Ronaldhinio

best gool »

Croatia National Football Team

Head coach: Slaven Bilić
Captain: Niko Kovač
Top scorer: Davor Šuker
FIFA ranking: 11

The Croatian national football team represents Croatia in international matches and is controlled by the Croatian Football Federation. The team has been in existence since 1990 and was recognised by FIFA and UEFA in the summer of 1992, one year after Croatia's independence from Yugoslavia.

The team played their first competitive matches in the qualifying campaign for the Euro 1996 and qualified for the finals to make their first appearance in a major international tournament. They have been a strong force in international football ever since, finishing third in the 1998 World Cup, led by Golden Boot winner Davor Suker. They have qualified for every World Cup that they have entered as an independent nation.

The team was FIFA's "Best Mover of the Year" in 1994 and 1998, and have been more volatile in the FIFA World Rankings than any other nation, having been rated as high as third, and as low as 125th. They are still undefeated in all competitive matches they played on home soil since 1994. They also qualified for both 2002 and 2006 World Cups without losing a qualifying match.

Football was played in Croatia from the beginning of the 20th century, but before the 1990s the country was not independent. Before that, the players from Croatia participated in the teams of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1919-39), Banovina of Croatia (1939-41), Independent State of Croatia (1941-45) and Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945-90).

For the Yugoslav periods, see Yugoslavia national football team.

Due to political circumstances in Kingdom of Yugoslavia shortly before World War II, Croatian sports teams were allowed to compete under Croatian flag, so the first international of Croatia could be considered a 4-0 victory over Switzerland played in Zagreb on 2 April 1940.

Croatia Team
No.	NAME	POS	H(M)	W(Kg)	Age
1	Stipe Pletikosa	G	1.93	83	28
12	Mario Galinovic	G	-	-	30
23	Vedran Runje	G	1.84	80	31
-	Boris Zivkovic	D	1.82	80	31
2	Dario Simic	D	1.78	75	31
3	Josip Simunic	D	1.95	89	29
4	Robert Kovac	D	1.82	78	33
5	Vedran Corluka	D	-	-	24
13	Dario Knezevic	D	1.84	80	25
13	Hrvoje Vejic	D	1.91	80	30
20	Anthony Seric	D	1.81	73	28
7	Milan Rapaic	M	1.83	73	33
8	Marko Babic	M	1.86	74	26
10	Nico Kovac	M	1.76	72	27
11	Darijo Srna	M	1.78	72	25
14	Luka Modric	M	1.73	65	21
15	Jurica Vranjes	M	1.86	75	27
16	Jerko Leko	M	1.87	78	35
19	Niko Kranjcar	M	1.85	80	22
24	Danijel Pranjic	M	1.72	67	25
9	Bosko Balaban	S	1.80	80	28
18	Ivica Olic	S	1.82	82	27
21	Mladen Petric	S	1.83	81	26
22	Da Silva Eduardo	S	1.77	70	24
25	Igor Budan	S	1.79	73	27

Group E
	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA	GD	P
Croatia	7	5	2	0	16	4	12	17
Israel	8	5	2	1	17	7	10	17
Russia	7	4	3	0	11	1	10	15
England	7	4	2	1	12	2	10	14
Macedonia	7	2	1	4	6	7	-1	7
Estonia	7	0	0	7	0	14	-14	0
Andorra	7	0	0	7	1	28	-27	0