[World Cup 2018] Croatia Team: 100% White, with racial-anthropology analysis

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Croatia

Croatia’s starting eleven for the Nigeria game

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Croatia’s FIFA World Ranking in 2018: 20th

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Croatia national football (soccer) team at World Cup 2018

Racial stock of the Croatia-2018 World Cup team:
— 100% European ancestry [23.0/23.0],
—- of which, the majority element is Dinarid/Alpinid with substantial Mediterranean and Nordid/Cro-Magnid components
— 0% Subsaharan African and all other racial ancestries [0/23.0]

See the player-by-player racial-ancestry analysis below for detailed analyses of racial-anthropological typologies. For an analysis of the political significance of the racial-cultural dynamics seen in Croatia’s 2018 World Cup team, see here (below).

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Race and Europe’s ‘National’ Teams, World Cup 2018

Introduction to Series of World Cup Posts

This year’s World Cup (June-July 2018), as a politicized sporting event, gives us the opportunity to reflect on the racial situation in Europe as it stands, as it has evolved over the past twenty years (using World Cup teams as fixed comparison points). The trajectory of changes in the racial stock of teams may point to wider racial prospects for the 2020s, 2030s, and beyond.

Rarely discussed in its own terms, but on millions (perhaps billions) of minds, is the fact that Western Europe’s World Cup squads of recent years have not been very European but are largely multi-racial teams, sometimes White-minority teams, and thus symbolically in line with Europe’s shakily reigning “Multicultacracy” ideology.

The goal of these posts is to quantify this year’s Western European national teams’ racial-ancestral(-cultural) origins in some depth. Which European teams are the ‘least’ and which are the ‘most’ European?

Are there political implications to the racial balance of World Cup national teams? I would propose that there are, as follows:

Some countries, notably France, have received criticism for being top-heavy with non-European ‘mercenary’ players, men of recognized individual talent but with oftentimes less-than-solid ties to, and often being resentful of, the country they are representing. Will such racial ‘mercenary’ teams overperform in 2018, as they would presumably be expected to if team play is a summation of individual talents, or underperform, perhaps due to a relative lack of national-patriotic feeling?

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Europe’s World Cup 2018 teams analyzed so far:

— Belgium: 70% White, 22% Black, 17% Muslim
— Croatia: 100% White, no Muslims (This Post)
— Denmark: 90% White/Scandinavian
— England: 63% White, No Muslims
— France: 33% White, African Majority
— Germany: 83% White, 11% Muslim
— Iceland: 100% White, 98% Icelandic
— Poland: 100% White, disproportionately from western Poland
— Portugal: 77% White, heavy African-colonial presence
— Russia: 84% White, 16% from Soviet periphery (Central Asia, Caucuses)
— Serbia: 94% White, 4% Muslim, 4% Gypsy[?]
— Spain: 92% White
— Switzerland: 70% White, but only 44% White-Christian
— Sweden: 91% White, No Muslims

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Player-by-Player Racial-Ancestral-Cultural Origins

(Method of classification: The twenty-three men on the CROATIA World Cup 2018 squad are individually evaluated by race, national-ancestral origin, birthplace, and place raised until adolescence, where such data is available. Players of half-White mixed race receive a 0.5 ‘White;’ two half-White players are thus together counted as 1.0 Whites.)

(Any corrections or additional information is welcome in the comments.)

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Croatia 2018

Player years of birth range from 1984 to 1996.

The Croatia 2018 World Cup team is 100% White, and as such this analysis will focus on racial-anthropology, the racial types beyond the vague term “White.”

The representative racial type in Croatia is long thought to be Dinarid (another account here), with other elements, primarily Mediterranid, with lower levels of Cro-Magnid, Alpine, and Nordid.

GOALKEEPERS
[White-European ancestry at 3.0/3.0]

— Dominik Livakovic (White; born in Zadar, Croatia; primarily Dinarid but strong Cro-Magnid and probably Alpine influence; see picture)
— Lovre Kalinic (White; born in Split, Dalmatian coast of Croatia; Alpinid type with Dinaro-Mediterranean influence; see picture)
— Danijel Subasic (White; born in Zadar, Croatia; of Pontid Mediterranean type with Dinarid influence)

DEFENDERS
[White-European ancestry at 8.0/8.0]

