The striker shines every two years, when his country participates in the Euro or the World Cup, before falling back into relative anonymity. The semi-final against Argentina on Tuesday is a new opportunity for him to respond to the fateful moment.
Like a recurrent astronomical phenomenon, Ivan Perisic reappears in front of the world every two years, in even years, preferably in summer. When the Euro is postponed by a year, due to Covid, or the World Cup takes place in winter like in Qatar, the Croatian national team striker stacks the goals as usual, to the point of become his country’s top scorer in major tournaments. “His teammates often say they are waiting for Perisic and the most incredible thing is that he always responds. He only scored decisive goals or almost. When things look bad and everyone in the team starts to doubt, the devil comes out of his box and unblocks the situation“, Reported Zlatko Dalic, the coach of Croatia at the start of the competition.
Since the 2014 Brazilian World Cup, the former Dortmund and Inter Milan player has been scoring and providing assists every time, which does not seem to move him. “I’m not interested in records; the only thing that matters is that Croatia wins. If I was concerned about my stats, I wouldn’t strip for the team.” said the 30-year-old at a press conference, shortly after his equalizer against Japan in the round of 16. Since then, Croatia have eliminated Brazil and will play this Tuesday evening to knock out Argentina in the semi-finals.
“As he was in a hurry, he no longer wanted to wait his turn”
The rest of the time, in the club, Perisic sticks to relative discretion, which is difficult to read given his lethal talent. His career had many detours (France, Belgium, Germany) before taking off by signing for Inter Milan in 2015. At 17, in the summer of 2006, the young star of Hajduk Split, who was already playing among seniors, is courted by a few renowned European shops (Anderlecht, Hamburg, Ajax) but her father, Ante, sends her to Sochaux-Montbéliard to save his poultry farm which threatens to collapse. The future Croatian international goes into exile in the Doubs with his mother and sister while the father stays to take care of his chickens. Marriage will not resist and Perisic, despite obvious technical skills, will never play in the French first team. “He was a well-educated boy. Like all talented players, he defied authority a bit. As he was in a hurry, he no longer wanted to wait for his turn. remembers Eric Hély, a former trainer from Sochaux.
After two seasons in the East of France, Perisic headed for Belgium, at KSV Roeselare, for a six-month loan, then signed with FC Bruges. A couple of years later, he was crowned best player and scorer in the Belgian championship. The rest of its story is written in Germany (Dortmund, Wolfsburg) where it struggles to explode. “These are undoubtedly his performances with the Vatreni [le surnom de l’équipe nationale, ndlr] which allowed him to cross a course. When he was at Dortmund, he had Jurgen Klopp as a coach, but failed to take advantage of it. He wasn’t ready. It was all a matter of trust. He was very mature, very young, open, endearing and his career has forged him a great character. In the end, he became a warrior that you prefer to have with you”gets carried away Miroslav Blazevic, the former Croatian coach (1994-2000).
“He could have been an incredible decathlete”
Perfectly ambidextrous, the “Dalmatian with red spots”, compared to his country’s checkered jersey, was introduced to basketball at a very young age in Split, the city of two local figures who became stars of the American NBA, Toni Kukoc and Drazen Petrovic . More recently, he put on the gloves against a kickboxing champion (Luka Tomic) and even started a beach volleyball World Cup round in 2017 behind his then club, Inter Milan. . “He has a great trigger and a good sense of timing, analyse Blazevic. He could have been an incredible decathlete. At the 2018 World Cup, he was the player who ran the most. He was first used across the front of the attack at the start of his career, he then turned into a piston under Antonio Conte, in Italy. You can play it in five different positions. It’s quite unique.”
This week in Doha, Croatia could reach a second straight final, possibly against the same opponent, France. A somewhat spatial perspective for a country of less than four million inhabitants. “We have proven in recent tournaments that we never panic. It’s in our character to always keep fighting, even when we’re behind. Which makes it always difficult to play against uss, he delivered to the Meusethe Belgian newspaper, last week, without being dismantled. Obviously, it is no longer the same team as the one that became vice-world champion. Therefore, we struggled at first. Young people like Gvardiol bring a real plus. That’s what makes me think we’re even better today than four years ago..»
