#32 Croatia (Home, 2008/2010)

22:49 , , , , , , , 6 Comments


Buying a Croatia shirt had been on my plans for a while, so I couldn't help myself when I found this one in a shop in London available for such a low price: 15£. Massive sale, so no doubts I had to go for it. 

Their chequered shirt is definitly among the "love it or hate it" section, and I'm definitly going with the first choice. I remember how surprising it was for me to find another football team wearing chequered uniforms, and, even though the red made them a little different from Boavista's, they had to be an instant favourite. 

I was also really surprised by their World Cup 1998 campaign, when they played brilliant football and finished 3rd, only losing to eventual champions France. Standing in front of the TV following their matches is one of my first footballing memories. I really wanted those lads to do well, and I still remember some of them with a nostalgic feeling. 

Players to remember:

Davor Suker
Suker, amazing striker. Always wanted him to score, and no doubt he was pure class. 

Robert Prosinecki
Prosinecki is a total legend. Great passing abilities, great techinque... he quite had it all, and he was the engine that lead Croatia for many years. Now a coach with Red Star Belgrade. Funny fact: he actually played for Yugoslavia before Croatia's independence.

Drazen Ladic
It's not that Ladic was specially good. As far as I can remember, he was no big deal at all. He spent most of his career with local powerhouse Dinamo Zagreb, but I liked him because of his original kit and because he looked a but like Gabor Kiraly. He also seemd quite charismatic, maybe that explains it.

Anyway, another thing I loved about Croatia in 1998 was their Lotto shirt.



A bit rare but not very hard to find. I've seen a few for sale both on eBay and Classical Football Shirts, but usually at high prices. I'm keeping an eye on them, if the right deal appears, I might very well end up buying one. 

But I didn't yet, so let's focus on the shirt that I actually own.



Nice thing it's pretty simple: red and white chequered pattern, blue collar and that's it. No variations, no fancy designs... Basic stuff. Sometimes that means dull and boring shirts, but when it comes to a chequered one, well, there's not much you can do to make it more original without ruining it. 

Now, at the back, they decided to have a blank space for name and numbers. Understandable, but if you happen not to print any names there, it's quite pointless and it looks a bit ugly.


Hrvatska means Croatia. Yep.

Now that I finally have a Croatia shirt, I can focus on getting that old one. Have you seen their new away shirt? I think it looks pretty good.


Their away shirts are either awesome or absolutely awful, nice work with this one I think.

Francisco Ferreira

Journalist and football enthusiast. Born and raised in Porto, but ended up cheering the local minnows: Boavista FC. Football shirt collector, because it's a great to waste my money.

6 comments:

  1. Caveman Ninja9 March 2012 at 02:45

    Big fan of the new away shirt too. It's lovely. I was also tempted by the classic lotto design, saw a couple on ebay recently. But I have two already, and can't really justify buying another one when I've so many countries still to get!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous9 March 2012 at 17:30

    Hi! I'm from Croatia, also football shirt collector and I'm glad you love Croatian shirts! This home shirt from 2008 is one of my favorite too! Of course Lotto shirt from '98 is something special :) Maybe because of results on WC :) And I just get that new away shirt, from last week game agains Sweden, nice design but I don't like player version, everything is printed, on replica is stiched! Are you interested in more Croatian shirts?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Francisco Ferreira12 March 2012 at 18:24

    Hello mate!

    Yeah I'm definitly into more shirts. Have one Hajduk Split one under my eye. Do you know any good website with local shirts available for a reasonable price?

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous13 March 2012 at 05:34

    Can you contact me on jonathan-davis@net.hr

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous26 March 2012 at 22:47

    Hi, I'm from Croatia too, I have a big collection of our shirts. Im currently selling most of them and also have shirt from world cup '98 (white and blue), from '96 (home and away also), and some rare stuff too. If you want to contact me, you can find me here: kralj.dmitar.zvonimir@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
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