Borna Sosa's open letter: "I take responsibility for my mistakes"

The events that have happened during the past several days have left and will continue to leave a deep mark on me as a person and on my career as an athlete.

I will not try to evade responsibility for this situation, and I know very well that I have brought this upon myself, though in the moment when I was making a decision regarding my international career, I had believed that I was doing the right thing.

I made the wrong decision, and I came out of this situation looking naïve.

Like every athlete, I spent my childhood dreaming about major tournaments. I continue to dream of the same things, regardless of money or other material values, and I also dream of playing one day at the European Championships and the World Cup.

But even in those dreams, I have no illusions; many will not understand my behaviour, and I do not blame them. I am solely responsible for this situation; from misunderstanding the information that I had received from the Croatian Football Federation to the decision that I made in an attempt to try and achieve my dreams through some other, perhaps shorter path.

I made my debut for the Croatian youth teams in 2012, and since then I’ve made 56 appearances for various age categories. I played some of those matches well, and some worse, but I’m proud of every single match in Croatian shirt.

The decision I made was wrong, and I must take responsibility for it. If the Croatian Football Federation and the head coaches decide that I may still contribute to the success of our national teams, despite everything, I will answer their calls and make myself available.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the Croatian public and to all fans of the Croatian national team, as well as to the Croatian Football Federation, whom I’d like to thank for the patience, understanding, and fairness that they have granted me in this situation.

Borna Sosa

Copyright by Croatian Football Federation. Quoting text from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to HNS as a source and providing direct link to the original content at hns.family. Re-use of the photographs is not permitted.