Louth's Barry Hamilton will be on the bench for Croatia for the opening game of the World Cup against Brazil.
However, there is no hope of the Geraldine's man coming on as an impact sub for Luka Modric in the 60th minute as he is there because he works for STATSports, a company that played a major part in Croatia's World Cup bid. The business was set up by Sean O'Connor and Alan Clarke in 2008.
'I suppose it was a case of being in the right place at the right time,' Hamilton told The Dundalk Democrat.
The Croats were looking to get a demonstration of our STATSports Viper tracking system before the World Cup so Sean and Alan decided that I should go to their ten-day training base in Zagreb and Austria. I flew out on May 20th.
The players and the manager, Niko Kovac, really liked the system and I got on well with everybody but I was due to come home on June 1st. I never expected to be going to the World Cup at all.
The players held a meeting and the captain, Darijo Srna, stood up and told me to give him my passport as I was going to Brazil with the squad.
There are not too many people in my position, working a dream job that has taken them to the World Cup. I'm really looking forward to it and I really appreciate where I am.
It will be an experience I'm sure I'll never forget and hopefully some of the people back home will be cheering Croatia on. Nobody expects anything other than a Brazil win but the lads are confident they can cause an upset.
The Wee County might adopt Croatia as their team for the World Cup with their inter-county hero with them in the trenches in Brazil. They will have to learn to forgive and forget after the Croats dashed Irish hopes in Euro 2012 after defeating the Boys in Green 3-1 in Poznan.
Hat tip: Hogan Stand
