Is the Canada goalie doing the Serbian salute here? – World Cup 2022

Excitement before and after World Cup clash between Croatia and Canada! First the Canada coach caught the eye with a saying, then the goalie with a gesture.

In terms of sport, it was clear in the end in Qatar who would have the upper hand: Croatia beat the “Ahornblatt” after a 1-0 deficit, clearly 4-1, and now lead Group F with the same number of points as surprise team Morocco. The Canadians are still without a point after two games and have no chance of reaching the round of 16.

But even before the duel, the waves rose between the two teams. The reason for this was Canada team boss John Herdman, who got his team in the mood for the duel with the saying “F*** Croatia” – stupidly enough that the pithy words could also be heard by others.

Of course, the Croatian media took up the statement. The newspaper “24 Sata” showed Herdman completely naked on the front page in a photo montage. A large maple leaf was printed over his mouth and a small one over his genitals. “You have the mouth, but do you also have the balls?” the newspaper asked on the cover.

After the World Cup duel, however, there is renewed excitement, namely for Canada goalie Milan Borjan. There are photos of him that apparently show him showing the “Serbian salute” in the duel against Croatia. This is a gesture in which the thumb, forefinger and middle finger are stretched out.

The gesture became mainstream among Serbian nationalist parties in the early 1990s, when religious symbols became important for the peoples of former Yugoslavia in constructing national identity, and is expressed in the proverb “Nema Srpstva bez tri prsta” (“There is no Serbianism without three fingers”).

During the military break-up of Yugoslavia, the gesture became a prominent form of Serbian self-identification and evolved into a counterpart of the victory sign used by the other warring factions. In many cases, people of other faiths and ethnic groups were forced to perform the three-finger salute in order to humiliate them.

Explosive: Canada goalie Milan Borjan was born in Yugoslavia, his hometown of Knin is now on Croatian territory, but was mostly inhabited by Serbs at the time of the Yugoslavia conflict. There were atrocities on the Serbian and Croatian side, today the Croats make up the majority of the population in the city.

Whether the goalie was deliberately provoking the Croatian fans with his gesture cannot be clarified, as the context in which the picture was taken is not clear. In any case, it does not contribute to calming the mood after the heated World Cup duel.

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Nav Account red time 11/28/2022, 8:31 am| Act: 11/28/2022, 8:31 am

The article is in German

Tags: Canada goalie Serbian salute World Cup