Former Dinamo Zagreb Academy Director, Romeo Jozak, had a wonderful piece written on him by FirstTimeFinish this week. In it, he states how this current Dinamo Zagreb side came to be as well as mentoring the likes of Modrić, Mandžukić, and Ćorluka at such a young age.
No matter if you are Dinamo, Hajduk, Rijeka, or Osijek; this is a great look in at Croatian football from the inside. One astonishing stat that I could not believe was: “According to CIES statistics, Dinamo Zagreb have produced the third highest number of professional players (71) playing in Europe’s top divisions. With a score of 76.6, only Real Madrid, Barcelona, SL Benfica and Ajax are ranked higher.” (Not sure how they got third out of that. Seems like fifth, but still a fantastic accomplishment).
Test
Great stuff from JOZAK as always
2nd test Friday night
Test Test Friday night
Funny how UEFA and FIFA help the bigger Western countries.
Back in 2013 (when we were desperate for a CDM) we gave Gregory Sertić citizenship, but he was ineligible to get his football passport because he had already been capped by France’s junior team and didn’t have a Cro passport at the time of his French cap (it was a new rule).
Meanwhile, here you have Sosa, being handed both his German citizenship and his football passport in a couple of weeks. He has been capped by Croatia’s junior teams, and never had German citizenship during that time.
Funny how when Germany is desperate for a LB, they can get the rules ignored and have the paperwork done in minutes.
They did this for Switzerland too when Kosovo was recognized, but they barred any Swiss players of Kosovar descent to play for Kosovo (first and only time this was ever done for a new country).
Kosovo would have easily qualified, and had a nice run with that team. Could have been their version of Barcelona ’92 when we were first got to play under our own country.
Unfortunately we might be getting a taste of our own cooking and it doesn’t taste good.
Think of all the players we have poached from Austria Switzerland Bosnia Australia etc…we still have our knickers in a twist over pulisic after not choosing us over the U.S.
The kid is making a mistake and the odds are very good he never makes the German squad on a full time basis compared to us?
Dalic and the HNS are not looking good here.
Sosa wasn’t really lighting it up until not long ago.
No, he would be making the German squad that’s the thing. Surely a player who’d be making their team and potentially starting at LB should be making ours! That’s what’s ridiculous… Dalic is a clown.
I read the same about Sosa. Would be a loss but Eff him if he plays for Germany. We don’t want players who aren’t committed to the repka.I’d imagine Dalic will talk to the kid. He could see a logjam at LB for us (sadly there isn’t) and figure he’d have an easier time making the German lineup?
hvala! Boy I hope Sosa stays, was looking forward to seeing him play for the Vatreni
For those of you who haven’t already seen. Borna Sosa could be switching to Germany after being naturalized. Reports are Low already has him on the preliminary squad for the Euros. At least we have our savior Melnjak. 🙃
this news bothers. Dalic should have called him…but I’m really not sure of the details behind all this…whether he was needed for the younger squads or not? with that said, Sosa is a total dork if he chose Germany over Croatia. He has zero ties to Germany and that makes him a sell-out little twat if all this is true!
Haha. Big things coming from Jozak. Stay tuned.
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Also, big things coming from the website. T-minus 12 hours…….
Hahaha
I think you have man crush on Jozak ante
Ej moj Suba. No trust in me huh? Jozak is the real deal. Just you wait and see what his “plan of attack” is this year.