Many in Croatia remember Bruno Loncarevic. He is a young radiology engineer from the central Croatian town of Petrinja. When the town was struck by a devastating earthquake in December 2020, the only thing he saved from the wreckage of his home was a sign of his favourite football club – Liverpool.

After the media, including N1, carried his story, support started pouring in from all over Croatia and the world, from other Liverpool fans to the ordinary people touched by his story. Usually, news like this would be forgotten quickly.
Still, despite the pandemic, lockdown, the aftermath of the earthquakes in Croatia and now the war in Ukraine, the British Embassy in Zagreb did not forget about Loncarevic.

The political and media advisor at the Embassy, Snjezana Vukic, and the then Ambassador, Andrew Dalgleish, got to work immediately.

“The Ambassador wrote to Jürgen Klopp, we all used every channel we could to reach someone from Liverpool FC,” Vukic told N1’s Ivana Dragicevic.

At the same time, she was trying to find Bruno.

“One day, my phone rang. ‘Hello, I’m Bruno Loncarevic.’ I couldn’t believe my ears – I told him – I’ve been looking for you for almost two years,” Vukic says with a laugh.

In the meantime, the new British Ambassador, Simon Thomas, arrived in Croatia.

Everything finally came together right before the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebration.

A poster arrived in Zagreb, signed by all the Liverpool players and manager Klopp with a note: Bruno – Stay strong! On the eve of the Jubilee, Bruno also received honorary membership of the club.

British Minister of State for Europe and America was present at Wednesday evening’s Jubilee ceremony at the Ambassador’s residence in Zagreb. Thrilled with the story, he, along with Ambassador Thomas and Snjezana Vukic, gave Bruno Loncarevic the presents from England.

“I want to say thank you once again, in my name and in the name of my entire family, for the support we received over the last year and a half. Particularly I wish to thank the British Ambassador for inviting me to this celebration and for the presents from Liverpool. I’ve had the opportunity to meet with many well-known people, but also those dear to me, and I will always remember this day,” Loncarevic told N1.

Among the attendees was Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic who volunteered in the aftermath of the earthquakes in central Croatia.

Still, Tomasevic said, laughing as we took his picture with Loncarevic, he rooted for Real Madrid during the recent Champions League final.

Bruno Loncarevic returned to Petrinja, where he lives with his fiancée. His mother, after more than a year spent in a temporary container settlement, got an apartment from the county, which she can use for a year.

The reconstruction and recovery work in the region is far from being done, but gestures like this one still matter.

Another Croatian Liverpool fan, and Loncarevic’s acquaintance, Vjekoslav Milat, told N1 in January last year: “Those who follow Liverpool know that the players touch a sign above the entrance before every game, out of superstition. That sign is the symbol of the club. Bruno lost his home, the only thing that mattered to him was getting that sign out. It carries immense sentimental value.”

Bruno walks on, into a new beginning. And Liverpool, once more, lived up to its slogan – you’ll never walk alone.