UEFA Euro U-17: The Croatian Passport Holders Playing For Other Nations

The Croatian Football Federation (HNS) delegation at the UEFA Euro U-17 Championships which is being held currently in Slovakia not only have an eye on the Croatian team, but they will also be casting an eye on the other 14 Croatians playing at the tournament.

There are six players with Croatian origin in the Austrian team (Daniel Ripic, Stefan Peric, Adrian Grbic, Sascha Horvath, Petar Gluhakovic and Nikola Zivotic), three in the Sweden team (Ali Suljic, Christer Lipovac and Mirza Halvadzic) and five playing for Switzerland (Deni Kadoic, Mateo Matic, Anto Grgic, Marsel Stevic and Marko Brkul).

According to daily paper Vecernji list, a majority of the Croats playing for other nations do hold Croatian citizenship and passports. “We know about the players with Croatian backgrounds and we are following them, but we can not talk too much about it,” said Zorislav Srebric from HNS, adding that in the past a lot of foreign-born players have said they hold Croatian passports but suddenly they are ‘lost’ when they time comes to produce it.