He debuted for the Croatian under-19 team on 3 November 1997 against Northern Ireland in their qualifying campaign for the 1998 European Under-18 Championship and subsequently made another two appearances for the team in the qualifying, scoring once. In July 1998, he was seen by many as the best player of the Croatian team at the European Under-18 Championship finals in Cyprus, where he scored three goals in four matches and helped the team to reach the third place after beating Portugal on penalty shootout. After the tournament, he made another four appearances and scored one goal for the team in their qualifying campaign for the 1999 European Under-18 Championship.