Croatia national football team

The Croatia national football team (Croatian: Hrvatska nogometna reprezentacija) represents Croatia in international football. The team is controlled by the Croatian Football Federation, the nation's governing body of football. A FIFA-sanctioned national side previously represented the short-lived Banovina of Croatia and Independent State of Croatia in nineteen friendly matches between 1940 and 1944.[3] This team was dissolved in 1945 as Croatia became a constituent federal republic of SFR Yugoslavia. In the period between 1945 and 1990, Croatia was ineligible to field a separate team for competitive matches; local players instead played for the Yugoslavia national football team.

The modern Croatian team was formed in 1990, shortly before Croatia's independence from Yugoslavia, and by 1993 had gained membership in FIFA and UEFA.[4] The team played their first competitive matches in the successful qualifying campaign for UEFA Euro 1996, leading to their first appearance at a major tournament.[3] In Croatia's FIFA World Cup debut in 1998 the team finished third and provided the tournament's top scorer, Davor Šuker. Since becoming eligible to compete in international tournaments, Croatia have failed to qualify for only one World Cup (in 2010) and one European Championship (in 2000).[5]

Most home matches are played at the Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb, with some fixtures also taking place at the Poljud Stadium in Split or at other, smaller venues, such as Kantrida Stadium in Rijeka or Gradski Vrt in Osijek. The team was undefeated in its first 36 home competitive matches at Maksimir, the run ending with a heavy defeat to England in September 2008.[3][6][7][8] The team's traditional nickname is Vatreni ("The Blazers").[9]

The team was named FIFA's "Best Mover of the Year" in 1994 and 1998, the only team—along with Colombia—to win the award more than once.[10][11] On admission to FIFA, Croatia was ranked 125th in the world; following the 1998 World Cup campaign, the side rose to third place in the rankings, making it the most volatile team in FIFA Rankings history.[12][13][14]

Croatia is considered by many as the biggest force in the Balkan region, as the players of the national football team have played for Europe's biggest and most popular football clubs, including Real Madrid (Luka Modrić & Mateo Kovačić), FC Barcelona (Ivan Rakitić), Juventus (Mario Mandžukić & Marko Pjaca), Internazionale (Ivan Perišić & Marcelo Brozović) and Liverpool (Dejan Lovren). The only teams from the Balkan region to have close comparison to Croatia are Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Greece.

The Croatia national football team is currently coached by Ante Čačić, following the termination of Niko Kovač's contract by the Executive Committee of the Croatian Football Federation.