19 year-old Dion Drena Beljo has been NK Istra’s savior this season.
The 6’4″ striker now has eight goals and two assists in his last 11 matches for Istra after scoring a 2nd half penalty against Lokomotiva Zagreb on Tuesday, which would end up being the game winner. This season, Beljo has already tallied goal contributions against the likes of Dinamo Zagreb, Hajduk Split, and Osijek, helping his team steal crucial points from the Prva Liga’s best clubs. Beljo leads his team in goal contributions and scoring frequency, and is second in key passes and dribbles per game. Thanks to Beljo’s terrific form, Istra sit only six points behind Hajduk Split, and three points behind Gorica and Šibenik.
Other than Salzburg’s 18 year-old Roko Šimić, Beljo is Croatia’s most promising and in-form striker talent at the moment. Beljo has proven to be excellent in the air, superb at holding up the ball, and a terrific finisher. His tireless work ethic resembles the great Mario Mandžukić, and he finds the net consistently. Ball control and composure were once issues for Beljo when he first fell onto my radar in 2019 while playing for Osijek’s second team. Since then, he has drastically improved with the ball at his feet, shaping himself into the goal scoring machine he is for Istra.
Beljo’s average athleticism is his biggest downside. Although his offensive positioning is excellent, he is an unreliable target for a through-ball due to his poor pace. His lack of strength might also prove to be an issue in the future once he faces stronger defenders in bigger leagues. Beljo has proven to be able to work around these weaknesses though, as he is still one of the Prva Liga’s most dangerous attackers.
Dion Drena Beljo is another strong addition to Croatia’s promising list of young striker talents. Along with Marin Ljubičić and Roko Šimić, Beljo has the potential to compete in a top-5 league someday. I believe that Beljo will only improve from here, due to his fantastic playing time and promising form in his first real professional season. His attributes match the Vatreni’s needs perfectly at the striker position. The competition to fill Mario Mandžukić’s shoes is only getting better and better!
Dion Drena is of Greek Chinese background, I have found no Croatian links other than him being born there, he obviously isn’t deeply rooted in Croatian history.
I do know that Croatia has a thriving Chinese community with a considerable number of Chinese expats in Croatia, coming from all corners of China – from Shanghai, over Beijing to Guangzhou.
I also know the Chinese are building a bridge for the little Croats, that’s so sweet of the commies to help the little people that can’t build one themselves.
I also know that America (used to be communist allies) warned Croatia not to hand over strategic projects to the Chinese. F***ing stupid Americans, pretending they don’t know that the Croats are ruled by a communist dictatorship pretending to be a democracy.
ZDS lol!
Dion Drena??? wtf
Lovren at fault for juve goal
Grbic pointblank save but conceded on rebound
Colak had a good chance but missed.
Sucic was ok
Markus, cro 14
What’s the story with this jakov suver kid Slavonac posted?
Talented and captian of under youth teams cb position. Has been training with a stutgart team and is very high german talent but in his heart feels croatian not german.
Was also reading kevin kuhranyi’s son is thing anout croatia as well.
We also stole a german cro kids Leon Noah pesch fathers german mothers from zadar also choose croatia
I don’t know much about this Jakov Šuver, and Kevin Kuranyi’s son (Karlo)…
But when I saw that they’re both from Stuttgart, I wasn’t surprised to see them pick Croatia.
Anyone who’s been to Stuttgart knows why. That city is a hotbed of diaspora German Croats who have a closely knit community.
Good to see that Kuranyi is also a striker. A very tall one for a 16 year old. Pletikosa should close that deal just in case.
Leon and Noah Pesch are excellent footballers. I included them back in my top youngsters series in August.
Unfortunately, I can’t say I’ve seen him play. But I’ve heard good things and he seems to be a highly rated talent from the Stuttgart academy.
Colak didn’t look so good for the repka last time he was called up, but the guy does have 13 goals in the Swedish league this season and just scored two in Malmo’s last match. I’m curious to see how he plays against Chelsea today
Gol/Dnevnik.hr is reporting Brekalo is out for our qualifiers as well…
Maybe Majer gets called now?
Budimir is back for Osasuna. My guess is that he gets called up. Maybe Colak also, since we have a lot of central midfielders but only two central forwards
not really a fan of Colak at the moment.
Looks like our defense might be getting stronger:
Kapetan Njemačke ostavio je Elf i odabrao hrvatsku reprezentaciju. Vatreni dobivaju novog stopera, 18-godišnji Jakov Šuver iz Stuttgarta, u Karlovcu će se premijerno predstaviti u našem dresu pod vodstvom Josipa Šimunića u juniorskoj (U-19) reprezentaciji na kvalifikacijskom turniru na Europsko prvenstvo na kojem su od 10. do 16. studenoga protivnici Gibraltar, Armenija i Škotska.
Pongracic has been starting for Borussia Dortmund (started the last three games for them) and they are one point shy of being top of the Bundesliga table.
About time we start playing him.
The Malta game would be a nice time to give him time.
Palaversa, Dion Drena Beljo, Kacavenda, Brkljaca, Marin, Biuk…
What happened to the good ol’ fashioned last names ending with a “ć”!??!
We are heading to the mid 2000s with names like prso rosso bjelica mornar didulica neretljak hahah.
His name is Đovani Roso!
Barely Italian, just the long black hair and grandfather’s last name.
Hehe, so my Dad told me the names ending in ic or vic are resultant of turkey’s invading and those families acquiesing to their will. Ie, the names that dont are kinda superior, he likes when there are non-ic-vic ending names, ie the ones u mentioned above, rightly or wrongly, he will be happy lol
Your dad has no fu**ing idea.
Croatia-Russia game listed as being on live on uefa.tv on Nov. 14.
He resembles a young Zlatan in play style. 6’5 giant that can dribble spectacularly.
Great article U14, good analysis on Beljo… excited to see where he goes from here. Hopefully he gets U21 minutes and next season a shot at Osijek’s first team.
Bingo. Good on him for doing well at Istra, but it’s Istra… let’s get him to a bigger club next year and see what his form looks like. Wish him the best!
Three of his goals were scored in cup games against 2nd division clubs, so let’s wait and see.
Good to see at least some life in the area of finding a target man.
Ummm i kinda love this CroCop clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtVc5yAnxvw
goodness me !