

We moved on from the Australian national team to the key to Croatia’s success at the 2018 World Cup. 

“I think the spirit played the biggest part, but let’s forget about the two main things, which was that we had two of the best players in the world - Ivan Rakitic and Luka Modric. And that is a massive, massive thing to have. When you have two players playing for the two biggest clubs in the world, whom you know have done well, it just works. That is, for me, the two hugest factors. But then you have Mandzukic as well, Subasic, Vida, Perisic, Lovren… all of them can lay claim to playing their part and they did. It wasn’t like we had players on Real Madrid and then it went down to some lower club. 

Let’s not forget that the new manager came in, installed a lovely environment for everyone, and of course, we had that amazing will and fighting spirit. I was there working for RT Today. I had a fantastic time and actually learned Russian before I went and I was just so proud. I can never forget the night of that semifinal. I remember texting Gareth Southgate, my ex-teammate and told him who I was going to support, and he was lovely about it. 

Mark pulled out his mobile phone and scrolled through his messages to read his conversation with Southgate that night.

July 13, 2018

Thinking so much how best to say this. You remember back in the day at Aston Villa my pride in having Croatian ancestry. But from that day at my place, when we there the baseball at each other, until now, I don’t think I ever really told you how proud I was to have you as a friend. At this tournament, not only have you shown the world how good a manager you are, but you’ve shown through the team how good England is. You’ve done a fantastic job in this tournament and do not let any of the jealous bitters tell you any different. How many of them have been to the semi-final of a major tournament as a player and a manager like you? Zero. Go and win tomorrow in the 3rd and 4th playoff. All the very best. Say hi to Alison. And most importantly, I am very proud of you, my friend.”

Southgate replied:

“Thank you so much, mate. Your message means a lot to me. I think we virtually got everything out of this group. Progress for sure. Plenty of things to get better at. Also, we have made a difference in people’s lives and that will stay with me forever. I  loved our playing time together. Special team, special friendship.”

Bosnich was emotional reading the messages back.

“Look, if Croatia, England, or Australia were invaded, I’d be there on the front line. England has done so well for me. But that night was one of the best nights ever. That will live with me forever. That whole trip.”

Croatia and England will meet again, this time in the group stage of the 2020 Euros in London. 

“If it were the other way around, I’d be happy - you know, time for revenge. But now I’m a little bit concerned. I think both teams have done well since the World Cup, but if you had to maybe lean towards one that was looking a little bit more dangerous right now, it would probably be England. But from a psychological perspective, we’ve got nothing to fear. That first half we played against England in the semis, to be fair, I thought if England had scored that second goal, the game might have been different. But with the spirit that we’ve shown, in the second half, Croatia just took over. Brilliant football. We really deserved to win in normal time, but then it went to extra time and I was happy we didn’t have to win on penalties again. 

At the Euros, I think they should both get out of the group. But that also depends on who the last team in the group is.”

I told him it could be Serbia.

“I think that would be really good.”

Croatia is a team of many young talents, and I was curious to know who Mark considered the team’s best prospects.

“Kovacic at Chelsea. Dinamo’s Bruno Petkovic is magnificent. He has really stood out for me. The young goalkeeper Livakovic is looking okay as well. 

Unfortunately, there will never be another Modric or Rakitic, that’s understandable, just like there will never be another Maradona, but you’re going to have to find people who are willing to step up. They put their foot on the accelerator through these qualifiers, and I think they have that confidence from doing so well at the World Cup. 

Due to Bosnich’s excitement about Petkovic, I wondered if he followed the Croatian Championship.

“Look, I am a Hajduk supporter, but there has been a long time since we’ve won. Even though Dinamo is not my team, they should have qualified for the knockout stage of the Champions League. That game against Shakhtar was unbelievable. With the coefficient rating, it looks as though now, a second team will have a chance to get into the Champions League. 

I know there was a time in the old Yugoslavia where Tito had that law where you couldn’t leave the country until you were 27 or 28, but now, the world has changed. For me, in the big four European leagues, maybe five if you want to count France, the job is to keep developing these players and selling them and building up the funds to hopefully invest in infrastructure. There is no shame in that.”

To conclude, I asked Mark about his favorite team-mates and rivals. 

“Paul McGrath and Marcel Desailly are the best defenders I’ve played with. The most dangerous striker I’ve played against? That’s a toss-up between Gabriel Batistuta and Robby Fowler at his best. 

But the best player I’ve ever played with is Ryan Giggs.”

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

January 7, 2020 - In their second appearance in Group E at the ATP Cup in Sydney, the Croatia tennis team reached their second victory, topping Poland 2:1. Marin Cilic secured the first point for Croatia against Kacper Zuk (7:6 (8), 6:4). Hubert Hurkacz equalized with a surprisingly convincing victory against Borna Coric (6:2, 6:2), though Croatia’s doubles team of Ivan Dodig and Nikola Mektic were better than Hurkacz and Lukasz Kubot 6:2, 6:1.

The young Kacper Zuk (20), the 448th best tennis player in the world who played his first-ever ATP match on Monday, was inspiring against Marin Cilic, and in the tie-break of the first set, he reached the set-point (6:5). However, it was Marin to find the path to victory in two sets.

"I think my level of play was good; I was aggressive, served well. If I have to choose something that I was not happy with, then it is definitely utilizing my chances to break,” Marin said after the match. Marin used only one of the 13 opportunities to take Zuk’s serve. Zuk, on the other hand, did not use any of his four breaks. 

Hubert Hurkacz (37th on the ATP list) dominated Borna Coric in the second match. The Zagreb native made as many as 26 unforced errors during the match and won a total of eight points on Hurkacz’s serve.

"It was one of the best matches of my career so far," the 22-year-old  Hurkacz admitted after the match.

As for the doubles, it was a cat-and-mouse game where Hurkacz and Kubot scored just nine points on the return serve. In addition to the Croatian victory, the match will be remembered for a fantastic move by Ivan Dodig at a 3-0 lead in the second set. Ivan instinctively played a fantastic lob behind his back, which resulted in the eruptive applause of fans. It was one of the most beautiful and impressive points ever seen in a doubles competition.

Croatia is now on the verge of winning the group and only needs one win in the match against Argentina, which is scheduled for Wednesday. 

The only way Croatia can fail to qualify for the quarterfinals is in the event of a 3:0 defeat to Argentina and Austria's 3:0 victory against Poland. In this case, Croatia would have the weakest ratio.

One win against Argentina would be enough to put Croatia at the top to secure the quarterfinals. 

Marin Cilic will play against Guido Pella and will be the first to secure Croatia's spot in the quarterfinals. If he fails, a fight between Borna Coric and Diego Schwartzman will follow, followed by a doubles match.

Given the first two rounds, the safest pair would be Ivan Dodig and Nikola Mektic, who’ve won both matches thus far. 

In any case, Croatia is in a great position to qualify for the quarterfinals of the premier ATP Cup, in which they would meet the winner of Group D. This will very likely be Russia, who only needs to defeat Norway to secure the first place. 

Source: HTS

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page.

The well frequented Croatian brand opens its doors on the other side of the world.

The Croatian Chamber of Economy organized an Aral-Croatian Business Forum in Sydney this month. 

ZAGREB, March 12, 2018 - An Australian-Croatian business forum was held in Sydney on Monday, attracting representatives of 20 Croatian companies and more than 100 Australian companies, the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), which organised the event, reported.