Serbian President's Football Advice to Child Draws Laughter

Social media users from Croatia and Serbia have ridiculed Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic for suggesting to a young footfall fan from Croatia that he should root for the Belgrade football clubs Crvena Zvezda and Partizan rather than for a home team.

While hosting a group of Serbian children from Croatia in his office in Belgrade on Thursday, Vucic told a seven-year-old child by the name of Tino from the coastal city of Rijeka not to root for the local football club HNK Rijeka, but for "greater clubs", such as Crvena Zvezda and Partizan.

"Tino, you have to find some better club to support - let it be [Crvena] Zvezda or Partizan," Vucic told Tino.

He also told Tino that he expected him to love "beautiful" Belgrade as much as Rijeka in the future.

"Let me tell you something, on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, and beyond, Belgrade is more beautiful than any other city … It's two times bigger than Zagreb, almost three Zagrebs can dwell in one Belgrade, while five Sarajevos can dwell in one Belgrade," Vucic boasted.

Bojan Glavasevic, an opposition MP in Croatia, wrote on Twitter on Thursday that Vucic "has a new political role model", explaining that it reminded him of how Croatia's then President, Franjo Tudjman, gave footballing advice to a Croatian child named Matija.

After Croatia separated from Yugoslavia in 1991, Tudjman ordered the Zagreb football club "Dinamo" to change its Socialist-era name to something more obviously patriotic.

The club first changed the name to Hask Gradjanski in 1992 and then to NK Croatia in 1993.

When Matija said he still rooted "for Dinamo", Tudjman picked up Matija in his arms and explained that he should be rooting for "Croatia" and not for "Dinamo".

"Let me explain...