The Mario Mandzukic Collection - Best Of Doha 2014

Mario Mandzukic interview with gol.hr -Thanks to mandzopique for the video

Mandzukic and Darijo having fun at the beach x

Mini interviews about Mario Mandzukic (part 1)

It isn’t easy to fall in love with Mandzukic, but it’s hard to not respect him, because in the end he always makes to feel his presence and always helps you. I really love him, I have known him since he was a kid. What fascinates you is his absurd continuity to be in the match, it’s absurd, because it’s not a Croatian thing, we aren’t like that. German? Worse, like the English, the crazy ones that chase everyone.

- Zvonimir Boban ex football player, current Deputy Secretary General of FIFA

Stronger than the war

Slavonski Brod hides well the wounds caused by the war 25 year ago, Mario was just the kid whose running after the ball could be interrupted by the sound of the sirens that announced the bombing. Today, it’s a welcoming town that seems to enjoy the serenity of this piece of Slavonia. And Mario, the undisputed hero.

Mandzukic is one of the most beloved players by Juventus fans, and in the same time, the mysterious one. He doesn’t speak. Never. The number of his goals is higher than the number of his words after 3 years and 3 months in Juventus. Who knows him, in Slavonski Brod, smiles: “He speaks on the pitch, it’s the way he loves to express himself and to be judged”

If he doesn’t speak, it’s his town that loves to talk about him. Just mention his name, it’s possible to see eyes sparkling and pride buzzing during the narration, that always becomes a little excited, of anecdotes and stories about him.  So, you can know the man that brought his NT to the last WC final. but also, the man who helps the children in need, his first squad, the local hospital and he does it in secrecy, sometimes anonymously.

During the World Championship in Russia, he bought a big screen and thousand litres of beer to his town. Slavonski Brod celebrated him also as honorary citizen.

Mario was the kid that carried the ball with him at all the times: after the train with Marsonia, he ran to play with his friends and then again to train with the futsal team at the gym.

Who knew him as kid and teen says the same thing: "He was nice, friendly and always ready to joke. He liked to be in group, even though when he was playing at something, he took it seriously and he wanted to win at all the costs. He hasn’t changed and the version loved by Juventini is the skinny kid grown up, snubbed by the scouts of the big Yugoslavian clubs, cause he was too thin. Now they pretend it never happened and play it cool.

part 1| (part 2) | (part 3) | (part 4) | (part 5)

him

Mario’s dad, agent and best friend interview (part 2)

Mario Mandzukic’s ideas have always been clear.

Mato, his dad, smiles and shakes his head: 2018 has consecrated his son as national hero, so it’s normal his reaction. When a young Mario said firmly: ”I’ll become a footballer”, even Mato, a professional footballer too, had some doubts.  He explains: ” One in a million makes it. When Mario was a child and claimed that, we didn’t take him seriously. We were wrong, he had an agenda since the beginning. We didn’t realized it how much he was serious”.

Mario had never had a plan B: “He went to the school willingly but certainly he wasn’t the top of his class. He did just fine and got his tile installer and decorator degree. Probably, if something went wrong in his life, he would have been a honest worker here, in Slavonski Brod”

Who made going everything in the right way is also Ivan Cvjetkovic, Mario’s agent and Mato’s friend; Mato (Marsonia stopper) and Ivan (Dinamo Zagabria striker) played against each other. Ivan runs Mario’s life as a second father, following him since he was 17.

He still admires his spirit: ”He is a champion. His aim is the success; I am not impressed if he has a certain feeling with Ronaldo, that Mario already admired before he becomes his teammate. They share a strong will to win that pulls them to go beyond their limits”.

Mario’s best friend, Antonio Krajinovic nods: he knows. They have known each other since they were 9 and both shared the dream to become pro footballers. Today, Antonio is an engineer, but he is still one of the closer people to Mario: “Whatever you are doing with him, it doesn’t matter. You can play ping pong, cards, go to fishing, you always have a certainty: Mario wants to win. If we play football, things getting more serious. We played a match witch ours friends, I was marking him and I received a deadly hit. After the match, we hunged out as usual and everything was normal for him: I mean, when he is on the pitch he doesn’t even recognize his friends”. Antonio laughs: “First he wins, then he comes to hug you as a brother. He had been so at 9 and afer 20 years he hasn’t changed: once in the pitch, he fights and nothing else.” 

At the age of 9, Mario was just come back to Slavonski Brod, left 3 years before, in 1992. In that period the town had been bombed and in his infancy there were the sounds of the alarms that warned the next attack. The Serbs on the other side of Sava river were able to reach some part of the town, Marsonia pitch too, that is situated near the borders with Bosnia.

“The war became a sinister mate of an entire generation and the strength of his character has to be searched also there, in those afternoons, torned by the sirens, the explosions, the awareness to risk own life and the war that rages in the rest of your country. What can you be afraid of, if you lived those things as a child?” says his agent bitterly.

Mato nods silently and then says:” The war was a matter of bombardments here, we can consider ourselves lucky in some ways, we didn’t have battle on our territories, we avoided a part of the atrocities, but obviously I was worried for my family. I was a hard decision bringing my family away from the place they were born and grown up and moving in another country, with a new language to learn, but at a certain point I understood it was for the best. 

Mato was hired by Tsf Ditzingen, that plays in the Oberliga Baden-Wurttenberg, a sort of third german regional league. The wage wasn’t like Ronaldo’s, but it allowed him to move his family in a safe place, in a town near Stuttgart.

Mario was already addicted to football at the age of 6. “He played always and everywhere. There wasn’t a moment that he hadn’t a ball between his feet. Sometimes he came with me at my trainings and he waited for me, playing with other kids in a nearby pitch , so I could keep an eye on him” He wasn’t the only one who hept an eye on him: “One day one of the coach of the youth teams asked – Is your son?, I replied – Yes! Did he do something? – the coach – No, actually, I’d like your son trains with our kids. He has potential.” So, not only German, he also learnt to play football in a country that will be always in his heart and the destiny will bring him there again.

“Germany has always been really important for him, although now he only talks about Italy and Torino like a lover. I guess he enjoys staying in your country, in particular, in Torino because he is able to live his life with the privacy he really loves and defends in every way” reveals Cvjetkovic. Mato smiles: “When he invites us we go gladly. I really like Torino and the Stadium. It’s really outstanding and it’s fantastic to watch my son playing there” He gets emotional. Now, even more: “The WC killed me” Mato laughs “high blood pressure and stomachache: it was really hard. It was worth it, obviously. I can’t explain the pride I felt for what my son did. And when he came back here I couldn’t believe my eyes: never seen all those people there. They were there for him: that day I was the proudest dad in the world”. Meanwhile 10 thousand people were acclaiming his son, he thought about his little Mario, happy only if he could run like a mad the ball. He has always been a cheerful kid, but serious when it came to play football” 

“He didn’t have an idol, even if he watched many matches. Lately, he was impressed by Ibrahimovic personality, anyway he didn’t have any footballer poster on the wall. He really loved videogames, he always carried one in his pocket. Super Mario, then, wasn’t his nickname yet, only the title of his favorite videogame, even with the little man in a blue suit, the little Mandzukic had only aim: WIN.

 (part 1) | part 2 | (part 3)

Last one

Mario Mandzukic moments from FC Bayern München vs CSKA Moscow UCL 17.09.2013 Part 3

Mario Mandzukic 09.05.2013