The warm afterglow of Croatia's 1998 legacy

The Croatian team had done the country proud. We had reached the quarter-finals of the 1998 World Cup, where we were to play Germany. Three years earlier, our country had been stuck in a bitter war for independence. But here we were now.

The vast majority of Yugoslavia's “Golden Generation” that had won the Under-20 World Cup in Chile in 1987 were Croatian. Now, these players were reaching the peak of their careers, with Zvonimir Boban (AC Milan), Robert Prosinečki (previous clubs: Real Madrid and Barcelona) and Davor Šuker (at Real Madrid at the time) already household names throughout Europe. After a decent showing at Euro 1996, hopes were again high for progression from the group stages, with our opposition being Jamaica, Japan and Argentina.

Although I was too young to pay much attention to Euro 1996, I had really caught the football bug by the time the World Cup came around in 1998, and remember watching the opening ceremony, as well as Scotland's own goal against Brazil, after they had played so well as underdogs, hoping nothing so catastrophic happened to us.

After coming second in the group, and beating the peroxide-blonde Romanian team with a penalty in the Round of 16, we played against reigning European champions, Germany. The best my father was hoping for was an honorable defeat, but my uncle thought differently, and was confident we could beat Germany. I took my uncle’s lead.

In Euro 1996, we had been knocked out by Germany in the quarterfinals, and “revenge” was a common theme of discussions in the run-up to the game. I remember watching the game on television: to my eyes, the crowd seemed to be entirely made up of our fans, in their chequered red-and-white shirts.

Ladić’s save from Oliver Bierhoff put us all on the edge, but Wörns’ red card after 40 minutes, and Jarni’s screamer in the dying seconds of the first half made halftime a party to remember. Even my father was optimistic now! We scored two more goals in the last 15 minutes, the final being from Šuker, who by this time was well on his way to winning the Golden Boot. I remember we must have visited five or six neighbors after the game, with everyone in the neighborhood eventually converging in one family’s yard for an impromptu street party.

We lost to hosts (and eventual champions) France in the semi-finals, but our story did not end there. A 2-1 victory over the Netherlands gave Croatia a third place finish at our debut World Cup. We were now famous throughout the world, and me and my friends spent the entire summer holidays recreating scenes from our World Cup heroics. 

*As told to Africasacountry. Bojan Mijatović, 27, is from Crikvenica, Croatia. He currently lives and works in Sarajevo as a film laboratory technician.