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The weight of the world weighed on the shoulders of Croatian players attending the flood at the triumph of their French opponents. But on the lawn of the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, a red checkered jersey seemed to escape melancholy. Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, nicknamed KGK in her country, broke the screens for the energetic sympathy with which she celebrated the victory of the Blues despite the bitterness of defeat and the waterspouts, which Vladimir Putin no has not thought of protecting her by monopolizing the only umbrella available
KGK, 50, is not a "footie" of the last hour who has made mine to be pbadionate for the World. She loves and knows football. To attend the matches of her team in the quarter-finals, she took a leave without pay and paid her plane ticket.
Stigmas and first fruits
Former diplomat, she nevertheless knows the powers of balloon diplomacy round. She recently donated a shirt from Croatia to Pope Francis, to Donald Trump – did he understand what it was? – and Theresa May. The Croatian president is also aware of the dangers. One of the first signs of the war in the Balkans was, in 1990, the incidents between the supporters of Dinamo Zagreb and those of the Red Star of Belgrade. The fearsome Serbian warlord Arkan recruited the thugs of his militia in the ranks of hooligans Obilic Belgrade. Several players of the Croatian team, including playmaker Luka Modric, have known in their childhood the throes of war. The HDZ, KGK's own party, does not hesitate to blow on the embers of nationalism.
See also 2018 World Cup: Modric, the unloved hero
However, the stars were perfectly aligned for the checkered team and KGK understood it. A team pbaded in the last few years from the 125th to the 3rd place of Fifa, talented and fair play players who play champagne football and are already ambbadadors of their nation in the big European clubs, a reputation of incubator of top athletes in different disciplines – football, basketball and water polo: the beginnings of a brilliant course were there. The final between the Croatian David, with its 4 million inhabitants, and the French Goliath ended to overwhelm Modric's team with a worldwide wave of sympathy. Victory or defeat, the World Cup was already before the final whistle a formidable public relations operation for Croatia. KGK was not going to spoil the party by making the head
The Croatian president even came to congratulate the French players in their locker room after the match, accompanied by Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin. Then there were the hugs with the players, the descent on the lawn hand in hand with the French president, attentions and complicit glances. Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic was certainly one of the stars of this final.
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