Davor Suker The Legend Croatia in World Cup 1998

Davor Suker was 30 years old when he arrived in France to play with Croatia at the 1998 World Cup.

Known as a strong attacker, with fast legs, several years earlier he had participated in the 1990 World Cup Italy as part of the Yugoslav national team which ran aground in the quarter-finals.

At the age of 22, Suker only became a reserve during the tournament and had to wait until next year before recording his first appearance from two appearances, before the country broke out.

In 1992, Croatia established a national team of its own and Suker who was born in Osijek, a town near the border with Serbia, chose to play for Croatia.

When a new and only 4.2 million people were eligible for their first World Cup in 1998, Suker has won the Champions League with Real Madrid and has scored 34 goals in 67 appearances for the Spanish club.

In the World Cup France, playing in front with Zvonimir Boban and Robert Prosinecki, the greatness of Suker is clearly visible. He finished the tournament by grabbing the Golden Boot after scoring six goals in seven games for Croatia that shocked the footballing world to finish in third place.

In the group stage Suker scored two goals each against Jamaica and Japan, then in the next round Suker scored the only goal of Croatia's victory over Romania.

Against Germany in the quarter-finals, Suker again showed his greatness and bulldoze Germany 3-0 and two other goals scored by Robert Jarni and Goran Vlaovic.

Starting a long diagonal pass from Aljosa Asanovic, Suker past Ulf Kirsten and Jurgen Kohlerlalu fired a powerful shot past Andreas Kopke. Suker then described the win as "the most perfect moment in the history of Croatian football."

In the semi-final, Suker scored the opening goal against France before two goals from Lilian Thuram destroyed Croatia's dream. In the race for third place goals Suker became decisive victory over Croatia  2-1 Holland.