When he was six years old, Dominik Livakovic told his parents that he wanted to play football. Nobody knows what happened in the first training session in his native Zadar, where he began the story of one of the most coveted goalkeepers in the World Cup, but in the second he decided that his place in the world was under the sticks. He flirted with other sports such as basketball, tempted by family trends attached to the court and the basket, finally defused by the love of a child who enjoyed stopping balls. “One of the reasons why I became a goalkeeper was because of Iker Casillas,” the now Croatian number one confessed years ago, a team with which he will experience his second consecutive semifinal of a World Cup. In Russia he did it in the shadow of his great friend Danijel Subasic and now he flies alone, becoming the last bastion of the Croatian resistance. A discreet, hard-working guy, still with the Dinamo Zagreb shield sewn on his chest, who chose a different path to turn his hands into the support of an entire country. Livakovic comes from a family of doctors, teachers and engineers, from a line of intellectuals who watched as Dominik condensed his world into a soccer ball. One of his grandparents was a well-known radiologist in Zadar, as well as a manager at the city’s basketball club. When the new pavilion was inaugurated, the one chosen to name the facilities and score the first basket was the now starting goalkeeper of the Croatian team. “I started with basketball, but I quickly fell in love with football,” recalls the goalkeeper, who never hesitated between the two sports. Dominik’s father is Zdravko Livakovic, a construction engineer who became secretary of the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure and Maritime Affairs in the central government. His mother, Manuela, and his grandmother were English teachers, so he decided to study International Relations at the prestigious University of Zagreb. He had to park it due to his career as a soccer player, but his friends and neighbors see him swimming in diplomatic waters in the future. “Someday I would like to dedicate myself to it,” he said a few years ago. Related News Non-Football standard La Liga commands in the semifinals in Qatar: Atlético and Sevilla in the lead Ignacio Tylko Non-Football standard Cristiano breaks his silence: “Much has been written, but my dedication to Portugal has not changed for an instant” Miguel Zarza The still Dinamo player – he is on the agendas of many European clubs – astonished the world with the three penalties saved against Japan in the round of 16, and then saved another against the Brazilian Rodrygo to put Croatia in the semifinals in Qatar, where Argentina awaits. He has played 39 games with the national team, already becoming one of the greatest exponents of him. A confessed admirer of Casillas, who made him fall in love with the three sticks and dedicate himself to what he does, the goalkeeper is permeable to the advice of his friends and colleagues. What Danijel Subasic tells you is sacred. Also from Zadar like him, still active despite his 38 years – he plays for Hajduk – the veteran goalkeeper supported the checkers in the three penalty shootouts in Russia 2018 until reaching the grand final, where France was better. “He always tells me that I have to be calm and follow my instincts,” Livakovic often comments. “You’re a great goalkeeper” Before the game against Japan, Luka Modric made an aside with his teammate at the concentration hotel. The Croatian media revealed that they spoke of the weight of error and the fear of failure. Apparently, Livakovic had some doubts and the Real Madrid midfielder made him see that no one is perfect. «Are you afraid of being wrong? And who doesn’t! You are a porter. You have to know, “the Real Madrid player must have told him, always according to the Croatian press. In any case, the goalkeeper completed a great game, just like against Brazil, and his interventions went around the world. In 2015, Dinamo paid 625,000 euros to NK Zagreb for him. Now he is worth millions, and more after this World Cup. He has been in football for more than 20 years and has only had three teams: Zadar -where he took his first steps-, Zagreb and Dinamo. It is not something usual there, in the Balkans, where talents fly quickly seduced by the big leagues, and the not so big ones. Milan wanted him at the time, but Livakovic continued at the biggest club in his country, with which he has accumulated 262 games. He is about to play number 40 with his team, against no less than Messi’s Argentina in a World Cup semifinal. He has no doubts. He already knows that he is a doorman. Word of Modric.
