Cybereagles

mate wrote:Football is a religion in the Balkans. Every kid plays and aspires. In spite of the rivalries, most root for Croatia and draw inspiration.

Same from the ethic Albanians that play for Switzerland.

Hello Mate

Is there a reason why most of the good players are from your region of the Balkans?

Sir V wrote:

yannick wrote:

Scipio Africanus wrote:

Sir V wrote:Yugoslavia V Nigeria .. 1998 ...
[/video]

That was a spanking. Pure comedy at 1:06 ...

Kai where we that bad? or was Yugoslavia really that good.

My bro, that was Amokachi selected side. Baruwa (Omo Alhaja) had no business playing in that team. Nor be today we don dey mess up.

SirV let us keep perspective here without over reacting. The three best keepers around at the time were Ike, Baruwa and Dosu..who at that time had become the victim of an auto accident. Up to that point Baruwa was in the pole position because Ike was also injured I believe. The other keeper in reckoning was Willy Opara, so I cannot understand what you mean by Baruwa should not have been there. Those were the keepers we had at the time or should I say the goalkeeping situation...hence Rufai was brought back from retirement.

I still believe Baruwa would have done better than a washed out Rufai,who could not even hills the ball. Ike would probably have been the first choice but his injury ruled him out.

By the way Baruwa would have been the keeper at the Olympics 2 years earlier, he manned the post for the qualifiers I believe until he was dropped dues to some discrepancies around his eligibility or something like that. In the run up to the 1998 world cup,the three best keepers in Nigeria were Ike, Baruwa and Dosu in that order. Dosu's Olympics exploits catapulted him ahead of the other two, but for someone who played with these three for almost 5 years, around 97 and 98, Baruwa and Ike were the best in the land, and the rivalry between the two was intense.

wale1974 wrote:

mate wrote:Football is a religion in the Balkans. Every kid plays and aspires. In spite of the rivalries, most root for Croatia and draw inspiration.

Same from the ethic Albanians that play for Switzerland.

Hello Mate

Is there a reason why most of the good players are from your region of the Balkans?

Lots. Some which we discussed. Culture, fair weather, the Dinamo academy, football legacy, and, more controversially, genes for football.

We tend to be bigger, faster, and more athletic than other Balkan rivals. RoatiAns, Serbians, and Bosnian Muslims all rate high in my book. But that’s where I think the other factors give us an edge.

Just my guessing. One more though: in the USA, Christian Pulisic might be the breakout American forward. He’s of Croatian heritage. So are many Australian footballers.

Pockey, would you say by now Croatia are not crap?

I think we give France a good fight.

The best ever old Yugoslavia players for me were Dragan Stojkovic (Serb) and Dejan Savicevic (Montenegrin). Next in line would be Robert Prosinecki and Zvonimir Boban (Croats). Sinisa Mihajlovic was probably the best free-kick expert ever and he was Serb. Vladimir Jugovic was also another Serb great midfielder. It's very arguable that the best players from that region were Croats.

mate wrote:Pockey, would you say by now Croatia are not crap?

I think we give France a good fight.

Hi Mate, why do most people in your country and other balkans states have "ic" as the last alphabets of their surnames and what's the meaning? There are some that don't have such alphabets in their surnames like Lovren, Prosinecki and others and why don't they?

I have no idea. My guess is that the “ic” roughly means “of”. Akin to “sson” in Iceland. The majority of last names end like this, as you noted.