Mislav Oršić was playing in South Korea in 2018. South Korea!
They say Croatians are late bloomers when it comes to their football stars. Could there be a later bloomer than former Dinamo Zagreb winger, Mislav Oršić, who just signed with English Premiership side Southampton? Many Croatian fans completely disregard what Oršić was doing before he got to Dinamo Zagreb in the the summer of 2018. Maybe it’s the Mandela Effect, but Oršić has not played in the HNL his entire career. He actually played in Italy for Serie B side, Spezia, in 2013 before spending the next three and a half years in Asia.
Oršić just turned 30 years old a week ago. What he has done for Dinamo Zagreb AND the Croatian national side in such a small amount of time is ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE! The guy single handedly knocked Spurs out of the Europa League a few years back. He scored an absolute wunder-gol versus West Ham the next campaign. And then he scored a cheeky winner against Chelsea at Maksimir in the 2022 Champions League group stage. Add a 3rd place winning goal against Morocco at the World Cup and you have yourself a player that can score in the biggest matches he plays in.
I would have personally taken off Perišić for Oršić much sooner in half the games this past World Cup. But that’s water under the bridge.
Oršić has absolutely devoured English competition and now gets to play them on a weekly basis. Will he come out of the gates hot for 20th place Southampton? Probably not.
But mark my words, he will score a phenomenal goal for the Saints at some point in 2023. If Oršić can help his new team stay in the Premiership next season, Mission: Accomplished. Southampton currently sit four points from safety on the English table.
Let’s see what their new Croatian can do alongside Duje Ćaleta-Car.
But really, has there been a quicker career turnaround than what Oršić has done? From on the ropes in Asia to UEFA Champions League and the Premiership. Incredible!
Hey ,
Can we get a revisit of last year’s most promising Croatian prospect list. I’d be curious to see how things evolved. What materialized and what did not. Who new popped up on the radar.
If not, can we at least get a link to that old piece?
Who cares. As long as our midfield is as safe as a bank, we ok. Striker either by birth or naturalized we laughing.
@ Dannyj
You like CROhampton as an option?
Love to see DCC rise and Oršić do his thing and become a legit goal scorer for us these next 3.5 years into 2026 USA World Cup.
We need to fill those stadiums with out checkers in ‘26.
Oršić has been mixing it up with some of the best ballers on the planet this last month.
He is in his prime for us these next three years.
Good for him.
Crohampton sounds better
Loved the Compton spin off with crompton;)
What’s better keeping your team relegated in epl or winning the league at Dinamo or another lesser league?
Or I should say what’s harder?
Obviously for orsic the challenge will be way harder in this new venture
But in general. Is it better to fighting relegation in epl or winning hnl or another similar league?
I know it’s all just relative to the situation but a fun one to talk about
Obviously for DCC shutting down regular epl players then not as high competition in France is way better for his career name and potential repka path
He has shown he can perform at higher level.
Could dcc pair well with gvardiol tactically together?
DCC with a big game
Here is his chance to really make a name for himself if he can have a big role keeping Southampton from being relegated
Orsic sort of playing with house money as we all know his story now
I doubt he will be a flop. He works hard and has an above average skill set
Maybe he will develop a bit more skill set in England
Two tourneys left for cro to be serviceable
I will call Southampton
Crompton to play on Compton
Jugošunjkaton
Good one…but I had to read that several times before i got the joke!
It’s funny how the word “Jugo” has such a negative connotation for me, that I immediately think your referencing “Yugoslav”, and I sometimes forget that “jugo, or jug” simply means “south” in Croatian.
I think if the federacija was renamed to Jugošunjka after Tito died, then it would have prevented the war.
Sure, we would get bounced out of the first round in every tournament, but at least people would stop talking about how great a combined Jugošunjka team would be.
It’s looking like Dion Beljo to FC Ausberg. If it happens, I hope they don’t get relegated. I preferred him going to a more mid table team like Borussia Mönchengladbach.
*Augsburg
Picking Augsburg over Dinamo may be a mistake.
Apparently, Osijek is willing to take only 3 million Euro (plus bonuses) for Beljo.
That’s a gross underpayment.
Someone wrote in the Sportske comments section…
“go to Dinamo, within a year you’ll be sold for 20 million Euro, with a salary of at least 2 million Euro”.
I gotta agree with this.
Yeah the Dinamo route would of been good. He’d score a bunch of goals and increase his stock.
And surely another German team would of been a better choice than Augsburg. They’re 1 point away from relegation playoffs and don’t score often. And striker looks like it’s actually a decent position for them depth-wise already. It may clear up for him more next year when a couple of their current strikers return from loan/transfer.
But at that point will he be in 2.Bundesliga and never on Dalic’s radar. Unless he really shines like he did at a lower ranked side like Istra, I don’t see a senior team call up anytime soon. Damn, I had higher hopes for him.
Have Monchengladbach delayed the pursuit because they already got Marcus Thuram? It’s surprising because he will most likely go and wouldn’t they want to bring in Beljo as a replacement before so they know what they got in Beljo as a player?
I’d agree that Monchengladbach would be better considering they have stability with regards league position, I wouldn’t have wanted him to have spent another season in the Cro league after this season.
He’s still very young (20).
