Croatian coach Slaven Bilic announced this week the squad which he will take with him to the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland this summer, making him the first coach to do so. Rather than being filled with surprises, the greatest surprise was the lack of surprises. Of course, there is no Eduardo, that has been known for some time now, and, with equal certainty, present are Luka Modric, Niko Kranjcar, Ivica Olic and Niko Kovac. The only sour note for some fans of Croatian football will be the woeful lack of Croatian based players in the squad.
Despite having a fully functioning league that has been the cradle for many of the squad’s star players, only three players from the league were able to impress the coach enough to