— Sime Vrsaljko (White; born in Rijeka, Croatia, on the Adriatic Sea; Dinaro-Mediterranid racial type)
— Ivan Strinic (White; born in Split, Croatia; Nordid racial type; could fit in Scandinavia; see picture)
— Vedran Corluka (born in Derventa, Bosnia; of Mediterranean racial type with probable Cro-Magnid [Faelid] influence; see picture)
— Dejan Lovren (born in Zenica, Bosnia to Croatian parents; primarily Cro-Magnid racial type with Alpine and perhaps some other uncertain influence)
— Tin Jedvaj (born in Zagreb, Croatia to a professional footballer father; of distinctly Cro-Magnid type; see picture; largely could fit in Faelid-dominant areas of Germany as in this picture)
— Duje Caleta-Car (born in Sibenik, Dalmatian coast of Croatia; Alpine type)
— Domagoj Vida (born in Nasice, interior of Croatia; primarily Nordid with seemingly East Baltid influence)
— Josip Pivaric (born in Zagreb; at some angles or lighting appears to be something like a North Atlantid [as in this picture] which would fit in the British Isles, elsewhere appears more typical North-Pontid with some minor Alpinid-Dinarid influences)

MIDFIELDERS
[White-European ancestry at 7.0/7.0]

— Ivan Perisic (born in Split, Dalmatian coast of Croatia; probably fits within Dinaric type but sometimes displays Nordid influence, there may also be some exotic ancestry from points east [as in the extra-European influence in the East Baltid type] perhaps of the Turanid variety; see picture)
— Ivan Rakitic (born in Switzerland to Croat parents; Nordid with Dinarid and Alpinid influences; possibly classifiable as Sub-Nordid)
— Mateo Kovacic (born in Linz, Austria in 1994 to Bosnian Croat parents; in some pictures appears to be a quite coarsely dinaricized type, primarily Dinaric with Mediterranean influence; see picture in half-profile revealing classic Dinarid profile; see picture of Kovacic with wife)
— Luka Modric [Captain] (born in Zadar, Croatia; Norid type, a Dinarid type with Nordish tendencies, and clear Alpine influences, on which note his height (172cm or 5ft7.5in) characteristic of the shorter Alpine and not the tall Dinaric stock; see picture of Modric’s pre-match handshake with Iceland’s captain Aron Gunnarsson)
— Marcelo Brozovic (born in Zagreb, primarily Alpine type)
— Filip Bradaric (born in Split, Croatia; appears to be a Nordid with Dinario-Alpine influences; see picture)
— Milan Badelj (born in Zagreb; Alpine with Dinaric influence, potentially Gorid; see picture)

FORWARDS
[White-European ancestry at 5.0/5.0]

— Andrej Kramaric (born in Zagreb; North Pontid with Cro-Magnid infleunce; see picture)
— Nikola Kalinic (born in Solin, Dalmatian coast of Croatia; dinaricized Mediterranean)
— Mario Mandzukic (born in Slavonski Brod, interior of Croatia and spent several years of 1990s in Germany with parents, who fled the Yugoslav wars; by racial type a clear Dinarid; see picture)
— Ante Rebić (born in Split, Croatia; racial phenotype could be displaying of Alpinid and Cro-Magnid influences, or Baltid)
— Marko Pjaca (born in Zagreb; primarily Pontid with Dinarid influence)

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Comparison with past CROATIA squads

2014

Croatia-2014 players were born between 1979 and 1994.

Racial-Ancestral Stock: 91% White, with two Brazilian players (Sammir [majority Subsaharan ancestry] and Eduardo [heavy Subsaharan ancestry]); some of the coarser Dinarid elements not withstanding, the rest of the players appear to be of Croat-European descent

Croatia Record in 2014 World Cup
3: Games (finished at 19th place)
6: Goals For
6: Goals Against
+0: Goal Differential per Game Played

2010

Croatia did not qualify for the World Cup in 2010.

2006

Croatia-2006 players were born between 1971 and 1985.

Racial-Ancestral Stock: Appears to be 100% European and with a local Croat-ancestry supermajority.

Croatia Record in 2006 World Cup
3: Games (finished at 22nd place)
2: Goals For
3: Goals Against
-0.33: Goal Differential per Game Played

2002

Croatia-2002 players were born between 1967 and 1980.

Racial-Ancestral Stock: Appears to be 100% European and with a local Croat-ancestry supermajority.

