On Sunday, Croatia will face off against France in the World Cup final. The country and its soccer team, however, have a complicated history. Here’s a look at the past of the team that might just be the next champions.
The English, who just lost the semifinal match to Croatia, were actually the ones who first introduced the sport to Croatia. In 1873, English expats played the first soccer match on Croatian soil. A few years later in 1880, the imported sport began to catch on after English workers, in search of additional players, invited locals to join their matches.
The first Croatian-language soccer rulebook was published in 1896, and an updated version was released in 1908. In 1903, Croats founded the first sports club focused on soccer, the First Football and Sports Club. In 1913, a Croatian team played its first official match against a team from England. They lost, but narrowly, with the final score recorded as 0 to 1. During World War I, Croats again faced off against the English, this time playing matches with sailors stationed in the Adriatic Sea.
These soccer matches happened with the backdrop of World War I, the invasion of Serbia, and the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The result was a rising tide of South Slavic nationalism that pushed for an independent but unified state for Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs. This state would eventually become the Kingdom of Yugoslavia which would last until 1939. During this time, Croats joined the team of the unified kingdom, although the distinct Croat identity briefly produced a Croat team within the kingdom.
Following the Axis invasion during World War II, and the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia, a puppet state under Nazi control, a Croatian team joined FIFA in July 1941 and played friendly matches with other nations.
But independent Croatia was short-lived. In 1945, the nation was reformed as the Socialist Republic of Croatia as part of Josip Broz Tito’s Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and the Croats again did not have an official team. Croat players represented Yugoslavia at the Olympics (where they won the 1960 gold medal), the World Cup, and European championships. Although they lacked an official team of their own, Croats formed an unofficial team that was active from 1950-1956 and played matches domestically and internationally.
After Tito’s death in 1980, Yugoslavia began to fall apart. As Croats moved for independence, ethnic conflicts between Croats and Serbs living in territory claimed by Croatia came to a head resulting in violence in 1991. The Croatian parliament voted for independence and in June 1991, declared Croatia an independent country.
The ethnic conflicts between the Serbs, who wanted to remain part of Yugoslavia, and the Croats, who wanted an independent state, were unresolved. They soon broke out into war. Croats fighting for independence from Yugoslavia fought with the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People’s Army and local Serb forces from 1991 through 1995. Despite a 1992 ceasefire and international recognition of an independent Croatia, the war was not officially over until Croat forces in 1995 won a decisive victory.
In the world of soccer, the modern independent state of Croatia made its debut with an unofficial team in an October 1990 game against the U.S. In 1992, Croatia rejoined FIFA and resumed playing matches as an independent and officially recognized team. The team, which had not played independently (not counting the Nazi puppet state) since those World War I-era games with English sailors, was finally back on the international stage.
This Sunday, they have a chance to add another milestone to their history with a World Cup win. Until the 2018 tournament, the independent Croatian team’s best finish was third place in 1998.
