As a Croatian Canadian I would like to give you a different perspective on this situation… I’m not trying to argue just maybe offer you a different view.
About the comment of “we’re gonna go eff Croatia”, no one is mad about that statement being said in the locker room, after all, everyone says such things to motivate their own team. The issue in this situation is that he took the locker room talk out to to the public which is always very classless and stupid because it gives the opposing team motivation to just prove the other team wrong. In addition, I do believe this whole situation blew up due to media coverage, the truth is Croatians didn’t care that much about the comment, majority though it was a bit stupid since Croatia placed second last wc. Like I said, no one was as angry as the media made it out to be, in fact many were just poking fun at the statement.
Now for Borjan… no one said he deserved to be discriminated against, at least from what I saw in that comment. Did some fans take it too far? Yes. However, I think it’s really important to educate yourself on the history in the balkans… a lot of wars birthed a lot of hate among the neighbouring countries. Speaking from personal experience, as someone who was born and grew up in a city that was destroyed by the Serbs, there is still a lot of pain that cannot be taken away. The small city is still getting back on its feet and it has been 31 years since the war. My parents were in that war, my one grandpa was shot and later on sent to a prison where he was tortured. My other grandpa was taken away from the hospital he worked at (by one of his colleagues) and never returned, no one to this day knows what happened to him and where his body lays. You have to understand that the resentment comes from pain and trauma - I’m not excusing the behaviour but just trying to explain the reason for it.
As for the fan behaviour during the game… it was in response to Borjan’s prior comments. (Again, I’m not making excuses, just giving you the whole story). In an interview, he was asked how he would identify himself since he was born in Croatia but now plays for Canada (something within that context), his response was to make a nationalistic comment by saying he was born in a Serbian place (although that is not true as it is literally recognized as a Croatian place). He was the one who started with hate and the Croatian people - especially those who fought for independence were angered as the things they saw were absolutely disgusting and traumatizing. He also put his three fingers up to the Croatian fans which is a symbol of hate as that is what Serbs did during the war (for context, Croatians would put two fingers up as a sign of peace and the Serbs did three).
I understand your anger towards the discrimination of Borjan and I agree that some people took it way too far. However, I also understand their anger as the comments made by him were absolutely disgusting and hurtful.
I think you are very lucky to have the amazing privilege of not understanding the pain a lot of us had to deal with. Even as somebody who was not alive during the war, I am affected. Wars affect generations… on Facebook, I get to see the man who took my grandfather away from me live a free life with his grandchildren while I wonder where mine lays…
It’s not all black and white, I don’t think hating either Serbs or Croatians will do you any good. There is too much hate surrounding that topic anyway.