Croatia Calls Up Klasnic

This is certainly a surprise. In fact, Ivan himself said "I really didn't expect to the get the call from the Slaven Bilic to ask me to come and play." He's had a fairly quiet season, as it was hard to get an appearance in edgewise between Johan finding his scoring boots in the first half of the season and Sturridge lighting up the second half. That, added to the fact that his last appearance for his country was in September 2009 as a substitute in a 5-1 loss, must've made Klasnic question his chances. In spite of this Bilic has opted to include the 31 year old striker in his 27 man squad set to face the Republic of Georgia in a Euro 2012 qualifier next Friday.

Klasnic said of the call up:

"I want to do what every football player wants to do, go out there and play and not sit on the bench. Of course it's an honour to be asked to play for my country as it always is and if I get the chance hopefully I can show everyone what I can do... I have played a lot for my country and have some great memories, but I want to focus on the future... The time for looking back is when I retire from football."

Best of luck to him and I hope he does get a run out. There is a compilation with dodgy production value of Klasnic's goals for club and country available for your viewing pleasure on the BWFC website.