Soccer and Tennis
Soccer is of course the most widespread sport. An excellent soccer club in Croatia is Hajduk (Split), founded in 1911 (by Croatian students in the Prague, Czechia, in the well known beerhouse “U Fleku”) three times quarter-finalist of the European League of Champions (last time in 1995) and once a semi-finalist of the UEFA cup.
Ivo Tijardović: Kraljica lopte, Split, 1926.
Hajduk is the only soccer club in the world which has its own operetta, composed already 1926.
Many thanks to Dr Lea Botteri, University of Zagreb, for her kind information.
Dedication by the author, Ivo Tijardović, distinguished Croatian composer, in Split 1926,
on the occasion of the then 15th anniversary of the soccer team of Hajduk (founded in 1911).
Hajduk is the only soccer team in the world which has its own operetta (Kraljica lopte, i.e., Queen of the Ball), already since 1926. It has been composed by Ivo Tijardovic, distinguished Croatian composer. The champion of the Tournament of Cities (the future UEFA cup) in 1967 was “Dinamo”, winning against Leeds (England) in the finals.
A traditional 36th tournament of Crotian soccer union in Canada and the USA in 1999 included the following clubs with indicative names: CROATIA Florida, CROATIA Toronto, HRVAT St. Catharines, CROATIA New York, Croatia Mississauga, CROATIA Windsor, CROATIA Detroit, DALMACIJA Streetsville, CROATIA Norval, NERETVA Mississauga, CROATIA Cleveland, ADRIA Subrury, LIVNO Oakville, CROATIA Hamilton, ADRIA Oshawa, CROATIA London, CROATIA S.S. Marie, HRVAT Kitchener, VELEBIT Oakville, HRVATSKI Orlovi Milwaukee, HRVAT (ZRINSKI) Chicago, CBP JADRAN Chicago, JADRAN Ottawa, KARLOVAC Mississauga, ZAGREB Toronto. HRVAT Kitchener has won the the first place. Believe it or not, there are more than 100 (hundred) soccer clubs outside of Croatia, throughout the world, bearing the name of Croatia.
Mr. Charles Perkins (1936-2000) was the first Aborigin in the history of Australia who earned the university diploma. Later he became the political leader of Aborigins. It is worth knowing that as a young man he played soccer for the Adelaide Croatia Soccer Club since 1958. In his autobiography he reflected with fondness on his friendships with Adelaide Croats and other immigrants he met through the club.
No doubt, the greatest success achieved by Croatian soccer is the third place at 1998 World Championship (Coup du Monde) held in France. The excellent team of Holland was defeated by 2:1 in the match in Paris. Thus Croatian team became the greatest surprise of the Championship. Our national team has been led by Miroslav Ciro Blazevic (Bosnian Croat born in the town of Travnik).
In 2007 Croatian football team led by Slaven Bilic defeated England in London in a qualifying match for Euro 2008, in front of 88,000 spectators. According to English media, it was the greatest display from a visiting nation to Wembley in modern times. Also, it was the first time a country had scored three against England in a competitive game at the venue since 1972. This victory was crucial for Russia to qualify for Euro 2008, see Thank You Croatia! Spasibo Horvatiya!
Timofey Raskolnikov, Russia:…Divine Interference…
The first known traces of tennis playing in Croatia date from 1878 (in Zagreb and Samobor). The first Davis Cup match in Croatia was played in Zagreb in 1927. In the finals of the 1939 Davis Cup match for the European zone, held in Zagreb, the Croatian team defeated the representation of Germany. The players who brought this victory were Franjo Puncec and Dragutin Mitic. This was probably the gratest international success of Croatian sport in the first half of the 20th century. Besides the USA and Australia, by the end of 1930s Croatia had the strongest Davis Cup team in the world. See Povijest tenisa u Hrvatskoj, [PDF].
Dragutin Mitic (1917) was a distinguished Croatian tennis player. In 1938 Simone Mathieu (France) and Mitic became the Roland Garros mixed double champions. In 1939, playing with Franjo Puncec, he defeated the German Davis Cup team at the European zone finals in Zagreb. From 1954 until 1965 he worked as a tennis professional in Bogota, capital of Columbia. It is interesting that his photo appears on a Colombia stamp, see below. In 1965 he immigrated to the USA.
