Croatia's secret weapon - the Rangers fan from Scotland bidding to reach another World Cup final

He may not be a household name in Scotland but Marc Rochon is bidding to reach his second World Cup final with Croatia.

The Scot - who was born in John O'Groats - has been working as head video analyst for the Croatian national side since before the 2018 tournament in Russia.

A key member of Zlatko Dalic's backroom staff, he helped mastermind the country's run to the final four years ago and is now just one match from repeating the feat after Croatia again made it through to the semi-finals in Qatar.

As well as preparing dossiers on the opposition, Rochon also sits in the stands during matches and provides the dugout with in-match data to assist with decision-making. After helping to knock out Brazil in the quarter-finals, he will be at the Lusail Stadium on Tuesday with Argentina standing between him and potential World Cup glory.

Marc Rochon, the Scottish-born video analyst for the Croatian national side, during an interview with the HNS podcast.

Despite leaving Scotland and moving to Portsmouth with his parents at a young age, Rochon revealed in a previous interview that he still considers himself very much Scottish.

“If I’m asked I always say that ‘I’m from the north of Scotland’. That’s my heritage," he said. "I’ve got the red lion and Scotland tattoos on my body. It’s something to compensate for losing the accent! People ask if I am really Scottish and I would say I was and show them the tattoos!"

Rochon started his career at Southampton after obtaining a sport science degree. He also spent a year at Tottenham before joining up with current Croatia boss Dalic for a successful three-and-a-half year stint at Al Ain in the UAE.

He then followed Dalic to the national side in 2017, where he now works alongside Celtic and Rangers duo Josip Juranovic and Borna Barisic, with the latter recently revealing that Rochon is a fan of the Ibrox side.

Barisic said, via The Athletic: “Marc always wants to help you with whatever you need and it helps he is a Rangers fan so we always have stories to talk about — and the good thing is that we can be two-v-one against Josip We sometimes go for dinner in Glasgow but Josip also plays all the time in the Champions League so we don’t have that much time. He’s doing his job and I’m doing mine."