Foto: MaxSport screenshot
Joško Jeličić is not a man of the environment. He didn’t even do it as a player, let alone today in front of the cameras. In the show Studio SHNL, he dissected what is being kept quiet about, how and why young players in Croatia constantly choose the wrong path. Instead of biting and proving themselves in small environments, they too often choose comfort. And then they disappear. “Apart from Perišić and two or three other players who left young, like Vušković, very few of them made a career. On the other hand, at the age of 16-17 you can play in a league where the result is everything. I would like the league to be developmental and for young people to play. But it’s easier to put Kumar in Istra than Jakirović against Betis, Lille,” Jeličić said, then openly asked: “Why isn’t anyone looking for you if you have potential? Why don’t you go on loan? One Luka Modrić played in Zrinjski, Inter from Zaprešić, Eduardo, Ćorluka… Guys, why don’t you go that way?”
He used Hajduk’s defeat against Istria for a broader message:The average age was 22.5. That last line is especially young. They should be given credit. Let’s be sure that Hajduk’s young men wouldn’t get opportunities if the club had money, swe only eat wood like Ferro, which cost like a dog… to say the least.” The Portuguese stopper Ferra was once described as a great talent. Benfica allegedly offered him for more than 60 million euros, and the media linked him with Real Madrid. He arrived in Hajduk with a serious pedigree, first on loan, and later bought out. But he did not leave a significant mark on Poljud. In the summer of 2024, it was released without much fanfare, without regrets. Jeličić’s words about “wood that cost like a dog…” did not fall out of the blue, but out of concrete frustration.