Croatia Record in 2002 World Cup
3: Games (finished at 23rd place)
2: Goals For
3: Goals Against
-0.33: Goal Differential per Game Played

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Analysis

There were very few non-European foreigners resident in Croatia before Angela Merkel’s demand that European countries take in more Muslims during her 2015-6 fit of apparent insanity. Pre-2015, there were at most a few thousand (government figures apparently counted 2,361 Muslims of non-European nationalities in 2011), and as many as a few tens of thousands of Gypsies, in a total population of 4.2 million. Non-Europeans (Muslims and non-Muslims) excluding Gypsies probably composed about 0.1% of the population. The all-White Croatia team reflects this lack of any real racial “diversity” (as the term is today used).

Then, in 2015, Croatia was praised by pushers of Multiracialism for accepting several tens of thousands of Muslims during the Merkel Migrant Crisis. The Merkel-imposed Muslim quota amounted to 1.0% of Croatia’s total population taken in within a few months — or, proportionally near the much-discussed Germany total (it is unclear how many are still in Croatia in 2018). European patriot leader Orban condemned the Croatian government for this move. Just as in the Sweden case, the presence of Muslims and other non-Europeans in daily life is limited, allowing for an irrational belief in the demographic invincibility of the local White population no matter how many “refugees” are taken in; this disconnect between numbers-of-Muslim-refugees and lived-experience is symbolized by Croatia’s World Cup national team in 2018 being not only all-White, but also very nearly or fully 100% Croatian-by-ancestry. (This followed the inclusion of two Black Brazilian-origin players in its 2014 World Cup team.)

In terms of racial anthropology, here is what the anthropologist Filip Lukas (1871-1958) wrote on the racial influences in the Croatian population [writing in 1938], as summarized by a recent author:

The Dinaric race was today found predominantly in the Balkan regions of Croatia where the first independent Croatian state was established and which had been historically inhabited by the strongest Croatian clans and families.

Alongside the Dinaric racial type, Lukas noted, other races existed among the Croats, though usually not in their original purity, but rather mixed with other types: in the lowlands of northern Croatia one could find many members of the Alpine and, to a lesser extent, East-Baltic races, while the Adriatic littoral contained some individuals of the Mediterranean race. Croatia had also been settled by members of the Nordic race, ‘who, merging with the old [Dinaric] inhabitants, gave our culture many beautiful contributions.’

[From Nevenko Bartulin, “Intellectual Discourse on Race and Culture in Croatia, 1900-1945,” Review of Croatian History, Vol6-1, 2010, p193; p9 in PDF]

Thus Filip Lukas found Dinaric racial stock forming the majority element in the mountainous interior, Mediterranean forming an important minority element (I would suggest this is primarily the Pontid subtype) especially near the Adriatic coast; lesser minority elements he says are the Nordic, Alpine (especially in the north), and East Baltic. An unstated element is the base Cro-Magnid type, rarely seen in pure form.

These racial types mentioned above all represented on the Croatia 2018 World Cup team.

Racial influences on Croatia World Cup 2018 23-man team
— Dinarid: dominant element in 6 players; influence in 8 more (61% of players show Dinarid influence)
— Alpine: dominant element in 5 players; influence in 6 more (48% of players show Dinarid influence)
— Mediterranid [primarily Pontid]: dominant element in 6 players; influence in 3 more (39% of player show Mediterranid influence)
— Nordid: dominant element in 4 players; influence in 1 more (22% of players show Nordid influence)
— Cro-Magnid (proper): dominant element in 2 players; influence in 4 more (26% of player show Cro-Magnid proper [e.g. Faelid] influence)
— East Baltid and other: dominant element in 0 players; influence in 2 (9% of players show East Baltid or other influence)

An attempt to quantify overall racial balance for this 23-man team based on weighted averages of the above classifications:

Estimated Racial-Stock Balance of Croatia World Cup 2018 Team
— Dinarid 29%
— Alpine: 24%
— Mediterranean: 22%
— Nordid: 15%
— Cro-Magnid: 13%
— East Baltid: 2%

A few players could fit in Northwest Europe, these being the players with predominantly Cro-Magnid and/or Nordid phenotypes like Ivan Strinic and Tin Jedvaj. None of this is a surprise given what is has long been known about the ethnography and physical anthropology of Croatians. Note that this calculated racial balance approaches Richard McCulloch’s estimate for Croatia and its vicinity if Alpine and Dinarid are conflated:

Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia and Macedonia = 75% Dinaric, 10% West Mediterranean (most common on the coast), 10% Noric and 5% Neo-Danubian (most common in the north) [from McCulloch]

While Croatia fits quite firmly in the European family, as with the racial-anthropological analysis of the Iceland team, the Nordid element is absent from the Forwards.

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