in the spring of 2002, he returned to the croatian national team as their third-choice goalkeeper and was also named to the final 23-man squad for the 2002 world cup finals in south korea|korea and japan, but once again did not manage to play any matches at the tournament. prior to the world cup, he won his second international cap in a friendly match against hungary. he subsequently did not win any international caps, but was called up to be the croatian national team's third-choice goalkeeper at the euro 2004 finals in portugal after the team's first-choice goalkeeper stipe pletikosa was forced to withdraw from the tournament due to an injury.