Croatian Ambassador to Japan Dr. Drago Štambuk received a visit by the Croatian soccer player Mato Neretljak

Ambassador Štambuk received a visit by the member of the Croatian National Soccer Team Neretljak who became a soccer star in Japan several months after he came from the South Korean team Suwon Samsung to the Japanese first league soccer team Omnia Ardia in Saitama.

After five games, with four goals scored despite being a defensive player, Neretljak has led his team to the top of the Japanese First League as the only undefeated team of the championship, and has thus earned numerous panegyrics in the media. In the most recent newspaper article in the weekly Soccer Magazine, he was deemed strong and wise, a heavenly goal scorer, and a true professional who psychologically destroyed his opponents. Neretljak has played in Korea from 2005 to 2008 where he won two championship titles and four national cups with Samsung and was declared the best Korean defensive player for four years in a row, as well as the best foreign soccer player of the last decade.

Ambassador Štambuk congratulated Mato Neretljak for his outstanding play in the First Japanese League, and for promoting Croatian soccer and Croatia as a sportsmen country. In the First Japanese League, Mihael Mikić, who recently arrived to Sanfrecce from Hiroshima, also stands out. he Australian Croat Eddy Bosner has been a member of Jeed United for several years now.