Official! Benfica star missed World Cup for poor form, back in squad | OneFootball

Croatia announced this Monday the list of 26 players called up for the first two matches of the Nations League group stage - against Czechia on September 26 and world champions Spain on September 29 -, the first since their elimination from the 2026 World Cup by Portugal in the round of 32 (2-1).

The main new name is Franjo Ivanovic: the young forward missed Zlatko Dalic’s squad call-up for the World Cup while he was still at Benfica. Loaned this summer to Lens until the end of the season, with no option to buy, the Croatian was called up after winning the French Super Cup on his debut against PSG and scoring against Auxerre in the first Ligue 1 match.

Ivanovic had not been called up since November 2025, almost a year ago (he has nine caps and two goals). Other big and regular names in the national team, such as Luka Modric (Milan), Dominik Livakovic (Barcelona), Josko Gvardiol (Manchester City), Mateo Kovacic (Manchester City) and Ivan Perisic (PSV), were also called up by Bilic.

Signed by Benfica on July 31, 2025, from Union Saint-Gilloise, the Croatian forward scored his first goal for the Eagles on his debut in the famous shirt, against Nice in France, in the first leg of the third Champions League qualifying round for the league phase (2-0), on August 6.

During the 2025/26 season, Franjo Ivanovic played 42 matches with the eagle on his chest: 25 in the domestic league, 11 in the Champions League (including four matches in the qualifying phase), four in the Portuguese Cup and two in the League Cup. In those matches, he scored eight goals and provided two assists.

Check Croatia’s squad list:

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This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.