FRANCE 98 – General Media News Template

Davor Suker, known as Suker-man by his teammates because of his out-of-this-world footballing skills, is expected to be one of Croatia’s leading lights in France.

Croatia reached the quarter-finals of the European championship in 1996 with Suker in fine form. His goalscoring skills will be a major factor in whether Croatia fail or succeed in their first ever World Cup finals. Despite being known as Suker-man, he has always refuses to put himself up as a national hero, insisting during Euro 96: “I am not a Pele or a Maradona, the players I most admired. There is only one each of them.”

The Real Madrid striker had success early when he played a leading role in Yugoslavia’s World Youth Cup success in Chile during the 80’s, scoring six goals. Then his hometown club of Osijek hoped he could repeat that form for them in the Yugoslav league. He duly came up with the goods in the 1988/89 season, scoring 18 goals for Osijek making him league top scorer.

That summer he was transferred to Croatia’s biggest club Dinamo Zagreb where he fitted in immediately, scoring on his European debut and again ending the season as his club’s top goalscorer. International duty beckoned and he was duly chosen in Yugoslavia’s World Cup squad despite never having won a full cap. However he never got off the bench at the 1990 World Cup and had to wait till February 1991 before the first cap arrived.

But his first competitive appearance did not come till May 1991 in a 7-0 European championship victory ovr the Faroe Islands in which, after coming on as a substiute, he took just 23 minutes to score his first international goal.

However that was as far as Suker’s career for Yugoslavia went. Civil war took over, the Croatians in the squad declined to play, and that meant no 1992 European Championships and no 1994 World Cup. After modest totals of six and 13 in his first two seasons for Sevilla in Spain, Suker scored 23 times in the 1993/94 season, a tally only bettered by Barcelona’s Brazilian Romario.

He now plays for Real Madrid but has not had great success this season, and some believe this is partly because of the distraction of a romance with a TV star. Suker has great technique and is not just a goalscorer. His left foot has good touch as well as power and he creates many chances for his teammates. His freekick ability is good too and he is no mean header of the ball.

Since returning to international football with Croatia, Suker has continued to look good and at 30 is still fit enough to compete with the best. He scored five goals and played in nine out of the 10 group qualifiers and that strike rate is expected to put him in the limelight in France this summer.