Milan Borjan – born to parents of Serbian ethnicity – reveals number was leaked among Croatia fans

Canada’s Milan Borjan, who was born to parents of Serbian ethnicity, has revealed that his phone number was leaked prior to his country’s clash with Croatia on Sunday. 

Borjan was born to parents of Serbian origin in Yugoslavia at the end of the 1980s and lived in a city called Knin – which became the main Serb stronghold in Croatia until it was taken by forces during the country’s last battle in the war of independence in 1995.

A lot of bad blood still exists between the countries in the region as a result of the  war crimes committed by the likes of Milan Martic, a Croatian Serb politician who presided over the unrecognised Republic of Serbian Krajina between 1994 and 1995,  and the bloody break up of Yugoslavia in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union. 

Milan Borjan was on the receiving end of plentiful abuse from Croatia supporters during Canada’s 4-1 loss 

Speaking after the game, Borjan revealed he had received thousands of text messages but wished Croatia well. 

‘That itself speaks a lot about who those people are…I wish Croatia all the best,’ he said.

During the game – which saw Canada lose 4-1, ending their hopes of qualification – Borjan was also whistled incessantly by a seemingly large section of the Croatia crowd. While a video emerged on social media showing supporters chant ‘Borjan is an Ustase’, a pro-Nazi regime which murdered thousands of Serbs, Jews and Roma during the Second World War.

‘It shows how primitive people are. I have nothing to comment on that. They should work on themselves and their families, because they obviously have some frustration, so they come here to vent,’ Borjan said in response. 

A banner was unfurled by a section of supporters referencing Operation Storm, which was the Croatian mission in 1995 to drive Serb separatists from Knin. 

Borjan and his family themselves were forced to flee the city as refugees as a result of the operation, with Croatia supporters writing on a John Deere – a tractor manufacturer, referring to what many left on – flag ‘Knin 1995’ before altering the companies famous strapline ‘nothing runs like a deere’ to ‘nothing runs like Borjan’. 

The goalkeeper – born to parents of Serbian ethnicity in what is now Croatia – had in the past given interviews in which he controversially said his place of birth was not Croatia

The bad blood between Serbia and most of the other countries within the region is long documented, including at the last World Cup when Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri – two refugees – both held up their hands to mimic the Albanian eagle having scored for Switzerland. 

Borjan appeared to receive somewhat more criticism, however, as a result of an interview he conducted back in April in which he doubled down on his insistence that he was born in Krajina, Serbian Dalmatia crucially not Croatia. 

‘I will always be proud of the place of my birth. When I was born in 1987, I was born in the Republika Srpska Krajina and I will always be proud of that,’ he said. 

Canada saw their World Cup dreams flitter away as they lost 4-1 to Croatia – with supporters from the 2018 finalists taking great joy in taunting Borjan

‘Everyone has the right to think differently. They can hate me, they can love me, but they can never change my affiliation and birthplace.’

Meanwhile, after the game the bad blood did not appear to have extended to the Croatia players themselves, with Bruno Petkovic defending Borjan.

‘I’ve been targeted by the opposition fans quite a lot during my career, and it’s not nice. That’s the dark side of football, but we’ve gone through a lot in our careers,’ he said. 

While Borjan himself said that the Croatian players had behaved ‘like gentleman’. 

‘No need. These are children who show that they do not know what it is and how it was, that says everything about them,’ he said when asked if would speak to the Canada FA. 

‘Kudos to the Croatia players. They behaved like gentlemen.’