ZAGREB, Sept 5 — Croatian striker Mario Mandzukic, who scored the winning goal against England in the 2018 World Cup semi-finals, has retired from the game, three years after playing his last international.
“While you put on these boots for the first time, you can’t even imagine what you will get to experience in football,” he wrote in a message in English addressed to his young self, “Dear little Mario”, and signed “Your big Mario”.Mandzukic appeared 89 times for Croatia, scoring 33 goals. He also played for Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid and Juventus and appeared 11 times this year for AC Milan. Plagued by injury, he was used mostly as a substitute and did not score a goal.
“You will score goals on the biggest stages and win the biggest trophies in the jerseys of the biggest clubs,” he wrote. His former Juventus team-mates Miralem Pjanic and Blaise Matuidi, Croatian tennis player Marin Cilic and NBA small forward Bojan Bogdanovic all joined the online chorus of praise.Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic thanked Mandzukic in a statement, calling him “a fighter on whom the team could always rely, a player for big games and the toughest challenges.”
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