Croatia

A checkerboard-crested team from a nation of roughly four million, Croatia has consistently punched far above its weight on the world stage. Built on gritty midfield control and a knack for penalty-shootout heroics, the Vatreni have become one of international football's great overachievers. Luka Modrić's generation delivered the program's finest chapter yet.

The Croatian Football Federation was founded in 1912, though Croatia only became a fully independent FIFA member in the 1990s. Led by Luka Modrić, Croatia reached the 2018 World Cup final — the smallest nation to do so in the modern era — falling 4-2 to France. The team backed that up with a third-place finish at the 2022 World Cup, cementing a golden generation among the most successful in the country's history.