GNK Dinamo Zagreb

General

Kit history

Dinamo Zagreb
Full name	Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb
Nickname(s)	Modri (The Blues) Purgeri (The Citizens)
Short name	Dinamo Zagreb
Founded	26 April 1911 (as 1. HŠK Građanski) 9 June 1945 (as FD Dinamo)
Ground	Stadion Maksimir (Capacity: 35,123)
Chairman	Mirko Barišić
Manager	Ante Čačić
Current League	Prva HNL
2021–22	Prva HNL, 1st (champions)
Website	Club home page
All-time top scorer	Igor Cvitanović, 304 goals
Supporters groups	Bad Blue Boys

Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb, commonly referred to as GNK Dinamo Zagreb or simply Dinamo Zagreb, is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. The club is the successor of 1. HŠK Građanski, which had been founded in 1911, disbanded in 1945 and replaced by the newly founded Dinamo Zagreb. They play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Croatian football, having won twenty-two Prva HNL titles, sixteen Croatian Cups and six Croatian Super Cups. The club has spent its entire existence in top flight, having been members of the Yugoslav First League from 1946 to 1991, and then the Prva HNL since its foundation in 1993.

At the end of the World War II, the new communist government of Yugoslavia considered Croatian clubs like HŠK Građanski as fascist and nationalist, because they had operated under the former Independent State of Croatia, which was an Axis member during the war. As such, they were formally disbanded and, in 1945, FD Dinamo was founded as a club to act as an unofficial successor to HŠK Građanski, getting around the ruling party's disapproval. They entered the Yugoslav First League in its inaugural 1946–47 season, finishing as runners-up. In their second season in Yugoslav top flight in 1947–48 they finished as Yugoslav champions, which was their first major trophy. The club won three more league titles and seven Yugoslav Cups. Amid the breakup of Yugoslavia and formation of the Croatian football league system, Dinamo left the Yugoslav league in 1991. Dinamo are, to date, the only Croatian club to win a European trophy, having won the 1966–67 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup by defeating Leeds United in the final. They also finished runners-up in the same competition in 1963 when they lost to Valencia.

Until the early 1990s, its foundation year was considered to be 1945 but amid the political turmoil during the breakup of Yugoslavia the club began claiming direct lineage to pre-WWII clubs Građanski Zagreb and HAŠK. In order to reflect this, in June 1991, it was renamed HAŠK Građanski, which lasted until February 1993 when it was renamed Croatia Zagreb. They won five league titles and participated in the 1998–99 and 1999–2000 UEFA Champions League group stages carrying that name, before reverting to the more widely recognized "Dinamo Zagreb" on 14 February 2000. Although the subject of the club's name was dropped for a while, in 2011, club management increasingly began claiming again that Dinamo is the direct descendant of Građanski (which had originally been founded in 1911 and disbanded in 1945) and in April that year decided to prepend the adjective "Građanski" to the club's official name, turning it into the present-day GNK Dinamo (Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo or Dinamo Citizens' Football Club).

The team's traditional colour is royal blue, which has been replaced for European matches in recent times with the darker navy blue. The club's biggest rivals are Hajduk Split, and matches between the two teams are referred to as "Eternal Derby".

History

20-21 Season

Following Bjelica's departure and Igor Jovicevic's brief spell, the club announced that Zoran Mami will be named as the next manager.

Dinamo qualified for the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League following an unsuccessful 2020–21 UEFA Champions League qualification season, defeating Estonian club Flora Tallinn 3–1 in the play-off round. Dinamo was drawn in Group K alongside Feyenoord, CSKA Moscow, and Wolfsberg. Afterwards, Dinamo went onto a four-game winning streak after beating Wolfsberg with 3–0, Feyenoord with 2–0 and CSKA Moscow with 3–1, thus reaching the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League Round of 32 undefeated and with only one goal conceded, making them the club with the least goals conceded in the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League group stage.

Dinamo Zagreb made history by not conceding a single goal for 526 minutes, a record previously held by Manchester United, which is the longest time span without conceding a goal in all of UEFA's football competitions, including the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. In the Round of 32, Dinamo got drawn with Krasnodar, who reached the Round of 32 after being 3rd placed in the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League group stage. In the first leg, Dinamo managed to beat Krasnodar away with the score of 3–2, while in the second leg, Dinamo beat Krasnodar with the score of 1–0, thus remaining undefeated in eight games of the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League. Dinamo were then drawn to play Tottenham Hotspur in the Round of 16. Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, Dinamo and Tottenham were forced to reverse the order of the ties, and so Dinamo played the first leg away, losing 2–0. However, Mislav Orisic's amazing hat-trick in the second leg, with the final goal coming in extra time to complete the comeback, sent Dinamo to the quarter-finals after winning 3–2 on aggregate.

On 15 March, Mamić resigned from the position as club manager and sports director after the verdict of the Osijek Municipal Court was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Croatia. Mamić and three others (including his older brother Zdravko) were charged with tax evasion worth 12.2 million HRK and for siphoning off 116 million HRK from transfers of players from Dinamo. Assistant coach Damir Krznar was named Mamić's replacement the same day.

External links

• Official website
• Dinamo Zagreb profile at UEFA.com

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