The Croatian national football team achieved significant success at the World Cup in Russia in 2018., winning second place. The paper presents a view of the reporting of American and British news sites about Croatia during and after the championship. The introduction presents the key concepts of the image and branding of the state and the role of sporting success and athletes in creating the image of the state. The paper brings a brief overview of football competitions, the participation of the Croatian national football team in them, and an explanation of the phenomenon of football. Furthermore, Croatia's online trends during the championship are presented. The discussion presents the results of reporting by American (The New York Times, Fox News and CNN) and British (Daily Mail and BBC) news sites on the Croatian national football team, Croatia, Luka Modric, Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, other national team members and Croatian fans during and after the championship. in Russia. Based on the results and interpretation, a conclusion is made about the value orientation of the particles towards each mentioned topic. After the interpretation, information on statistical indicators of tourism in Croatia after the 2018 World Cup in Russia is briefly presented. In the end, it is concluded that American and British news sites mostly reported positively about Croatia, that tourist numbers in Croatia grew in the months after the championship, and that Croatia's popularity on the Internet rose sharply. Although this paper cannot determine the precise impact of the success of the national football team on the image of Croatia, it can be concluded that he contributed greatly to it.