First Touch ’26 - Croatia

Small but mighty, Croatia are the ultimate World Cup overachievers. In this World Cup Capsule, David Gass tells the story of a national team less than three decades old that’s already reached three semifinals and one final—an absurd record for a country of under four million people. We trace how Croatian football grew out of the Yugoslav era, from Hajduk Split and Dinamo Zagreb’s “Eternal Derby” and the legendary Torcida fan culture to independence, a brand-new domestic league, and a meteoric rise from 125th in the FIFA rankings to a third-place finish at France ’98. 

From there, we relive the 2018 and 2022 runs powered by Luka Modrić’s genius, Zlatko Dalić’s pragmatic, players-first leadership, and a second “golden generation” that just refused to die, grinding through extra time and penalty shootouts on the biggest stage. We dig into Croatia’s youth development miracle—why they “only had one Modrić” and had to protect every fragile talent—highlighting rising center back Luka Vušković as the next big thing. Along the way, we hit Slaven Bilić’s outsized influence, the infamous Dinamo–Red Star riot that helped spark the independence struggle, and even the Croatian claim to inventing the necktie. With an aging core, a brutal group, and a country that expects deep runs now, this might be the last stand for one of the great modern World Cup stories.