SHIRT
Croatia National Team
Croatia National Team
1998
HOME SHIRT
It was Croatia’s first World Cup as an independent nation, but the team arrived in France with ambitions far beyond simply making up the numbers! At the end, Croatia won an extraordinary bronze medal, the first of many World Cup medals for a young footballing nation.
Lotto
1998
HOME
THE STORY
Few football shirts are as closely tied to a country’s arrival on the world stage as Croatia’s 1998 Lotto shirt. The white base, red-and-white checkerboard and blue-and-red detailing turned the national identity into a graphic language that was impossible to miss.
At France '98, Croatia made its World Cup debut as an independent nation and went all the way to the semi-finals!
With Davor Šuker, Zvonimir Boban and Robert Prosinečki at the heart of the team, the Vatreni defeated Germany 3–0 in the quarter-finals before losing 2–1 to hosts France in the semi-final. They then beat the Netherlands 2–1 to take bronze - Croatia’s first World Cup medal!
Šuker scored six goals and finished the tournament as the World Cup’s top scorer, including the winner against the Netherlands in the third-place match.
The shirt itself became part of the story. Made by Lotto, its asymmetrical checkerboard design transformed the Croatian coat of arms into something that looked almost like a flag caught in motion. It was simple, bold and unmistakably Croatian.
More than a kit, it became the visual shorthand for the summer when a new football nation announced itself to the world.
