Mateo Kovačić

Written by Alex Holiga for Telesport:

Despite all of his club trophies — and he has won plenty, including no less than four Champions League titles, although he played in only one final, for Chelsea against Manchester City in 2021, and that was for 10 minutes — as well as his 100 caps, Mateo Kovacic has never been among the most popular players in Croatia. Maybe it’s a lack of natural charisma, or the fact that he has always been in Modric’s shadow, or the impression that he never says anything remotely interesting in interviews. He is sometimes referred to as “the Altar Boy” – because, well, he was an altar boy and met his future wife while she was in the choir – so people were taken by surprise when he grabbed the mic on stage at the 2018 World Cup homecoming rally in Zagreb only to mutter: “We’re drunk as little pussycats.” It was a particularly bizarre one-off moment in an otherwise solid career.