Captain Mile Jedanik and his 2006 predecessor Mark Viduka are products of the two most famous Croatian football nurseries in the country: Sydney United 58 FC [formerly Sydney United] and Melbourne Knights respectively. Jedinak are joined by Matt Spiranovic, Eugene Galekovic, Ivan Franjic, Oli Bozanic and Dario Vidosic as the Australians with Croatian heritage. Even the commentary box is heaving with Croatian-Australian voices: SBS has Lucy and Ned Zelic, David Zdrilic, Zeljko Kalac and Jason Culina; Fox Sports has Mark Bosnich and Mark Rudan . It all adds up to a profound influence on Australian football. But unlike nationalities such as the Greeks or Italians, who once provided the Socceroos with a healthy quota of talent but no longer contribute in the same quantities, the Croatian production line keeps on churning out quality players en masse.

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact there are more than 30 Croatian-backed clubs in Australia, clubs with names that echo their distant homeland such as Fremantle Croatia and St Albans Saints Dinamo. They come together every year to contest the Australian-Croatian soccer tournament, which has been played for 40 years. But this community tournament alone can’t account for the enduring influence on the local game. Branko Culina, now the coach of Rockdale City Suns, traces the phenomenon back to the old Yugoslavia. In that Communist state, which brought together Serbs, Slovenians, Croats, Macedonians, Bosnians and Montenegrins under the one banner, nationalist sentiments were repressed. Croats, in particular, felt their culture was under threat, and many migrated to Australia in the '70s and '80s, though primarily for economic reasons. Here they were free to fly their flag, practise their religion, which was frowned upon at home, and pursue their sporting passion: football. The round-ball game became an avenue for national identity – and later – assimilation.

“Sure there are proud football communities here like the Italians and Greeks, but they didn’t have the same pride as we did,” says Culina, whose family immigrated to Melbourne in 1968. “That’s because we didn’t even have our own country, we were regarded as Yugoslavian – they already had their own country.” It meant talented sons of migrants from Zadar, Rijeka, Split and Zagreb were encouraged to turn out for one of the plethora of Croatian-Australian soccer teams. Of course, these clubs were also places where the community could socialise. Western Sydney Wanderers goalkeeper Ante Covic has fond memories of the barbecues and get-togethers at his junior club Hurstville Zagreb [now Hurstville FC] but he also recognises the significance of the struggle for national identity: “We had something to prove – and then there was the war [for independence in the 1990s] and that made us even harder.” Independence in 1991 coincided with a golden era for Croatian-Australian clubs, and the Knights, and to a lesser degree Sydney United, dominated the National Soccer League.

Former Socceroo and Sydney United striker David Zdrilic says as a young player it was a tremendous time to be learning his trade: “It felt like a massive celebration; there was a massive togetherness at the club in that period.” His is the classic migrant story: his Zadar-born dad was more concerned that he should get a good education than play football, and he didn’t take the game seriously till he was 17. He can’t quite put his finger on why the Croatian community continues to supply so many good footballers but he says the fusion of Croatian passion with Australian resilience has helped created a better and in some ways superior footballer. “Croatians are very passionate and it might have been that they got angry over a decision in a match, and maybe then they would have given up, but you combine that with that Australian never-say-die attitude and you get the best of both worlds: a much stronger player.” The idea that Croatian-heritage footballers possess exceptional mental and physical toughness has been around for a while.

In the 1990s, Culina asked then national youth team coach Les Scheinflug what type of player he preferred. Scheinflug was in no doubt. Players of Croatian descent were better because they weren’t afraid to get stuck in, and were technically proficient. If it weren’t for his parents, Mark Bosnich could have ended up tackling front-row forwards and packing down in rugby league scrums. Fortunately, his mum and dad, who hailed from Dalmatia, steered the ex-Socceroo, Aston Villa and Sydney United keeper towards soccer. For Bosnich, football was a way of integrating into the mainstream. He says Australians place a high value on sport, so it’s only natural ethnic communities would try to excel at the sports they had a passion for. “I always consider myself Australian first, but the Croatians love their football, so it was their way of assimilating.” Beyond Brazil, will Australians of Croatian descent continue to star for the Socceroos in the same numbers? Will we see, for example, the sons of the 2006 generation sporting green and gold at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar? Culina is not so sure. He does a lot of coaching at grassroots level and doesn’t see as many Croatian-sounding names on team lists.

“It will trickle away because there isn’t the same level of immigration,” he says “I think 2006 was probably the high point.” Another mitigating factor is Sydney United 58 and the Melbourne Knights no longer play in the elite league, so fewer players will make it to the top. More significantly, the nature of the migrant experience means the old home culture dilutes from one generation to the next, and in a multicultural society, that means being opened up to other leisure pursuits and, somewhat ominously, the more dominant Australian football codes. One man who is confident about the future is the Sydney United FC director of football, Sam Krslovic. United fields 12 teams from under-nines to first grade. He says on average about 30 per cent of the club’s players are of Croatian descent, and he is already seeing the next generation coming through. “Tony Popovic’s sons play in the under 11s and under 13s and they’re better than he was. It’s really very strong.” He says the club has never had a policy of recruiting Croatian-heritage players, but because it is professionally run and employs mentors who have played at the highest level – current coach is former Sydney FC defender Rudan – will continue to be a breeding ground for the A-League. “We recruit the best of the best – that is the way we do it. Croatian players had to be strong because they had come from a totalitarian state, but even now, we are still seeing good players coming through.”