What does the future hold for Croatian football in Croatia? Sadly the outlook is quite grim and it is clear that there is a real drain on the domestic league as the best players are siphoned out by richer European clubs. There is a lack of money in the domestic league and spectator numbers are poor, at times woeful. The situation for the national team is much brighter, they are one of the very best in Europe and have the potential to go all the way to the title at this summer’s European Championships. Unfortunately for domestic audiences in Croatia though there are very few links between the national team and the country’s league, the Prva HNL.

A brief glance over the squads that have represented Croatia in recent matches reveals that very few ply their trade inside Croatia. Luka Modric, a star of the national team, does play for Dinamo Zagreb, but it is only a matter of time before he makes a big money move to an English or Spanish club. After that there is his Dinamo teammate Ognjen Vukojevic, a hardworking midfielder but one who is overshadowed by the silky skills of other midfielders like Ivan Rakitic (Schalke 04) and Niko Kranjcar (Portsmouth). NK Osijek’s goalkeeper Marin Skender made the most recent squad but it would take a severe injury to displace Stipe Pletikosa (Spartak Moscow) from the starting lineup, and after Pletikosa it is still more likely that Vedran Runje (RC Lens) and Mario Galinovic (Panithinaikos) would get the nod. With regards to attacking players, the team is dominated by foreign based stars, the most notable being Euardo da Silva, currently recovering from a broken leg he sustained while playing for Arsenal. In spite of Eduardo’s absence, it remains to be seen how many domestic players will make the trip to Austria and Switzerland this summer. Ivica Olic, Mladen Petric and Ivan Klasnic are all now based in Germany and it seems impossible that even if Dinamo’s Mario Mandzukic could recover his form from the start of the season or if Nikola Kalinic can keep up his strong scoring record either would start a match. Both Mandzukic and Kalinic still represent the Croatian Under-21 side and it seems likely that this is to remain the limits of their foray into international football for the time being. Were they still to find themselves outside of the full international setup during next season’s qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup then both would surely consider moves abroad.

On Monday, Croatia’s leading sports newspaper Sportske Novosti carried a front page interview with Bosko Balaban, the 29 year old striker for Dinamo Zagreb. In the interview he complained that Croatia’s international coach Slaven Bilic had left him out in the cold and that he was sure that he would not be representing his country this summer. Some would argue that this is sour grapes on Balaban’s part since although he is an accomplished club player he has never managed to perform on the most important stages, as characterised by his notoriously poor performances for Aston Villa in 2001. On the other hand, Balaban is a solid player who has shown himself to be one of the best goalscorers for Dinamo Zagreb, the team that has run away with the league title at a canter. Knowing that Michael Owen will surely make the England squad despite his poor form for a wretched Newcastle team this season, it is maybe possible to understand Balaban’s frustrations.

Until his injury during the Christmas break, NK Zagreb’s Krunoslav Lovrek was the best striker in Croatia, gossip in the papers even speculating about a move across the city to Dinamo. Lovrek is an excellent player but he is not a young player either, now in his second spell at NK Zagreb after having travelled the globe to play in Japan and Belgium in the meantime. Nobody can tell whether Lovrek would have been able to keep up his scoring record until the summer, nor whether Bilic would have put faith in an until now uncapped maverick, but given that although he has been inactive since his injury and yet is still the league’s third highest goalscorer one must feel sympathy for the player.

The problem for the Croatian league is that the best players desert it in search of greater challenges, and greater wages, abroad. This means that the league is dominated by excellent players who either have not reached their prime or are well past it. The generation in their early to mid twenties has left, characterised by Eduardo, Kranjcar and Olic. Mandukic and Kalinic are still to prove themselves while returnees like Igor Tudor and Tomo Sokota have already played their best football.

To keep the best players with Croatian clubs it is essential that some reform of the league system takes place. Dinamo Zagreb, despite having their best players harvested each summer by richer European clubs, will continue to dominate the league because they can afford to buy in the best young talent from other clubs in the country. They are also the only club with an academy run along European standards, although this too is because they are the only team with the money for such an project. Dinamo, despite being the best club in the country still play in front of a mostly empty Maksimir stadium, and this is not as a result of ticket prices being too expensive since matches usually only cost around $6. The problem is with the quality of football on show because the stadium sees far higher attendances for matches against European opposition and is full to the rafters when the Croatian national team play. The average Croat will ask himself how he should spend his Saturday afternoon, and despite his love of Dinamo and passion for sport in general, watching them miss countless chances against the likes of Cibalia, Medimurje and Zadar is rarely high on the list. Therefore, while on the first day of the season Dinamo attracted 5,000 spectators to the 39,000 capacity Maksimir stadium to see them beat Sibenik 5-0, their English equivalents Manchester United pulled in 76,000 when they played against Reading. The numbers of spectators for other Croatian clubs makes even more worrying reading. Osijek’s match against Slaven Belupo this weekend, a game featuring two of the Prva HNL’s better clubs was attended by only 2,000 spectators while Inter Zapresic, based in town close to Zagreb were only watched by 600 fans when they took on Rijeka, one of the best clubs in the league. Dropping down into the Druga HNL, the second flight of Croatian football, and it is no brighter, Belisce’s game against Pomorac being watched by a mere 200 supporters. Games in the second flight of the English, German and Italian leagues regularly attract large audiences, Koln’s game against Kaiserslautern in the German second division being played in front of 46,000 passionate supporters. The saddest match of all in this weekend’s Croatian football must have been the game played between ZET and Ponikve which was attended by only 50 die-hard fans. To compare this with the fourth level of English football, a league not known for its delicate skills or great talent, MK Dons played Peterborough in front of 14,500 fans.

It is wrong to judge the Croatian football league by the standards of its Western European counterparts, since it is not a cause of the problem rather a sympton. Currently clubs must rely upon the pot-luck bingo of uncovering a talented youth player who can then be sold on at a profit. It seems that given the poor finances of Croatian football teams this is likely to continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. In some circumstances nobody wins, a key example being Dario Simic who despite picking up great money at AC Milan finds himself watching most games from the substitutes bench. If Croatian teams want to hold onto players then they perversely must want them to be good, but not too good that they get noticed.

Sportske Novosti newspaper
Prva HNL league
Dinamo Zagreb football club