Justfindit.se Magazine

Croatia is not my neighbor

Croatia is not my neighbor. Earlier FIFA World Cups but also this one in Qatar 2022 has opened one question. What country should I cheer for? Is it some random, or my own or no one?

Just because someone told me to cheer for a country at FIFA World Cup it does not mean that the reason for that is right. But thanks to those circumstances I got inspired to write an article about that. Sometimes it is worth writing about something different. Maybe it can lead to some clarifications.

As an author and owner of this magazine, I have decided to write a reportage about someone being my neighbor when following some sport event. For example this FIFA World Cup in in Qatar 2022.

Once upon a time we were together in a country called SFRJ, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Croatia was a part of it. We were one and the same. Our common passport was more than welcome all over the World. We had many good qualities together.

No longer together

Suddenly all that disappeared. No more common country, no more common passport. Someone literally raised their middle finger and said: No more Yugoslavia and thank you very much. Since that time I live in beautiful Sweden and you can find out more about that in this article: Sweden and me - 30 years of love.

I remember FIFA World Cup 1998 when Croatia played soccer against Germany. I followed that match and I cried when I saw that Germany lost. Why? Actually I was in love with Germany since 1990 after the match against Yugoslavia. That one was devastating for the Yugoslavian team because West Germany won with 4:1. (At that time Germany was called West Germany because there were two parts: West and East.)

Sadly that great match was the last one between those two countries.

Croatia created a good team. There is nothing negative to write about it but I do not have any reason to wish them the best luck in any of their games. They decided to leave me once upon a time and now they can not expect from me to cheer for them.

No one can expect it from me. Someone said: Come on, they are our neighbor, cheer for them!

New neighborhood

Sorry but Croatia is not my neighbor. My new neighbors are Denmark, Norway, Finland, Germany, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and even Russia. I live in that new neighborhood since 1992. My closest neighbor is actually Denmark. Germany is the second one.

Logically, Croatia can not be my neighbor because it is more than thousand kilometers and at least three other countries between us.

That country does not even want to be associated with me. It seems like they want ignore and erase our former common relation. They maybe believe that they maybe are better but that is a very relative and subjective question.

So, cheering for someone at FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar turned into cheering for no one. On the other side, Sweden did not participate so who cares about others? Also my neighbor Germany played that bad so their game was not so inspiring any more. However, this time we can see that one of the common winners is back again and that is great. Croatia maybe can have better luck in future especially if they fight properly like they do now.