The Plan of Belgium, the Chaos of Croatia and the Sneaky Way to Glory of the World Cup



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In addition, there may be a greater truth in the myth of Croatian origin than in that of Belgium. De Bruyne should not win many friends at his country 's badociation when he offered his own explanation of how this generation came together: "Because we were told given the chance to play in other countries ". from the team wears it. Three of Martínez's players – Vertonghen, Alderweireld and Thomas Vermaelen – left Belgium for Ajax, the Netherlands, while they were teenagers. Mousa Dembélé, the midfielder, left for Dutch club Willem II and then AZ Alkmaar at the same age.

Eden Hazard and her brother Thorgan have both started their professional careers in France, with Lille and Lens. Many more left Belgium after only a few years in the Jupiler League, the best flight in the country, for more brilliant and harsh light tests in France, Germany and, in particular, England. De Bruyne and Lukaku, for example, both signed with Chelsea after only a few years of senior football in Belgium.

"We always had talent," said De Bruyne. "But for 10 or 15 years there was no one playing outside Belgium, then Vincent Kompany and Marouane Fellaini went abroad, got along well, and people started recruit Belgian players. "

This Belgian team is not a typically Belgian creation: its genesis is European.France, the Netherlands and England have all played a role in allowing it to

The same could be said of Croatia: Modric and Rakitic and Ivan Perisic are the players because of the teams they played for and the players they played with and the coaches who played them.

This is the open market of football, its porous borders and, above all, its glorious arbitrariness that best explain why Belgium and Croatia are two games of immortality when it is bigger, richer nations have long since disappeared This is the lesson that both can teach nations that see a map to follow, a plan to adopt: that sometimes there is no signal. Sometimes it's just noise.

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