Nikola Kalinic has rejected a World Cup runners-up medal gifted him by his teammates and coaching staff.
Despite not playing a minute at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, Kalinic’s international team-mates and coaching staff decided to award the 30 year old with a silver medal following the World Cup final defeat to France.
“Thanks for the medal, but I did not play in Russia,” Kalinic told Sportske Novosti.
Kalinic was sent home from the tournament after Croatia’s opening game against Nigeria by head coach Zlatko Dalic after the Milan striker refused to come on as a substitute in Croatia’s 2-0 win over Nigeria, citing fitness issues.
Dalic claimed after the game that he needed players who were “fit and ready to play.”
Kalinic had earlier missed out on the pre-tournament warm-up game with Brazil and was forced to sit out training due to back spasms.
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COMMENTS
Stupid enough to recognize your stupidity despite the magnanimous effort by the coaching and staff crew to award you the medal. Classic case of super size ego. You need to have head examined Kalanic at the nearest psychiatric Clinic (pun intended)
Why are you insulting him? Don’t you think he did the right thing to reject it? Isn’t that integrity? Yes he was blamed for refusing to come in against Nigeria but does that mean every action he takes afterwards must be trashed? Why are human beings so wicked and unforgiving?
@Haymaker You have said it all. Thumb up for your comment.
@Abu, what justifies your unconstructive criticism on the attitude of the player as if you were at the dressing room before the match? Don’t you think something let to his action which started from the dressing room? Secondly, what do you think could be the public reaction if he had collected the so-called medal? Won’t there be wagging of tongues? You should know that it takes sacrifice to maintain INTEGRITY! YOU OWE KALINIC UNRESERVED APOLOGY FOR YOUR INSULTIVE COMMENT ON HIS PERSON
You have two sides to kalinic medal issue.
One,His name is on the list of players submitted to FIFA by Croatia,by default he deserves a medal,since his name was not replaced during and after the incident that led to his summary dismissal from the team.
Remember,if he has died of natural course in Russia or sustain a serious injury,a medal would be giving to him like his team mate,even if he did not play for a second.
The other part is integrity,since he was expelled from the team,the shame of collecting the medal and the disgrace that will be associated with the collection will be much for him.
Remember,he may not have had faith in the team as one of ivory coast player refused to come for nation cup and that year ivory coast won.
Sometimes “EDI” is what one need to pray against.