Dragutin Mitic, Croatian tennis player on a stamp in Columbia.
Photo of the stamp by Vladimir Novak.
Zeljko Franulovic is one of the greatest players in the history of the Croatian tennis. He was one of the most important personalities in the organizational structure of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals). He was the proprietor of the ATP tournament in Geneva, director of the prestigious Masters’ tournament in Frankfurt. He prepared an ATP tournament held in Zagreb in 1996, where Goran Ivanisevic triumphed (the same day Iva Majoli triumphed in Tokyo; indeed, a great day for the Croatian tennis).
Goran with Croatian coat of arms
As is well known,
- Goran Ivanisevic (three times Wimbledon finalist, 2001 Wimbledon champion, see some photos from Fotoklub Split)
- Iva Majoli (winner of Roland Garros at the age of 18, Paris, 1997, at that time 4th on the world list)
are our best tennis players, among the top ten in the world in 1990’s.
Mirjana Lucic has won the 1998 Australian Tournament in doubles at the age of 15, together with the world champion Martina Hingis. A trainer of the German Davis Cup representation is Nikola Pilic. In the finals of the 2000 Gold Coast Open Silvija Talaja beat Concita Martinez, 1994 Wimbledon Winner.
In 2005 Croatia managed to win in the Davis Cup quarter-final match against very strong USA team on “their territory”. Ivan Ljubicic (Bosnian Croat born in Banja Luka) defeated Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick, and with his colleague Mario Ancic brought victory against brothers Bryan in the doubles. Until the match with Croatia in 2005 the USA Davis Cup team has never lost a round at home in 105 years of play! Furthermore, Croatia is only 12th country in history to win the Davis Cup.
Croatian team won the 2005 Davis Cup in the final match with Slovakia in Bratislava. This is one of the greatest achievements in the history of Croatian sport. Members of the team were
- Ivan Ljubicic,
- Mario Ancic,
- Ivan Karlovic, and
- Goran Ivanisevic.
Nikola Pilic, leader of the team, thus became the first captain in the history of Davis cup to win the trophy for different nations (he led Germany to Davis Cup titles in 1988, 1989 and 1993).
Marin Cilic won the 2005 Roland Garros gold medal in Paris in the junior category (at the age of 16, as one of the youngest competitors). He lost only one set in the whole tournament. Marin was born in the famous Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2017 he reached the finals of the Wimbledon tournament, loosing to R. Federer.
Croatia Open Umag, International tennis championship of CroatiaCroatia winning 2018 Davis Cup against France – in France!
Croatia in the world of tennis
Antun Stipancic, often called “the golden left hand of Croatian sport”, was one of the greatest Croatian table tennis players. In 1965, at the age of 16, he defeated the then European champion Kjell Johanson by 24:22 in the fifth set, winning Johanson’s two match balls. In men doubles he was gold medalist during the European Championships organized in Lyon 1968 with Vecko and in Moscow 1970 with Dragutin Šurbek. In 1975 he won the silver medal at the World Championship in Kolkota in singles and in the doubles – the gold medal with Dragutin Šurbek at the World Championship in Pyongyang 1979.
Zoran Primorac won several important international table tennis tournaments: in France in 1997, in Qatar in 1998 and other. The tournaments gathered the best table tennis players of the world.
U borbi za međunarodno priznanje Hrvatskog stolnoteniskog saveza. Zoran Primorac, jedan od najboljih europskih igrača stekao je pravo nastupa na turniru Europa Top 12 za 1991. godinu, ali kako HSTS još nije bio priznat kao samostalni član ITTF-a to je Primorac trebao nastupiti pod jugoslavenskom zastavom, što je odbio. Nakon pregovora između predstavnika HSTS Hudetza i vodstva ETTU postignut je kompromis. U znak solidarnosti svi najbolji europski igrači nastupili su u dresovima bez nacionalnih oznaka, tako da je Primorac mogao nastupiti s dresom bez jugoslavenskog grba i zastave. Izvor.
