Hi °C | Lo °C Davor Suker is probably most well known as the man whose goals took Croatia to the semi-finals of the 1998 World Cup in France.
Their main player and leading scorer finished that tournament as the top marksman with six goals in seven matches.
Quite an impressive record is that and the Golden Boot award can never be taken away from him.
Suker's tally of 12 goals in ten games during Croatia's qualification for the Euro 1996 finals in England is even better and he went on to net another three when the team got to England - including a spectacular long-range chip over Peter Schmeichel in a game against Denmark.
It may have seemed to some like a record that would never be broken and anyone who thought that can be forgiven for having such an opinion, but they didn't bargain for a man from the hardly world-renowned village of Killyleagh in County Down.
David Healy has put his home on the map though and written his name in the history books.
The Fulham hitman already claimed his country's scoring record some four years ago against Trinidad & Tobago on a Caribbean tour.
He has gone on to put the jointly held total of Colin Clarke and Billy Gillespie completely in the shade and the Fulham hitman has now struck 33 times in 61 international appearance.
He took Suker's record away from him on Saturday night at the same time as keeping Northern Ireland alive in the fight for a place at next summer's European Championship finals in Austria and Sweden when he chipped current Danish goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen from a tight angle to win the game 2-1.
And he has the chance to add to that record this evening when Nigel Worthington's men face Spain, knowing that a win and a defeat for Sweden at home to Latvia will secure a place in the finals.
"David Healy is a huge player, an excellent performer and he has made history for himself, " said previous record holder Suker in an interview with the Belfast Telegraph.
"To break record you have to perform well and I would like to congratulate him on having the record now.
"I have seen his goals in highlights on the television and he has scored a lot of very good goals."
There is certainly no bitterness from the Croatian football legend over having his record wiped out.
"In football records are there to be broken, it is part of life and you can't expect to hold onto a record all of your life," said Suker.
" I am glad that I held it for a while, 12 years and very proud of my 12 goals for my country in the European Championship qualifying series of 1996. I am second now and it is still good to be second. If you cannot be first that is where you want to be.
"I might be third one day or fourth, but I have been first once and I am happy to have had that during my career."
Suker's dozen goals came in ten matches during that Euro '96 campaign, but a change in format for the qualifying series means that Northern Ireland's game in Spain tonight is their 12th.
That has given Healy an extra two games to claim the record, but he did equal it in the tenth game, against Iceland back in September.
Whether he can put another goal or two onto that this evening remains to be seen, but he scored three the last time against Spain, so why not?
That was one of two hat-tricks in the campaign and nobody else has ever done that in European Championship qualifying.
The odds are stacked against Northern Ireland making the finals and although the record doesn't mean much to Healy at present - it will probably mean more when his career ends - at least there is something to celebrate after tonight's game.
And although he hasn't seen too much of Healy, Suker knows enough about goalscoring to believe that Northern Ireland's talisman is far from finished yet.
"He can score more goals for Northern Ireland because he has shown that he just needs the chances to come his way," said Suker, who is based in Munich but spends most of his time in the Croatia capital of Zagreb running the David Suker Soccer Academy, which he has also taken across the world.
"I wish him good luck in the future and I think everyone in Europe will know who he is now.
"It will be hard for him to score against Spain in the last game, but he has scored against some other good teams so it is not impossible for him to make it 14 goals."
