318: Domagoj Vida, Croatia, FIFA World Cup Russia 2018, Panini Official Licensed Sticker Album

This blog is brought to you by my mate, and fellow nostalgic football obsessive, Richard Allinson. And Continental.

Look at his hair. Just look at his hair. If Barry Davies had been collecting stickers for the 2018 World Cup in Russia I would imagine that his reaction to getting a Domagoj Vida would have been the same as a lot of people. The glorious thing about this sticker is that it was a throwback to times before wall to wall global sport, where World Cups introduced you to players you had never previously heard of but who would go on to revolutionise your world. Jorge Campos and your nutty goalkeeper kits, take a bow. 

Some football fans are probably aware big Domagoj had an ill fated spell at Bayer Leverkusen where he only made 1 substitute appearance in the league. They are also probably aware that he was awarded the excellently named Order of Duke Branimir after Russia 2018. Up until about 5 minutes ago I knew neither of these things and I am glad of that fact. 

With his beaming face and sporting hair that looked like he’d just stepped off stage after playing bass in Croatia’s best heavy metal band (I assume that Slaven Bilić is also involved if such a thing exists) I was immediately captivated. Who was this man? Was his sticker actually just a leftover from Italia 90 that had got mixed in by accident? All England fans would soon come to know him as the man that, alongside the hitherto useless Dejan Lovren, would help dump the Three Lions out of the World Cup but before this he was a complete mystery. A mystery that reignited a sticker collecting spark in a bunch of thirty somethings that really should have known better. 

There is something about this particular childhood passion that just doesn’t leave a person and that summer we clearly weren’t alone in being too old to know better but too excitable to care. As we huddled a round a table in the Lord’s Tavern during a completely washed out game of county cricket with sticker books and Ikea bags of swaps at the ready, your author being berated for his inability to stick a Peru shiny in straight, we were interrupted by a well spoken man. “Excuse me lads, my girlfriend has just been asking what you’re doing and I just want to show her, is that okay?” We would have invited them to sit down for a pint and a thorough explanation of how disappointing it is when you get a stadium sticker but I think the bloke’s girlfriend would have dumped him and, to be fair, they seemed like nice people. 

So there you have it. Russia 2018. The World Cup where England dreamed again. The World Cup where Nigeria had an exceptional kit. And the World Cup where Mr Domagoj Vida became the most interesting man on the planet.