Coach stayed away from awards
The Croatian national coach Zlatko Dalic stayed away from the World Football Association’s gala in Paris as part of the FIFA Awards. In a statement the website of the Croatian Football Union HNS the 56-year-old justified his absence – and did not spare with clear criticism of FIFA. The most important titles on Monday evening went to Argentinian world champions Lionel Messi (world footballer), Emiliano Martínez (world goalkeeper) and Lionel Scaloni (world coach). Dalic did not see himself and the players of his selection sufficiently appreciated in this context.
“I am disappointed with FIFA’s attitude towards the Croatian national team because I believe that we deserve more respect from world football’s governing body for the results we have achieved in recent years,” said Dalic. Croatia finished third at the World Cup in Qatar, having lost 3-0 in the semi-finals to eventual world champions Argentina. At the 2018 World Cup in Russia, they made it to the final against France (2-4). Dalic stated that he and his team were the only ones among the top 4 at the World Cup and the Nations League.
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The coach listed other Croatian successes, saying, among other things: “In 23 games after the European Championships, we only lost twice.” Dalic complained: “Nevertheless, look at the list of 14 candidates for the best player in the world – apart from that from the great Modric: Where are the Croats? (…) I really have a lot of respect for every player and coach, but wasn’t there room for Mateo Kovacic, who became the club world champion and played brilliantly at the World Cup, or for Gvardiol, who was in the top 11 at the World Cup according to most polls World Cup and in the Bundesliga? Didn’t Livakovic deserve to be among the five candidates for best goalkeeper (…)?”
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Dalic would have seen himself right at the ceremony in Paris. “Among the five proposed coaches, who I appreciate very much, there are also three national coaches, but none of them have reached both the Nations League finals and won a medal at the World Cup. With all due respect to the Moroccan coach and his success at the World Cup: We drew once in the two games against them and Croatia won the bronze medal in the second time.” Among the nominees were winners Scaloni and Carlo Ancelotti (Real Madrid) and Pep Guardiola (Manchester City) – Didier Deschamps (France) and Walid Regragui (Morocco) complete the top five.
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“I experience all this as a lack of respect,” said Dalic and also criticized the quality of the referees, especially in the World Cup semifinals. “I think our national team deserves more respect with their games and their behavior on and off the pitch, the same respect we show our opponents from game to game. (…) If English, Brazilian, Spanish, German or Italian players and coaches got results like we did, they would be well represented in all elections. I want more respect for us, for our national team, for our players and for myself because we are an absolute world sensation with two medals. FIFA should support us more because we have shown that a small country can compete with the biggest, which is the best advertisement for football in the whole world the winners of the awards and Modric to a “great fourth place”.
While only journalists vote for the Ballon d’Or organized by the French sports newspaper “L’Équipe”, the votes of four groups are weighted equally for the edition of FIFA: The captains of the national teams and their coaches, a journalist from each FIFA Member country and fans decide who is the world footballer. Croatia’s captain Modric did without a protagonist from his national team in his vote and opted for Karim Benzema ahead of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé.
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