Playing another year in the HNL at Dinamo, where he would get guaranteed minutes and a team focused on developing him further for a future re-sale, would be the better option.
I don’t like the low transfer fee.
Benching a player you only paid 3 million Euro for, would not be a problem.
I’d rather he increase his transfer value before transferring to a bigger league.
That’s a fair point just personally, I wouldn’t want him to overstay in the league which can sometimes cause the player to regress and then they can’t end up getting out of that league.
I’m not saying it’s going to happen to Beljo but it can happen on some occasions regardless where they are playing.
Germans are stubborn.
Thuram already told them that he’s leaving in the summer, and his agent has been pushing for an immediate transfer this winter window.
Maybe it rubbed Monchengladbach the wrong way, and are probably getting low balled from the bigger clubs.
Obviously, it makes sense to at least get something for him, but I guess they’d rather just finish the season with him (and lose him for nothing) than to give into the offers made by Man United and bigger clubs.
Monchengladbach need to take a page from the book of Mamic, and lock these players into contracts well in advance, leveraging all negotiations, and making sure they get a chunk of all future transfers.
Oršić 2 – Brazil/ Man City 0
Modric converted in the penalty shootout today. Orsic was subbed on against Man City in the 82nd minute. Caleta-Car looked pretty decent. Blocked a Grealish pass in the late part of the first half. Rumours that Šutalo could be on his way to Monaco.
Good to hear about Caleta-Car and Sutalo.
For Caleta, he needs to find some consistency and start playing well if he wants to replace Vida on the team or have a spot in general.
For Sutalo, it would be good to take the next step in Monaco as it helps with developing talent in their system.
So long as whoever buys Šutalo pays a ton of money for him.
I want them to feel the financial pressure to play and develop him.
If he goes for around 15-20m which Šutalo probably will, they will most likely give him a run wherever he goes.
I did not know this about Orsić, so thank you for the article. What a guy!
Orsic #99, with Dinamo, must stand for the percentage of goals me creates, by hitting the far right corner post, or right corner of the net. The lack of diversity is a bit unsettling, but amazing all the same. Would like to see a Perisic’s goal diversity repertoire preferrable.
He also assisted on the game tying goal vs Brazil.
Mr. Agadmator knows this team well
by his lines up for the world cup 2022:
………………………… Antonio Colak ……………………………..
……… Perisic …… Luka Modric …… Mirv Orsic ………
……………….. Kovacic ……………. Brozovic …………………
Bor Sosa ……. Gvardiol ……. Sutalo ……… Juranovic
…………………………… Livakovic …………………………………
He puts Orsic there _ without a second thought _
It’s time to kick out Dalic and change to the real one!
Brother I was dying for this exact starting 11 all tournament, if only we had a Musa or Colak at the time.
So where does your boy Lovren fit in this lineup?
Joking aside I have to admit I like the lineup but don’t think Colak will do much for us upfront. I’m hoping I’m wrong and he surprises. I think I’d rather see Musa there in this cycle.
We really need one of Ljubicic/Simic to develop quicker….would like to see Ljubicic have a shot at some point and see what he can do.
The line-up came from Mr. Agadmator…
Mr. Kasparov can be an effective manager ->
abilities, experience, and decision-making skills
That is what we need to make a winning eleven!
Dalic was relying on his luck
to make him until WC 2026,,,
that’s wasting our time 🙁
since we kicked England out of Euro’08,
Russian people love us that much
they said “hvala vam, Croatia”
_________♗ so we need Mr. Kasparov ♗_________
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOrLfEZav14
You get these hidden gems from every team that pull through for the national team in the most pivotal times. Orsic, Petkovic, and Pasalic. These players aren’t going to turn to be anything substantial at this age. Orsic is a grinder and smart player don’t get me wrong but he won’t put up big numbers. Dalic is to be given all credit for bringing players like him that no one even heard about. Orsic really should’ve went to Tottenham. The duo with Perisic could’ve work there. He’ll put up decent numbers the next few seasons with Southampton. I think he’s our number one. Scored and had an assist against Spain in Euros, the opening goal vs Morocco, scored a penalty and assisted Petkovic vs Brazil. Hardest working player I’ve seen and he’ll continue to pull through for us. I guarantee he’ll score in the Nations League Finals. He certainly puts slackers and nuisances like Kramaric, Rebic and Budimir to shame.
Actually, Dalic probably shouldn’t be getting any credit for Orsic at all.
People have been screaming for years for Dalic to play him more minutes. He was too late in giving Orsic significant minutes (who should have played a lot more at Euro2020), but I’m glad Dalic finally came around and decided to give him time in this tournament.
He should be playing as big a role as Kramaric did for us these past couple of years.
I agree with Orsic getting more minutes. Kramaric had his stint from 2017 up until 2018-2019 and just slew down. The Ukraine game, qualifying games against Greece and the Russia World Cup he was a unit. Now he’s slow, can’t read plays and inconsistent. Don’t count the Canada goals because a third string forward playing in the HNL could break through Canada’s defence.
Good luck to him and may health be on his side
May he cash in too
Play a handful of solid years in England and be that little extra something we need for the repka
Let’s hope DCC could wake up as well and become a key piece for Southampton…
Pretty good we have an EPL defender not even called up for the World Cup
What great depth on D