HNL CROATIA

Welcome to the "HNL Croatia - Rakija soccer and Dalmatian goal magic"! Here soccer is played as if it were a boisterous celebration with Rakija sipping and Dalmatian dogs dancing! In Croatia they have their own soccer league and they don't call it "HNL" for nothing - the "HNL" certainly stands for "Cheerful Northern Lights"!

The teams have names as sonorous as Croatian musical instruments - Dinamo Zagreb, Hajduk Split and NK Osijek - as if they were juggling the ball to a fiery tamburica tune!

The players here are like juggling Rakija bartenders with the ball! They juggle it as if they were mixing a Rakija cocktail! The dribbles are so clever that you think they rubbed the ball with slivovitz!

But wait a minute, Croatia isn't just about soccer, it's about joie de vivre! The goal cheers are so spirited you'll think they've started a folklore party on the pitch! Some cheer like dancing Klapa singers, others do Croatian Linđo dance steps like joyful folklore artists, and one even tried to use the goal net as a ship's sail for an Adriatic coast cruise - ahoy, captain!

The fans here are also mega loud. They cheer their teams as if they were at a huge klapa music festival! The stadiums are full of colors and folklore, as if they were a huge Adriatic festival!

And then the coaches - they stand on the sidelines like orchestra conductors of a Croatian folk music group! Their gestures could smoothly appear in a Croatian Kolo dance show!

And when a team wins the championship, they celebrate as if they had found the treasure of the pirate Barbarossa! There will be fireworks, cevapcici and definitely lots of rakija for everyone!

So, if you're looking for a soccer league that will make you laugh and marvel, then off to Croatia to HNL! It's like a vacation on the Adriatic coast, but with soccer magic and lots of joie de vivre! Hvala, HNL! Olé!