The man is fast becoming a legend.
Outside of his loyal fans in Croatia and East London, Slaven Bilic was always something of a cult hero. His rugged, enigmatic persona allied with almost rockstar-like images of him, cigarette in mouth and electric guitar around his neck, made him eminently cool, but to quite a niche audience.
But it is fair to say that he has now gone well and truly mainstream. His star performances on ITV’s coverage of the European Championships have quickly elevated him into possibly the nation’s favourite football pundit. Not only is he perceptive and engaging, but he is very very funny.
This was perfectly evident on Tuesday night, when he was basking in Croatia’s surprise 2-1 victory over the mighty Spain. Fellow pundit Lothar Matthaus was very graciously recalling another glorious night in Croatia’s history when they beat Germany in quarter-finals of the 1998 World Cup.
But Bilic, his face adorned with a trademark deadpan expression, couldn’t resist the opportunity to rub it in. Both Slaven and Lothar were playing that day in France, and the Croat was very keen to remind his Teutonic chum of exactly what the scoreline was over 18 years ago.
And all it look was cheeky hand gesture of 3-0. Cue studio laughter…
Bilic just killed @LMatthaeus10 #CRO #GER pic.twitter.com/fy33v2bCPR
— Adam Digby (@Adz77) June 21, 2016
