After a month of scintillating football, France on Sunday night in Moscow walked away with the FIFA World Cup, its second title, the last coming 20 years ago at home. As the clouds opened up, the French team lifted the Cup and jumped in joy, asserting that for now, they are the best in the world. They had a good tournament. The team did not lose a single match, drawing one, and winning all the others, defeating other former title holders Argentina and Uruguay in the knockout phase, in its quest for the Cup. And in the final, France showed that it was the better team putting it past Croatia by four goals to two. But the most important lessons in this World Cup, came not from the winners France, but from the runners-up – Croatia.
Croatia is a country that a lot of people would probably have to turn to the globe to find where in Europe it is situated, and if the globe was one that had been purchased before 1991 and was gathering dust in a corner of the house, they just wouldn’t find the country on it. It came into existence as an independent country, its borders defined in 1991, with the disintegration of Yugoslavia. It has a population of 41 lakh and in the past fortnight its soccer team very suddenly found itself a fan following in multiples of the country’s population. It didn’t, however, manage to lift the Football World Cup that had a billion people glued to their television sets across the world, cheering the team as its players donning the red and white checked jersey sprinted on the field and scored twice into the French goal.
But two goals were not enough for Croatia to give their World Cup run a fairy tale ending that many had hoped for. Croatia came into the tournament with few expecting the team to make it past the quarter final. The team went beyond that, coming from behind in two matches in the knockout phase, winning in extra time under pressure, displaying a will to win. They just didn’t give up, not even when the score and the time were against them and that endeared the team to the people.
On Sunday night there were a lot more cheers on the streets of India every time the Argentine referee blew the whistle signifying a Croatian goal, than there was two days earlier when Hima Das scripted history for the country when she became the first Indian to win a gold in the junior athletics championship. That’s how much the Croatian team touched the people with their heroics on field, and as heroes they will return home.
They did something amazing for their country, and for a few days their countrymen forgot the economic problems and strife at home. Croatia is a small country, the smallest country to reach the World Cup final in 60 years. To put the population figure into perspective, Croatia has a population much less than that of Hyderabad and the fear is that four years from now, if it qualifies for the next World Cup in Qatar, the population may have dropped further, as its nationals migrate overseas in search of the proverbial greener pastures. And these migrants include its footballers. Just two of the players in the World Cup squad play in Croatia, the other 21 don the Croatian colours with pride, but play for teams spread mostly across Europe, which means there is hardly any grassroots football programme in the country, no league to jostle along with the EPL, Italian Serie A, Spanish La Liga or German Bundesliga. So how did they do it?
It was their never say die spirit that saw them reach the final. The Croatian players appeared crestfallen after the final whistle, but the team has taught the world that no matter what is happening at home, on the field a united team, focused on the goal, can be a winner.
