Serbia
FIFA #21
Technically excellent, emotionally volatile, and capable of a stunning goal and a baffling collapse in the same half. The Balkans, in football form.
๐ In the US
Based in the Chicago area, which has one of the largest Serbian-American communities in the United States. The white, red, and blue will be visible from well outside the stadium, and the Balkan grill restaurants in the northern suburbs are fully booked for every match day.
Style
Technical in midfield and dangerous at set pieces, with the creativity to produce individual moments that change games entirely.
Rivals
Croatia. What began as the internal tensions of a single nation became an international rivalry with decades of history, politics, and football mixed in ways that are very difficult to separate.
Home Base
Belgrade is the football heart of the Balkans โ Crvena zvezda and Partizan fill stadiums with an intensity that has few equals in European football. The national team draws from a culture where football is bound up with identity and a fierce refusal to be written off by anyone.
Human Rights
Freedom House
Political rights and civil liberties score (higher = more free)
Reporters Without Borders
Press Freedom Index ranking (lower = more free, out of 180 countries)
UN Human Development Index
Human Development Index score (higher = more developed, 0โ1 scale)
Transparency International
Perceived public sector corruption โ higher is cleaner
ILGA World
Legal status of same-sex relationships