Top 10 Interesting Facts about Croatia That You Did Not Know

Many people never knew the existence of Croatia until the country made headlines during her sterling performance at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Croatia kicked off the World Cup campaign like a joke. Many people dismissed the team but it kept on pulling one surprise after another, demolishing and shaming football giants like England  and landed at the World Cup finals to face off with France.

A lot has been said about Croatia. Here are some 10 facts which you may not have known that they existed:

Fact 1: Croatia has never beaten France in football at any encounter. The teams have met 5 times with the last 2 meetings ending in a draw.

Fact 2: Croatia has the most islands in the world. The country has 1,246 islands, islets and inlets, making it the most attractive tourists destination.

Fact 3: Croatia has become the world’s smallest country to reach the World Cup finals. The smallest country to have ever reached the World Cup finals was Uruguay in 1950 and was beaten by Brazil.

Fact 4: Croatia has a population of 4,437,000 inhabitants, just a quarter of the population of New York city.

This is not to mention that Kenya has 50 million inhabitants but qualifying for Africa Cup of Nations is a problem.

Fact 5: Croatia is home to the smallest town in the world. The town of Hum has a population of between 17 to 23 people.

Fact 6: Croatia used to be part of Yugoslavia. She fought and gained her independence in 1991, in a war that send thousands of her inhabitants into exile.

Fact 7: Some of the players in the Croatian team such as Mandzukic lived in exile in Switzerland during their childhood days when their country was fighting to break away from Yugoslavia.

Fact 8: I don’t need to mention that Croatia has a female president who has camped in Russia, sometimes with the team in the dressing room to make sure that they sail through the World Cup.

Fact 9: The capital city of Croatia is called Zagreb. It is the last city in the alphabetical order of cities in the world.

Fact 10: Croatia had never reached to the World Cup finals.

Croatia is taking on France at the World Cup finals. Will the country take over the world tournament by storm?