8 October: Boban, Milan's captain
Zvonimir Boban
«the captain»
- GNK Dinamo Zagreb 1985-1991 · 45 goals
- Società Sportiva Calcio Bari 1991-1992 · 2 goals
- A.C. Milan 1991
- A.C. Milan 1992-2001 · 21 goals
- Real Club Celta de Vigo 2001
Chile 87 and the Maksimir
He was part of the Yugoslav generation that won the 1987 World Youth Championship in Chile, with Prosinečki, Šuker and Mijatović. At nineteen he was already captain of Dinamo Zagreb.
On 13 May 1990, at a Dinamo-Red Star game at the Maksimir stadium, clashes between fans turned into a pitched battle. In the middle of the chaos, Boban kicked a policeman who was beating a Dinamo fan. The image became one of the symbols of the tense months before the war in Yugoslavia, and it cost him a ban that ruled him out of the World Cup in Italy.
Milan
In 1991 he was signed by Milan, who first loaned him to Bari. Then he stayed a decade at San Siro: he won four scudetti and the 1994 Champions League, the 4-0 against Cruyff's Barcelona in Athens. In a team full of stars, he was the one who set the tempo.
France 98
Croatia played their first World Cup in 1998 and Boban was their captain. They knocked out Germany 3-0 in the quarter-finals and took the lead against France in the semi-final, before the hosts came back with two goals from Thuram. Croatia finished third by beating the Netherlands, and Šuker was the tournament's top scorer. Twenty years later, that side was the reference point for the one that reached the final in Russia.
Another 46 internationally known footballers were born on this day. We do not list them for the sake of it: only those with a story to tell make it here.
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September14 ★
- 11 September: Ruud Gullit
- 1111 September: Franz Beckenbauer
- 1818 September: Ronaldo
- 2020 September: Henrik Larsson
- 2121 September: Sándor Kocsis
- 2222 September: Thiago Silva
- 2323 September: Quini
- 2424 September: Marco Tardelli
- 2525 September: Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
- 2626 September: Michael Ballack
- 2727 September: Francesco Totti
- 2828 September: Javi Poves
- 2929 September: Andriy Shevchenko
- 3030 September: Frank Rijkaard
October8 ★
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