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ZAGREB editorial

AFP

How can a small country like Croatia, economically fragile, produce so many champions in such diverse disciplines? Talent, pbadion, effort, patriotism and sports facilities in school playgrounds are the reasons listed by many when talking about this phenomenon.

Tomorrow, Croatia will go further by contesting the first World Cup final of its history, against France, against which it can become the smallest country of Uruguay in 1950 to conquer the big tournament .

The players are another example of the incredible disproportion between the sports power of this country since the end of its independence war (1995) and its population of 4.2 million inhabitants , although it is certain that this amount increases if one takes into account the large national diaspora.

In handball, Croatia was twice Olympic champion and once world champion. His selection of water polo was the Olympic gold in 2012 and the money in 2016. In basketball he is less brilliant today, but he produced two legends of the sport, Toni Kukoc and the late Drazen Petrovic.

Family sacrifices
Collective disciplines prevail in the Croatian panorama, because they are less expensive to practice, badysts point out.

But in the individual sports, there are also remarkable examples: the great jumper Blanka Vlasic (34 years old) was four times world champion – two on the outside, two in the hall – and the players Goran Ivanisevic (46) and Marin Cilic (29) each won a Grand Slam tournament.

often because of the combination of talent and family sacrifice, often put at the service of the sports career of the young promises, as was the case for the Kostelic, Janica and Ivica, 36 and 38 years, become ski champions . Alpine in a country without high mountains.

"There is no special secret to Croatian success, only the sincere love and pbadion for what you do," said Janica Kostelic, four-time Olympic champion and five-time champion of the country. world.What is the main ingredient, according to her? "Perseverance"

PHRASES

No money, no big sponsors, none of that.Only love to shield, love to the country.This is a real phenomenon. " Ivica Tucak, coach of water polo

There may be no modern infrastructure, but there are basketball baskets in every schoolyard, small football fields, or handball courts everywhere. " Niko Kovac, coach of Bayern Munich