Compare U21 teams of Croatia and Moldova

[grecoroman]

He is still great talent, but problem is he never had work ethic of Modrić or Rakitić and he doesn't track back.
There is no place in modern football for a wing who doesn't cover for full backs.

I still hope he gets his career back on track, had decent second half of season in Belgium. But Croatia lost 1-4 from Romania on Euro U21 recently and big part was because of his lack of discipline in defense.

he was better at the age of 17-19 than he is now. i dont believe he will come back.

other under 23 year old croatian midfielders are way better than him. Nikola Vlasic. Marko Rog. Ante Coric. Ante Palaversa. Filip Krovinovic. Toma Basic. Kristijan Bistrovic. Antonio Marin. Ivan Sunjic.

[aherne]

These Moldovans look like other Romanians: no difference, except more CM types than usual. Fit in Eastern Balkans only... Some are blonde (more than the usual) and roughly similar to Sarmatians (very long faced, highly Aryan):

https://assets.protv.md/articles/files/1051031.mp4
Min 01:37

Croats, on the other hand, are lighter and more Western looking. None of these teams look Slavic at all...

[Jana]

Not that very different looking from each other. Their pigmentation (Moldovans & Croats here) is roughly the same.

Moldovans have more Cro-Magnon (including Baltic phenotypes) in them. IIRC Moldovans are more similar genetically to Croats then Bulgarians are. Players representing Moldova seem to have a higher frequency of likely brachycephaly, definitely higher than what would be found among any larger group of Poles. Some of the Moldovans look a tad to Eastern for Poland.

As for passing as Polish for instance, they do overlap quite much but Croats are a little bit closer. Croats also have a certain rate of occurence of bony-faced Nordish types that are apparently lacking in these Moldovans but present in Poles.

Hair pigmentation would be absolutely standard for Poland for all these teams as you can easily find groups of 10+ Poles with no blond hair and only roughly 1/2 of light brown hair, but these guys surely do have a higher incidence of dark eyes (these pictures don't allow for any accurate estimation of it)

Agree. It makes sense Croats will have more similarity with western Slavs (Slovaks are closest to us), and Moldovans with eastern (particulary Ukrainians living close to them).
It's interesting how genetically close two populations are considering huge geographical distance. It's similar ratio of Slavic and Pre-Slavic genes. There seems to be ''North Balkanic'' genetic cluster stretching from southern and eastern Croatia and Bosnia to northern and eastern Romania and Republic of Moldova.

Spoiler!

compare my 23andme results with two persons from central regions of Moldovan Republic:

Croats look more long-headed to me, contrary to stereotypes, and Moldovans more in Gorid range, they do look more rounder headed on average.
There is also kind of steppe derived look ( I don't mean mongoloid, just quite eastern) is some Moldovans, and much less in Croats. Also genuine Med types are more in us.
Look like Croats have higher variety of northern types too, I see both nordoids and some baltids, Moldovans seem more strongly Baltic.

he was better at the age of 17-19 than he is now. i dont believe he will come back.

other under 23 year old croatian midfielders are way better than him. Nikola Vlasic. Marko Rog. Ante Coric. Ante Palaversa. Filip Krovinovic. Toma Basic. Kristijan Bistrovic. Antonio Marin. Ivan Sunjic.

Many of them are talented, but maybe only one or two will make big career. Lot depends on injuries and too many of them went early to big clubs where they sit on bench and their development stalls.
I expect guys who went to smaller clubs and get regular playing time to have more success compared to those who didn't have patience to resist money and big stage but won't get to play.
Croatian footballers are very talented, so we have high hopes for them

[Jana]

These Moldovans look like other Romanians: no difference, except more CM types than usual. Fit in Eastern Balkans only... Some are blonde (more than the usual) and roughly similar to Sarmatians (very long faced, highly Aryan):

https://assets.protv.md/articles/files/1051031.mp4
Min 01:37

Croats, on the other hand, are lighter and more Western looking. None of these teams look Slavic at all...

