History of football in Croatia Valeri 2At the end of the 19th century football was popularized in Croatia by Franjo Bučar. When this beautiful game was first practiced, its Croatian name was 'Nogomet'. The first clubs in Croatia were founded before the First World War. Some clubs included HASK and PNISK in 1903, Hajduk and Gradanski in 1911. The Croatian Football Federation was founded in 1912. After World War I, Croats played an important role in founding the first football association. Its headquarters were initially in Zagreb before moving to Belgrade in 1929. The two most popular clubs in the country are rival clubs Hajduk from Split and Dinamo from Zagreb. Hajduk, commonly called Hajduk Split, is a Croatian club founded in 1911 that participated in the National Championship of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Dinamo was commonly known as Dinamo Zagreb or called by the nickname Modri ​​which meant "The Blues". This club has won fifteen Croatian championship titles, twelve Croatian cups and four Croatian super cups. They have been very successful and have been part of the Croatian First League since its foundation in 1992. April 2, 1940 marks the date of Croatia's first international football match against Switzerland. After the First World War, in 1939, the Croatian Football Federation joined FIFA as the representative of the Independent State of Croatia. In previous decades Croatian clubs had performed well in the Yugoslav First League and the Yugoslav Cup. Hajduk and Dinamo formed half of the Big Four of Yugoslav football. In 1967, Zlatko Čajkovski of the German club Bayern Munich became the only Croatian manager to win the... middle of paper... which I think I'm better. We went to Austria [and Switzerland] to win the European Championships and now we will go [to Poland and Ukraine] with the same ambitions. -Slaven BilicFootball is the most popular team sport in Croatia. By competing in both official and unofficial matches, the national team has strengthened the unity of Croatian culture. After Croatia's success at the 1998 World Cup, Tudman declared that "victories in football shape a nation's identity as much as wars". American politician Strobe Talbott predicted that Croatia's growth in football would influence the nation. The national team was welcomed by 100,000 residents from all over the country upon returning from the Valeri 5 World Championships where they had placed third. Although the relationship between the team and its nation has weakened since Tudman's death in 1999, the team and football remain patriotic traditions in Croatia.