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Mario Mandzukic interview with gol.hr -Thanks to mandzopique for the video

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Mario Mandzukic moments from FC Bayern München vs CSKA Moscow UCL 17.09.2013 Part 3

Mario’s dad, agent and best friend interview (part 2)

Mario Mandzukic’s ideas have always been clear.

Mato, his dad, smiles and shakes his head: 2018 has consecrated his son as national hero, so it’s normal his reaction. When a young Mario said firmly: ”I’ll become a footballer”, even Mato, a professional footballer too, had some doubts.  He explains: ” One in a million makes it. When Mario was a child and claimed that, we didn’t take him seriously. We were wrong, he had an agenda since the beginning. We didn’t realized it how much he was serious”.

Mario had never had a plan B: “He went to the school willingly but certainly he wasn’t the top of his class. He did just fine and got his tile installer and decorator degree. Probably, if something went wrong in his life, he would have been a honest worker here, in Slavonski Brod”

Who made going everything in the right way is also Ivan Cvjetkovic, Mario’s agent and Mato’s friend; Mato (Marsonia stopper) and Ivan (Dinamo Zagabria striker) played against each other. Ivan runs Mario’s life as a second father, following him since he was 17.

He still admires his spirit: ”He is a champion. His aim is the success; I am not impressed if he has a certain feeling with Ronaldo, that Mario already admired before he becomes his teammate. They share a strong will to win that pulls them to go beyond their limits”.

Mario’s best friend, Antonio Krajinovic nods: he knows. They have known each other since they were 9 and both shared the dream to become pro footballers. Today, Antonio is an engineer, but he is still one of the closer people to Mario: “Whatever you are doing with him, it doesn’t matter. You can play ping pong, cards, go to fishing, you always have a certainty: Mario wants to win. If we play football, things getting more serious. We played a match witch ours friends, I was marking him and I received a deadly hit. After the match, we hunged out as usual and everything was normal for him: I mean, when he is on the pitch he doesn’t even recognize his friends”. Antonio laughs: “First he wins, then he comes to hug you as a brother. He had been so at 9 and afer 20 years he hasn’t changed: once in the pitch, he fights and nothing else.” 

At the age of 9, Mario was just come back to Slavonski Brod, left 3 years before, in 1992. In that period the town had been bombed and in his infancy there were the sounds of the alarms that warned the next attack. The Serbs on the other side of Sava river were able to reach some part of the town, Marsonia pitch too, that is situated near the borders with Bosnia.

“The war became a sinister mate of an entire generation and the strength of his character has to be searched also there, in those afternoons, torned by the sirens, the explosions, the awareness to risk own life and the war that rages in the rest of your country. What can you be afraid of, if you lived those things as a child?” says his agent bitterly.

Mato nods silently and then says:” The war was a matter of bombardments here, we can consider ourselves lucky in some ways, we didn’t have battle on our territories, we avoided a part of the atrocities, but obviously I was worried for my family. I was a hard decision bringing my family away from the place they were born and grown up and moving in another country, with a new language to learn, but at a certain point I understood it was for the best. 

Mato was hired by Tsf Ditzingen, that plays in the Oberliga Baden-Wurttenberg, a sort of third german regional league. The wage wasn’t like Ronaldo’s, but it allowed him to move his family in a safe place, in a town near Stuttgart.

Mario was already addicted to football at the age of 6. “He played always and everywhere. There wasn’t a moment that he hadn’t a ball between his feet. Sometimes he came with me at my trainings and he waited for me, playing with other kids in a nearby pitch , so I could keep an eye on him” He wasn’t the only one who hept an eye on him: “One day one of the coach of the youth teams asked – Is your son?, I replied – Yes! Did he do something? – the coach – No, actually, I’d like your son trains with our kids. He has potential.” So, not only German, he also learnt to play football in a country that will be always in his heart and the destiny will bring him there again.

“Germany has always been really important for him, although now he only talks about Italy and Torino like a lover. I guess he enjoys staying in your country, in particular, in Torino because he is able to live his life with the privacy he really loves and defends in every way” reveals Cvjetkovic. Mato smiles: “When he invites us we go gladly. I really like Torino and the Stadium. It’s really outstanding and it’s fantastic to watch my son playing there” He gets emotional. Now, even more: “The WC killed me” Mato laughs “high blood pressure and stomachache: it was really hard. It was worth it, obviously. I can’t explain the pride I felt for what my son did. And when he came back here I couldn’t believe my eyes: never seen all those people there. They were there for him: that day I was the proudest dad in the world”. Meanwhile 10 thousand people were acclaiming his son, he thought about his little Mario, happy only if he could run like a mad the ball. He has always been a cheerful kid, but serious when it came to play football” 

“He didn’t have an idol, even if he watched many matches. Lately, he was impressed by Ibrahimovic personality, anyway he didn’t have any footballer poster on the wall. He really loved videogames, he always carried one in his pocket. Super Mario, then, wasn’t his nickname yet, only the title of his favorite videogame, even with the little man in a blue suit, the little Mandzukic had only aim: WIN.

 (part 1) | part 2 | (part 3)

My… my name? To tell my name? You know my name laughs I’m joking, Mario Mandžukić

him

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QaULpckII1E