A life changing game

It was 13 May 1990. Yugoslavia, a strange union containing Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia and Serbia, along with Kosovo and Vojvodina as smaller entities, was at its death bed. It was only a matter of time until it will break apart. Croatia and actually all other countries were not happy with the way Serbia saw this union. Serbia wanted to rule and to be the first among the equals. They wanted to have more power, more money and more decision making ability than any other country in Yugoslavia. The rest of us didn't like it and decided to split up. The Serbs didn't like that so there was a war knocking on the doors. In that state of mind with war hanging in the air a football (again, it's football, not soccer) game is about to take place. And it was, as CNN called it, a game that changed the course of history.

Dinamo Zagreb was about to play against Crvena Zvezda Belgrade. Croatia vs. Serbia. Zagreb vs. Belgrade. Only few days before Croatia held its first democratic elections and the party that won was in favor of leaving the Yugoslavia and becoming the Republic of Croatia. Croatia was awakening. On that 13th day of May 1990 serbian extremists came to Zagreb to cheer for their club Crvena Zvezda from Belgrade. In reality, they came here to do damage and chaos. They were all gathered in ultras group called Delije and were led by notorious Željko Ražnjatović Arkan, who was later assassinated under confusing circumstances in Serbia. Delije came to Zagreb and started their barbaric campaign. Dinamo fan's, the Bad Blue Boys were not going to let them do that so they fought them all across the city. The fights lasted for hours all around the city. It all culminated at the game. 

Delije started attacking common people on the stands. They were throwing stuff on women and children and just regular guys that wanted to watch a game. They were cursing Croatia and provoking with singing "Zagreb is Serbia", "There will be murders" and other similar hostile songs. Their leader Arkan was on the bench of Crvena Zvezda along with other club staff. A year later, Arkan was leading the Serbian attacks on Slavonija and killing Croats in his mad war rage. That day, on Maksimir stadium, the regime police did nothing. They were just standing there and watching the barbaric behaviour of serbian fans as it was completely normal. All that was just too much for Bad Blue Boys. They couldn't just stand there and watch their fellow citizens being brutally attacked by serbian savages. They had to react. They had to say: "It's enough!". 

Bad Blue Boys broke the fence and started running towards Delije in order to stop them. That was the moment the police decided to join in. Of course, they had no intention of stopping the Serbs and they actually joined them in a fight against Bad Blue Boys and other croatian fans that couldn't stand this any more. It was Croatia's resistance. When Dinamo players saw what is happening they got involved too. A youngster at the time, Zvonimir Boban, decided he has to react too so he performed his famous volley kick. It was not a usual volley as seen on any other football game, it was a volley of resistance. Boban hit one of the policemen with his volley kick. That picture went viral all over the world almost instantly. And that was before the internet. Boban, who was later a captain of Croatian national football team and a captain of AC Milan, said that he is proud of what he did. He said he did not think for a second. He did not care for his life, his career, he did not care for anything. That moment was a moment for Croatia, for a higher cause. The policeman that got kicked said that his colleagues tried to convince him to shoot Boban in the back, but he managed to remain calm and refused to do it. 

The fight lasted for a whole hour resulting with 79 policemen and 59 fans injured. That was the day that Croatia said NO to Serbia. It was a day the resistance begun. It was in fact a start of Croatian war for independence. The game was never played, but we won anyway. We showed that we are fed up with oppression and that it is time for freedom. Unfortunately the war that followed took many lives and destroyed many more. It set both countries years back and many honest and good people lost their lives. We have won the war and now, 20 years after it, we are a peaceful and normal country that is proud of things we accomplished. We are also proud of wining the war against the people who wanted to take away our freedom and our lives. It took courage and skill to win and to get a chance to be independent and build a country that we will all be proud of.