Ajmo Hrvatska! - Theme Week

[AW13]

For the longest time, I have been a fan of the Croatian National Football Team and have loved seeing all the awesome players come through such as Mario Mandzukic, Luka Modric, Mateo Kovacic, Ivan Perisic, Stipe Pletikosa, Vedran Corluka, and more great players through the years. I have also wanted a Croatian team in these sim leagues and in fact, for a couple of weeks, I had my own Croatian Football Club in a sim league. Back in the now defunct GRSL, I was the GM or manager of the Warsaw FC club that existed in the league and we were rebranding per my request to Zagreb FC. We had some slick jerseys that mirrored ones similar to the Croatian National Team and Dinamo Zagreb with the iconic checkered kits. Before we could even fully get in a game, the league shut down and there would not be a team in the capital of the greatest Balkan country.

I would love to see a Croatian team here in the SSL and if I ever had more time in life and a more positive outlook on sim leagues than I currently do, I would love to run the team. I would also love to see a team thrive in Zagreb or even another city like Split to be able to showcase Croatian football. We would of course bring back the iconic checkered jerseys which is a kit I really enjoy Athenai having something similar to as well. I would certainly have to reconsider my Athenai allegiance if a team in Croatia was ever created but we are far away from that I believe and I doubt many others would have Croatia as a first choice as well. I would make sure we brought in some quality players and while I have talked mostly about the Croatian national team, of course it will be players from around the world. Croatia does have their own national league and two of their biggest teams, Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split are in similar places that I would put a team as well. Zagreb of course is the capitol of the country and Split is a more unknown place but it is known as a big travel spot and a place with many great beaches on the Mediterranean Sea similar to how Greece is known for. We would play a disciplined and tough game that Croatian clubs have always been known for and it would be instilled in the players hopefully from day one! I need to talk myself out of this because now I just really want a Croatian team to exist.

It is an often overlooked country in terms of football talent but as I mentioned early in the first paragraph, there are legit stars that have played at the highest levels of professional football that come from Croatia. La Liga, The Premier League, Bundesliga, and more big time leagues have featured Croatian players of all talent types. I made my beta season player from Croatia but decided to go with Denmark on my current player but any future players will likely be Croatian because I am a big fan of the National team and yes, I realize I am American. I don't know if, or when a Croatian team will actually become a thing but I would love to see it and will make sure to break out my Croatia kit for the occasion!