Hands up then, the far-sighted fan who six months ago could have named Zlatko Zahovic and Srecko Katanec as two of the surprise protagonists at next summer's Euro 2000 finals in Holland and Belgium. Indeed, even now two days after the draw for the finals, not every fan in the land could swear that Katanec and Zahovic are, respectively, Slovenia's coach and best-known player.
If there is a 500 to 1 outsider among the 16 nations that have qualified for the finals, then that outsider has to be Slovenia. With a population of only two million, it has until now been best known, in sporting terms at least, for the exploits of its basketball players and skiing stars.
All that is set to change next summer when Slovenian pride will be put to a severe test in a first round Group C that also includes Spain, Norway and Yugoslavia. Ironically, the draw sees the Slovenes open their campaign on June 13th with a seemingly highly charged Balkan derby against their former political overlords, Yugoslavia.
Throughout their surprising qualification, the Slovenes followed the typical route of a small side with limited means - i.e. what they lacked in class, they tried to compensate for with work-rate and team spirit.
However, the sporting gods rowed in with Slovenia. First, they were drawn in a dull-looking Group Two in which even a dull Norway side managed to look good, winning eight out of their 10 games in a group that also featured Greece, Latvia, Albania and Georgia.
Finishing second to Norway, while hardly earth-shattering, nonetheless represented a good result. Their good run, however, seemed destined to end when they were drawn with Ukraine in the play-offs. Ukraine were the side that most coaches were keen to avoid.
Having gone 0-1 down to a Shevchenko goal in the first half of the first-leg play-off in Ljubljana Slovenia's goose looked cooked. It was then that Zahovic struck, scoring a brilliant 53rd-minute equaliser that gave the Slovenes hope. The fates then decided to give Slovenia a helping hand in the 83rd minute when substitute Milenkov Acimov scored an absurd 60-yard lobbed goal that caught the distracted Ukraine goalkeeper off his line.
The gods moved in to help Slovenia in the return leg in Kiev, providing a snowbound pitch which penalised the more talented Ukraine side. Even then, Slovenia again had to come from behind with Miran Pavlin scoring the 79th-minute equaliser that put his side into the finals with a 3-2 aggregate win. You could be tempted to conclude that Slovenia's run will end there. However, they may strike a major blow for Slovene pride in that opening Balkan derby with Yugoslavia.
While the fates may have been kind to Slovenia, it is also important to acknowledge that in coach Katanec and Zahovic, they can call on talented and experienced professionals. As a player, Katanec was a rugged but skilful midfield ball-winner in the Sampdoria side of the late 80s and early 90s which won the Italian title and the European Cup Winners' Cup.
Zahovic (28), currently in dispute with his club Olympiakos Piraeus, is a genuine talent. A left-sided midfielder with an attacking bent, Zahovic was with Vitoria Guimaraes and Porto in Portugal until moving to Greece this summer. In Portugal, he won three titles with Porto, scoring 35 league goals in six seasons.
European success, however, has prompted Zahovic to go looking for a new club, complete with an asking price fixed at $11 million. For him, the Euro 2000 finals will represent an important shop-window. For his country, they will represent a moment of rare prominence on the international stage. For Katanec, the finals will be a chance to test his theories about the levelling-out of international soccer.
"At the moment, there are four or five sides in the world that are really good . . . As for the rest, if you go out and attack them, you put them in difficulty," he said.
