Modric, Juranovic & Croatia's 'Hollywood story'
The Athletic FC Podcast
The Athletic
4.0 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 13 December 2022
⏱️ 45 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
The World Cup resumes tonight as Messi and Argentina prepare to face Croatia - A far smaller footballing nation which has somehow reached back-to-back World Cup semi finals... To explain how they keep doing it and to tell us more about the remarkable personal journeys of the players, Adam Leventhal is joined by The Athletic’s Jack Pitt-Brooke and host of Nova TV in Croatia, Sasa Lugonjic.
Hear about Luka Modric’s backstory of war and personal trauma, to his rise as the best player in the world, possibly even the best midfielder of this generation. Sasa tells us about Josip Juranovic’s “Cinderella story” from competition winner (literally) to National stardom. And the panel discuss where hot property Josko Gvardiol might end up in the coming transfer windows.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic. |
| 0:04.7 | So one of four nations will lift the World Cup here in Qatar on Sunday. |
| 0:10.2 | France will be roared on by a population of 67 million. |
| 0:13.9 | Argentina and Morocco can count on the support of 46 and 38 million people respectively. |
| 0:19.9 | And then there is Croatia, |
| 0:21.8 | where the population of just 4 million, |
| 0:24.1 | but in recent World Cups, they have performed like giants. |
| 0:27.8 | I'm Adam Leventhal, and welcome to the Athletic Football Podcast. |
| 0:31.8 | First is so that after 98, when we went to Semicense, |
| 0:35.4 | when we went to bronze medal. |
| 0:37.2 | Jukkah, Shuka through. E! when we went to Semyz and when we went the bronze medal. Damos Chuka. |
| 0:38.9 | Shuka's through. |
| 0:41.1 | It's good night and thank you. |
| 0:44.4 | Davo Schuca has done it. |
| 0:48.0 | Croatia go to the World Cup semifinals. |
| 0:52.7 | It's not just a victory. |
| 0:54.6 | It's a statement of national pride. |
| 0:58.3 | Then Russia, 2018. |
| 1:00.5 | Unbelievable. |
| 1:01.2 | We are perished, perishich, Madochik, Mankchik, and Mujukchit, and Superbaria, |
| 1:08.6 | and Zambia! And now again, |
| 1:17.4 | consecutive World Cups. |
... |
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