The English "Daily Mail" compiled an ideal 11 from the former Yugoslavia.
In the text entitled "Balkan brilliance. Real's legend Modrić, preferred stopper Joško Guardiol and best goalkeeper Jan Oblak come from the same region. Would modern Yugoslavia be the world champion?", the English tabloid arranged the players in a 3-4-1-2 formation, and chose Stefan Savić as one of the three defenders.
"Although he struggled at Manchester City, Stefan Savić (32), has a Premier League champion's medal to show for his time at the Etihad. He has had a decent career since then - winning La Liga and the Europa League with Atletico Madrid," the text reads.
It also mentions the grumpy nature of Mojkovci, but without listing the red cards from this season.
"Savic was heavily involved in the 22-man thrashing after last season's Champions League semi-final with City, dragging Phil Foden off the pitch, head-butting Raheem Sterling and pulling Jack Grealish's hair."
Apart from Luka Modrić, who was chosen as the captain of the team, and Guardiola, there are two more Croatians in the ideal ex-YU team of "Daily Mail" - Mateo Kovačić and Ivan Perišić.
Serbia is also represented by four players - Nikola Milenkovic, Dušan Tadic, Sergej Milinković-Savić and Dušan Vlahović, as well as one Slovenian (Jan Oblak) and one Bosnian (Edin Džeko).
The English reminded how Yugoslavia was a semi-finalist in the World Championships in 1930 and 1962, and a finalist in the European Championship in 1960 and 1968.
Since becoming independent, Croatia has won three medals at the World Cup - silver in 2018, and bronze in 1998 and 2022, so the islanders rightly wonder if modern Yugoslavia would be a football superpower...
Bonus video:
