WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP – What is the similarity between Croatian football representatives and domestic entrepreneurs

France, England, Netherlands, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Morocco and – Croatia! In this company, Croatia is convincingly the smallest, with the fewest inhabitants, with the lowest GDP (only the biggest surprise, Morocco, has a lower GDP per capita) and has a negative foreign trade balance with all except Morocco. Imagine that we are in this company according to economic parameters, not according to football ones. But it is what it is.

Although in the company of football giants, Croatian football shares the fate of the rest of the small country at the tail of the EU. Namely, the national football team is just a showcase of Croatian players who play in large, and some in the richest and best European clubs. They play up to 70 matches a year for their employers, and the round of 16 match against Japan was the 13th national appearance this year. By reaching the quarter-finals, the ‘Vatreni’ earned the Croatian Football Federation 17 million dollars. A victory in the next round brings another eight million, third place 27 million dollars, second 30 million, and the world champion will cash in 42 million dollars. For comparison, four years ago, the silver from Russia brought 28 million dollars (about 180 million kuna) to the HNS treasury and was the main reason for a record income of 371 million kuna.

However, the HNS is not the richest sports institution. GNK Dinamo regularly generates more than 400 million kuna a year, and last year 479 million kuna. After all, the money that FIFA distributes to national teams is a mere trifle compared to club earnings. Real Madrid achieved an operational income of 722 million euros and for the first time broke the ceiling of five billion dollars in estimated value.

The real earnings are on the club sports and football scene, so world and continental competitions are just pretexts that large sports capital still cannot break. But it is only a matter of time before a system is established in which the best and richest European clubs – Real, Barcelona, Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, PSG, Bayern, Juventus – will play against each other throughout the season. Small clubs like our Dinamo, especially Hajduk, Rijeka, or Osijek, are just a disruptive factor in such a game of great values. For Dinamo, the victory over Chelsea was the highlight of the season, while the London club routinely considered the return match and victory just another ordinary day at the office.

Indeed, Dinamo manages to stay on the edge of the most elite competitive categories. Among the hundred most valuable football clubs in the world (according to Transfermarkt’s player value estimates), Dinamo is the only representative of ‘new Europe’. It achieves this by combining an excellent youth academy and smart player trading. However, it must sell before it can get the highest price. Joško Gvardiol left for ‘only’ 19 million euros to Leipzig, and after excellent performances in Qatar, his imminent departure to one of the richest clubs will amount to over one hundred million, which will be the largest transfer in history for a defensive player! Nevertheless, Dinamo has been known to sell decently. From active footballers, they received 29 million euros for their Spaniard Danija Olma, 22.5 million for Luka Modrić, and over ten million for Mateo Kovačić and Lovro Majer. These amounts usually increase with the next, mostly larger transfers, from which a previously agreed percentage comes to Zagreb.

When leaving Maksimir, the only transfer from Croatia greater than ten million euros was achieved by Nikola Vlašić (10.8 million euros from Hajduk to Everton). Hajduk, in the struggle for existence, sold its players ‘for peanuts’. Josip Juranović went to Poland for 400 thousand euros, and Ivan Perišić at just 17 years old to Sochaux for 360 thousand…

In this lies the similarity between Croatian footballers and Croatian entrepreneurship. The best footballers are bought by football multinationals long before they reach their playing maturity. Similarly, domestic companies are bought by foreigners. This is precisely the year of major acquisitions. A Turkish group is acquiring Petrokemija. After a Polish fund bought Studenac, that company became the largest acquirer (Lonia, Pemo, Kordun, Duravit stores, Split’s Toni markets). The British are the new owners of the largest betting chain Super Sport, Sancta Domenica has gone to the Slovenians, the Czechs have become the majority owners of the Đuro Đaković group, and the Austrians of Vargona…

Like sports clubs, Croatian companies do not have the strength to compete with the biggest global players; exceptions are rare. Year after year, foreigners acquire valuable businesses, even if they are currently in a precarious situation. And we are satisfied that some of these companies continue to operate at all, even though, for example, INA under Hungarian management has cut the number of employees by almost 6,500, reduced oil and gas extraction, closed the refinery, and dramatically increased imports.

Therefore, we are left to rejoice in the rescue and growth of Croatian companies in foreign ownership, but also footballers mostly from foreign clubs in the representative’s exhibition editions. And to cheer today against the formidable Brazil, for another step towards a sporting, as well as a business miracle.