And Tamara Boros was the best ping-pong player in the world among women of non-Chinese origin for 1998 and 1999 (ranked 13th, the first 12 places being occupied by Chinese players, as well as many places after Tamara). She is famous for her attractive offensive style.
She was the winner of the 2002 TOP 12 European ping-pong competition in Rotterdam. After this success she was placed second (!) on the world rank. She won the third place at the World Championship in Paris in 2003, which is the greatest success of Croatian (and European!) table tennis in history for women.
She also won the 2006 Europe TOP 12 competition in Copenhagen.
Tamara is the only one in Europe capable to cope with ping-pong players from Asia (China, Japan, etc.). In 2006 she has been invited to China to play table tennis in their professional league, which is the strongest one in the world. In 1991, as a young girl Tamara had to escape with her parents from what is now Serbia and Montenegro, when Greater-Serbian aggression on Croatia started. Her both parents are Hungarians. Together with Janica Kostelic, Tamara Boros is one of the greatest Croatian sportswomen in history.
Sandra Paovic was the 2015 world para-tennis champion of the world and Paraolympic gold medallist in Rio 2016.
Davor Šuker, Golden Boot Winner, 1998 France Many Croatian sportsmen, trainers and others are well known throughout Europe. As an example, let us take the city of Sevilla in Spain only (1995):
- Davor Suker played soccer for “Sevilla”,
- Robert Jarni for “Betis”,
- Aco Petrovic (brother of Drazen Petrovic) was a trainer of a basketball club in Sevilla and, last but not least,
- Vjekoslav Sutej conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Sevilla from 1990 to 1996 (better known as conductor of annual Christmas concerts in Vienna).
| In the summer of 2005 a qualifying soccer match between Hungary and Croatia was held in Budapest for the World Competition in 2006, when Croatian team already had secured the first place in their group. Within Croatian fans there was unpleasant disorder, which according to Vlatko Markovic, president of Croatian Soccer Association, has been organized in advance in order to discredit Croatia. Namely, a group of alleged Croatian fans with Croatian design came to the match from a part of Serbia inhabited by Croatians. See his interview to Hrvatska rijec, Subotica, October 2005, No 141, p 57. |
In 2018, Croatian achieved its greatest success in football – silver medal at the FIFA World Cup (orgnaized in the Russian Federation), surpassing the 1998 success of winning bronze medal at the FIFA World Cup (organized in France). We recall the names of Davor Šuker, Zvonimir Boban and Slaven Bilić from 1998, and the names of Luka Modrić, Ivan Rakitić and Dejan Lovren in 2018. See here:Silver medal of diamond glitter for Croatia at the 2018 FIFA World Cup final with golden France
Croatia 2 – 1 England at the FIFA World Cup 2018 in Moscow
Croatia 2 (4) – Russian Federation 2 (3) at the FIFA World Cup 2018
Croatia 1 (3) – 1 (2) Denmark at the FIFA World Cup 2018
Anthological events behind fantastic Croatian games at FIFA World Cup in 2018
Luka Modrić, winner of the Golden Ball for 2018.
Luka Modric of Croatia named UEFA Player of Year for 2018
Luka Modric of Croatia named world’s best football player by FIFA for 2018
Damjan Rodin 1910-1968 Croatian priest in Brasil founder of Vila Croacia in Rio de Janeiro
Ante Žanetić, a member of world’s best soccer team in 1960,
along with Pele, DiStefano, Puskas etc.
The ex-Yugoslav soccer team won the Olympic gold medal in Rome in 1960. The same year, Croatian soccer player Ante Zanetic (1936-2014), was elected by World Soccer (London) as a member of the world’s best eleven, along with Pele, DiStefano, Puskas, Gento, Julinho, etc. Also in 1960, he participated at European championships in Paris, winning silver medal. In 1967, he emigrated to Germany, and died in Australia. In 2006 he wrote an autobiographical book Zlato Rima i Srebro Pariza (The Gold of Rome and Silver of Paris). Jakov Sedlar, distinguished Croatian filmmaker, produced a 30 min biographical film about Ante Zanetic.