Interesting perspective. But genetically speaking both are mix of Slavs and native Balkanites, not ''fully'' native at all.
I would say mixing of such eastern and southern populations produces unique look.

Western look in Croats comes from genetically very western med natives of Dalmatia and Panonnia. In Moldova and eastern Balkans natives were more eastern shifted from the beginning.
There is also extra effect of central European mixing in Croats (many of us have minor Czech, Hungarian, German ancestry) and steppe influence in Moldovans (Turkic tribes, Ukrainians, Russians).

[aherne]

Interesting perspective. But genetically speaking both are mix of Slavs and native Balkanites, not ''fully'' native at all.
I would say mixing of such eastern and southern populations produces unique look.

Western look in Croats comes from genetically very western med natives of Dalmatia and Panonnia. In Moldova and eastern Balkans natives were more eastern shifted from the beginning.
There is also extra effect of central European mixing in Croats (many of us have minor Czech, Hungarian, German ancestry) and steppe influence in Moldovans (Turkic tribes, Ukrainians, Russians).

One interesting thing I've noticed in Croats (and West South Slavs in general) is that the blonde element (quite common) looks like being of indigenous origin (since it generally lacks Baltid admixture typical of Slavs). If you look at guys like Prosinecki or Vida or Halilovic, they look a LOT closer to Germans or Scandinavians than to any Slavs. Among Romanians or Bulgarians, on the other hand, most blonde guys/girls look like Slavs, which indeed testifies that natives were brunet...

Hungarians of Transylvania, being largely of native descent, are generally no different from Romanians. Those inheriting Magyar looks, however, are frequently blonde and belong to a mix of Lapponoid/EastBaltid+Aryan with secondary Turanid. One can absolutely be certain that original Magyars, before mixing with Turkic peoples at least, were blonder than Slavs (as Komis/Udmurts today)...

[Unchained]

Most of the Moldovan players look 'weird' for Serbian standards because they have heavy Baltid (a few even Turanid) influence on top of the Pontid base.

[Zmey Gorynych]

The first thing that I noticed is that moldovans have broader faces, or croatians longer faces. Put it however you like.

[Universe]

What happened to halilovic?? He was supposed to be the next rakitic. But now he is complete shit

Sounds like Bojan Krkic lol. Media overhyped him when he was very young didn't achieve anything yet. Same shit happens to many others, Ödegaard and Alexandre Pato come to my mind. Media needs to create hype to attract attention.

[Jana]

More opinions ?

Sounds like Bojan Krkic lol. Media overhyped him when he was very young didn't achieve anything yet. Same shit happens to many others, Ödegaard and Alexandre Pato come to my mind. Media needs to create hype to attract attention.

Bojan Krkić had mental issues , he couldn't cope with expectations, but he was talented enough. Best scorer of Barca youth teams of all time if I am not mistaken.

[Pribislav]

One interesting thing I've noticed in Croats (and West South Slavs in general) is that the blonde element (quite common) looks like being of indigenous origin (since it generally lacks Baltid admixture typical of Slavs). If you look at guys like Prosinecki or Vida or Halilovic, they look a LOT closer to Germans or Scandinavians than to any Slavs. Among Romanians or Bulgarians, on the other hand, most blonde guys/girls look like Slavs, which indeed testifies that natives were brunet...

Hungarians of Transylvania, being largely of native descent, are generally no different from Romanians. Those inheriting Magyar looks, however, are frequently blonde and belong to a mix of Lapponoid/EastBaltid+Aryan with secondary Turanid. One can absolutely be certain that original Magyars, before mixing with Turkic peoples at least, were blonder than Slavs (as Komis/Udmurts today)...

True, solid part of light pigmented SW Slavs doesn't look Slavic.

Some examples.

Serbian actor Vladimir Aleksić


Serbian actor Bogdan Diklić



Serbian actor Tanasije Uzunović.



Serbian actor Dubravko Jovanović



Former Serbian tennis player Ivan Bjelica