Quote from: beerlover on May 23, 2023, 05:56:22 PM

Quote from: Daniel91 on May 23, 2023, 08:36:02 AM

These are the 14 main players of the Croatian national team that coach Dalic will use in the EURO qualifiers and in the League of Nations (it is possible that Modrić will retire after the League of Nations).
How many old players do you actually see here? Two or possibly three, and all the rest are young players who can play for the Croatian national football team for a very long time, the next 4 or even 8 years.
I think the time has come to stop repeating the false claims that the Croatian national football team is a very old team and that it is in decline. On the contrary, we have never had a team with more young, talented and quality footballers than now.

You do realize that one of the old players is the captain of the team and the best player they have ever had on their entire history and I assume the only ballon d'or winner from their nation? Not sure if that is the case, if any other Croation won it before, and if so god knows when that was. But, we are all aware that as soon as Modric leaves, even though the team that is left is not terrible, it will not be as good as they were with Modric, that's a very important distinction.

Plus, we can't really say how good or bad they will be based on whatever we have seen previously, every single cup is a single thing we need to look at. Look at Italy, won euro and failed to qualify for world cup, it's just that simple and we need to consider that a team is as good as how good they are on that cup, not before, not after, just focus on a single tournament.

Okay, you've made a few unverified claims, so let's talk about it.
Why do you think Modric is the best Croatian soccer player of all time? Do you have any official confirmation for that? Or is that just your personal opinion?
For me personally, in the period in which I follow football, from 1980 until today, the best and most talented Croatian football player in that period was Robert Prosinecki.
With the young national team of Yugoslavia he was the world champion, with the senior national team of Yugoslavia he unfortunately lost in the quarter-finals of the world championship in 1990 against Argentina with Maradona.
He was European club champion with Red Star in 1991, and being European champion with a club from the former Yugoslavia is a much bigger success than being European champion 5 times with Real.
With Croatia in 1998, he was third in the world after an unfortunate loss to France in the semi-finals.
In my opinion, that Croatian national team was the best in history.
Prosinecki is one of the few footballers in history who played for both Real and Barcelona, and his magnificent football career was prematurely stopped by numerous injuries.

As for the choice for the best football player in Europe, how objective is that choice and based on some objective indicators and facts? When was a defensive footballer or goalkeeper declared the best in Europe or the world? Almost never, because much more is written about and attention is paid to attackers like Ronaldo and Messi, and the perception is created that they are always the best and that everything depends on them, which is not realistic, but that is the public's perception, and journalists choose the best soccer player based on public perception, not objective facts.
Personally, I think that Ronaldo and Messi have definitely been declared the best footballers in Europe too many times, and that Benzema and Lewandowski also deserved that recognition at least once in this period.
Modrić was declared the best player in Europe when the public got fed up with Messi and Ronaldo and after a fantastic performance at the World Cup in Russia 2018.

Finally, why do you think that Croatia will no longer be good and achieve top results when Modrić retires?
Other great players who were among the best in the world played for Croatia, such as Prosinečki and Boban, so Croatia did not lose its quality after their departure and remained one of the best national teams in the world.
Just these days I read some announcements that the Croatian defender Gvardiol could become the most expensive defender in the history of football and move to Manchester City for 100 million euros.
So much for the future of Croatia without Modric Grin