 Like
most of the world, Croatians are football crazy. They also follow
basketball pretty fervently (ever since the late, great Drazen
Petrovic made a big splash in the NBA) and, believe it or not, they
like kickboxing too, since they have one of the world's best in
Mirko Filipovic.
But soccer is still the king of
Croatian sport.
Split's team, Hajduk, has been around since 1911 and is one of the
country's most successful clubs. They won Yugoslav championships
many times over the years and became Croatian champions in '92, '94
and '95 and '01 Zagreb's soccer team is called Dinamo and their
supporters are known as the Bad Blue Boys. They play at Maksimir
Stadium, just outside the main city
Croatia is the only country in the
world with no mountain above 2,000 meters (though with probably the
most beautiful mountain in Europe - VELEBIT) and with world's top
skier -
Janica Kostelic.
Drazen Petrovic (you can see his
beautiful monument in the Olympic park in Lausanne, Switzerland),
elected the world's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002. He was very
popular throughout Europe.
Croatia is an important European team
and won third place in the 1998 World Championship in France. Many
Croatian football stars, such as Zvonimir Boban, Alen Boksic and
Davor Suker, who used to play for other European teams.
History of
Croatian sport:
Probably the earliest known description of a sporting event in
Croatia is from the 18th century (1764). It referred to the regatta
of two fishing boats representing the cities of Split and Makarska,
from an islet near Milna on the island of Brac to the Split harbour.
It was the Makaran boat that triumphed!
The first international football
(soccer) match where Croatia participated with its national name had
been held in 1907 (with Czechia). The Croatian Sporting Union was
founded in Zagreb in 1909.
The oldest Croatian soccer club is
Backa, founded in Subotica in Backa in 1901, playing in the then
Croatian league. It is also the oldest soccer club in this part of
Europe. |
Croatian
