Marco Pasalic wears 87 on the back of his Orlando City SC jersey, and the number now carries a direct link to Croatia’s run toward the FIFA World Cup 2026. He kept it after moving from HNK Rijeka to Orlando in 2025, turning a shirt choice into part of his national-team identity.
Marco Pasalic and 87
Pašalić said the number came from a preseason conversation in Slovenia with Franjo Ivanović, when the two discussed their shirt choices. Ivanović offered him 7, his preferred number since he was 12 years old, but Pašalić combined 80 and 7 instead. “Franjo and I came to the idea, that I'm going to take 87 because the 80 is nice and the seven was my number,” he said.
He added: “So we're gonna mix this. And I'm a winger, so the seven is perfect for this position. Franjo took 89, since he was the striker. We did this together.” The choice soon tied into HNK Rijeka’s supporter culture, because Armada Rijeka was founded in 1987. “I took the number of the fans,” Pašalić said.
HNK Rijeka to Orlando City
The number stuck in Rijeka because the response matched the idea immediately. “It matched directly, and it was big love from the beginning,” he said. In 2023, he scored five goals in his first seven games for HNK Rijeka and added two goals in UEFA Conference League play, a return that gave the shirt a far more personal meaning than a simple squad number.
That connection survived the move to the United States. When he joined Orlando in 2025, he kept 87, saying, “Everybody knows, my friends, my family, or anybody else, if they ask about 87, then you have me in mind,” and, “Because nobody else would wear the 87.”
From Germany to Croatia
Pašalić’s path to Croatia ran through Germany, where he grew up after his family rebuilt its life there following the war in Yugoslavia. “We never had a lot, money-wise, but we had love at home,” he said, and he also described learning to be open and communicative from that environment. He often visited family in Croatia, and after playing at Dortmund, he faced a choice between Eintracht Braunschweig and Rijeka.
“It was important to go there, visit, and then at one point, after playing at Dortmund, I had the decision between Eintracht Braunschweig and Rijeka. I told my father, I tried it my whole life in Germany, something is stopping me, something is not working, it's time to change everything,” he said. He added, “I told him, I'm not gonna go somewhere else where I don't know, like some other countries, or where I don't speak the language. I want to go home.”
That choice led to his Croatia debut against Latvia alongside Luka Modrić in a Euro 2024 qualifying match. Now the same player who linked his shirt number to Rijeka supporters is set to represent Croatia at the FIFA World Cup 2026, carrying an Orlando jersey and a Croatian place in the same story.
