Croatia announced on Monday the squad of 26 players called up for the first two games of the Nations League group stage, against the Czech Republic on September 26 and against world champion Spain on September 29. This is the first call-up since the elimination in the 2026 World Cup in the round of 16, where the Croatian national team was defeated by Portugal 2-1.
The main novelty on the list is Franjo Ivanovic, a young forward who missed Zlatko Dalic's call-up for the World Cup when he was still playing at Benfica. This summer, Ivanovic was loaned to Lens until the end of the season, with no purchase option, and has now been called up by coach Bilic after winning the French Super Cup in his debut against PSG and scoring against Auxerre in the first Ligue 1 match.
Ivanovic had not been called up to the national team since November 2025, nearly a year ago, currently having nine caps and two goals scored for Croatia.
Other regular names in the Croatian national team were also called up, including Luka Modric (Milan), Dominik Livakovic (Barcelona), Josko Gvardiol (Manchester City), Mateo Kovacic (Manchester City) and Ivan Perisic (PSV).
