Toronto’s Thriving Croatian Community Put on a Show at the World Cup | OneFootball

Croatia’s golden generation has seen the nation finish in second and third at the last two FIFA World Cups. In 2026, the team played its second group stage match in Toronto, where a thriving community of Croatians showed their fervent support.  

Toronto, Ontario is a city defined by its diversity and shaped by generations of global migration, and it has long been home to one of the largest and most vibrant Croatian communities outside Europe.

According to CP24, a significant proportion of the more than 130,000 Canadians of Croatian origin live in the Greater Toronto Area. This makes Toronto the cultural heart of Croatian life in North America, a place where heritage and tradition are both preserved and continually renewed. Among these traditions is a passion for football, a cultural thread that binds generations and helps keep the community’s identity alive.

Waves of Croatian migration to Canada, especially during and after the breakup of Yugoslavia, transformed the Greater Toronto Area into a place where community, language, and tradition could be rebuilt far from home.

Over time, Toronto evolved from a settling place into one where Croatian identity and belonging were actively protected and transmitted. Football, in particular, allows Croatians to sustain a sense of cultural continuity. It’s a bridge between past and present that enables Croatian-Canadians to carry forward the pride and resilience that shaped their history.

That is why football carries such weight here. For Croatian‑Canadians, the national team is far more than a sports symbol, it is a living reminder of resilience.

“Croatian football is a unifying force for the people of the country,” said one Croatian fan to me at Toronto Stadium for the Croatia-Panama group stage match. “Especially after coming through the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Civil War, it united people and gave some hope and inspiration. The things that this small country has been able to do, in the biggest stage in football, it’s been tremendous — source of all pride and again, inspiring for every generation, and just bringing people together.”

That feeling echoes across the community. Croatia is in the midst of a golden generation that has seen a runner-up and third-place finish in the last two World Cups, and has produced world-class players across various age groups. On the current Croatia 2026 FIFA World Cup squad, the older guard features Luka Modrić (40), Ivan Perišić (37), and Andrej Kramarić (35), the middle group includes Mateo Kovačić (32), Mario Pašalić (31), and Josip Stanišić (26), and young stars like Joško Gvardiol (24), Petar Sučić (22), and Luka Vušković (19) round out the group.

“To us, the players are fantastic,” another Croatia supporter at the game told me. “We’re very proud of them, how they work, and their work ethic. And I love Modric. I think he’s a fantastic player. Look at his age. Look what he’s doing. And we just want to win and we did our best. In the last [World Cup], we came in third place. Before that in Russia, we came in second. So let’s go for number one.”

Her excitement reflected the collective hope and determination shared by Croatian‑Canadians, who see every tournament as another chance to showcase their pride on the world’s biggest stage.

It is this deep-rooted presence and pride for their national team that gives weight to the words of Ivan Grbešić, a board member of the Canadian‑Croatian Chamber of Commerce, who noted that “Toronto is unique because this is not simply a host city.”

For Croatian-Canadians, Toronto is not just a venue but a home ground in every cultural sense. It is a unique place where the diaspora is not scattered but connected.

Growing up in Brampton, a city just outside of Toronto, and playing football throughout the Greater Toronto Area and other regions, I saw firsthand from a young age how Croatian-Canadian football culture shaped local pitches, clubs, and communities. It is a heritage that is deeply intertwined with Croatian identity. The sport is not an addition to Croatian culture, it is one of its defining expressions.

Through their history of war, migration, and footballing pride, Toronto — a city rarely recognized for its football culture despite being home to one of the most passionate and diverse football communities in the world — awakened on match day and put the world on notice as this night became anything but silent.

The match became a stage where heritage, migration, and sport converged. It was a moment where Croatian‑Canadians celebrated not only their national team, but the generations of community‑building, resilience, and identity that brought them here. In that stadium, under the lights, Toronto felt less like a host city and more like an extension of Croatia itself as their diaspora’s voice rose in unison and made its presence impossible to ignore.

Photography by Justin Knight for Urban Pitch.