The main striker is just praying his dodgy knees do not let him down.
And the substitute forward has the dubious distinction of being the most expensive flop in Aston Villa’s history.
No wonder Croatia have the pundits scratching their heads when it comes to predicting what they will do in Germany next month.
The Croats have bombed in the group stages of their last two major finals yet the nation still expects from Zlatko Kranjcar’s team.
Controversial Kranjcar, who has made son Niko his midfield play-maker, guided Croatia to the finals with a 10-match undefeated run in the qualifiers.
Now he will be hoping that the likes of Kranjcar junior, Dado Prso of Rangers and Bosko Balaban continue to produce the goods against Brazil, Japan and Australia.
Prso, 31, quits international football after the finals and admitted: “I pray my knees hold out. I’m ready to withstand the pain, get kicked, do the best I can.”
Prso’s understudy is Balaban, who never made a Premiership start despite costing Villa £5.8million from Dinamo Zagreb in 2001.
In fact, had Villa not taken a £3m write-off, Balaban would STILL be under contract in the Midlands.
Instead the forward was allowed to join Club Bruges on a free where his goals have fired the Belgians to a title and into Europe.
Balaban said: “It is sad what happened at Aston Villa and I don’t know when it started to go wrong.
“But what happened then is forgotten. All I wanted was a chance somewhere and I got that.
“Scoring is my speciality and when you play up front you live on goals.”
Balaban scored 13 goals for Bruges this season despite missing three months after a bust-up with the manager.
kao prvo clanak je pisala pickica. kazu da je cico samoprozvani pijanac (?). prso se kao boji da li ce mu koljena izdrzati do kraja SP-a. balabana prate glasine da je najskuplji flop u povijesti Aston Ville. englezi hrvatskoj ne daju velike sanse, cak tvrde da domaci navijaci sumnjaju u uspjeh na sp-u.
prso: "nadam se da ce mi koljena izdrzati. spreman sam izdrzati sve boli u koljenima, da me gaze, ali dat cu sve od sebe."
cini mi se da su zaboravili na klasnica, samo spominju balabana. prvo ga pljuju kako je podbacio kao gotovo nitko drugi u Villi. da Villa nije kao otpisala preostalih 3 mio. funti JOS UVIJEK bi igrao za njih a samo nekoliko redaka kasnije ga hvale kako je u Club Brugges-u upravo on zasluzan sto su prvaci.
Balaban: "ne znam zasto mi nije islo u Villi, ne znam gdje sve krenulo nizbrdo. sve sto sam htio je dobiti novu sansu na drugom mjestu, u drugom klubu. posrecilo mi je se, zadovoljan sam. ono sto je bilo treba zaboraviti."
Balaban: "Tresti mreze je moj specijalitet, a kad igras gore u napadu pogadjati mrezu je jedino sto te drzi na zivotu."
spominju jos kako je zabio 13 puta za Brugge, mogao je kao jos da se nije posvadio sa trenerom, zbog cega je izbivao puna 3 mjeseca