Svetko Custic is a director at Zadar. He is very proud of the national team's success and hopes that this success is a great opportunity for the country to invest more in football, especially in smaller cities.

"The atmosphere in clubs is not the same as in the national team. Unfortunately, life in the Croatian football clubs is not easy. We need more investments in the infrastructure and better conditions to work in smaller clubs," Custic told Xinhua.

More than half the country doesn't have training facilities during the winter. "In 12 out of Croatia's 20 counties there is no football pitch with an artificial turf. The infrastructure is terrible. You have to see some of those locker rooms, even in the capital Zagreb, in the clubs that produced great players," Topic said.

Croatia is a very centralized country. Living standards in the capital are much better than elsewhere and everything is gravitating to the capital Zagreb. So is football. The biggest club in the country is Dinamo Zagreb.

Half of the players from the national team have roots in this club. Even Luka Modric and Sime Vrsaljko, players who grew up in Zadar, later moved to Dinamo Zagreb, a club that became a showcase of sorts for Croatian players. In Dinamo Zagreb, they believe that there is a solid system in Croatian clubs and this, together with the National Football Federation (HNS), played an important role in Croatian football success.

They also mention the role of individual players' talent and their strong desire to prove themselves and succeed. "Dinamo's football school was named one of the top five football schools in the world. We have produced 67 players who play professional football around Europe and by that standard, we take the second place in Europe," Andjelko Ivanko, an assistant director of Dinamo Zagreb's football school told Xinhua.

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