GNK Dinamo Zagreb

Also written as Din. Zagreb, Dinamo Zagreb.

The club

Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb are the club of the Croatian capital. The lineage recorded in the club's honours begins on 26 April 1911 with the founding of HŠK Građanski, and the club as it is now was re-established on 9 June 1945 as FD Dinamo. It carried the name HAŠK Građanski from 1991 to 1993 and then Croatia Zagreb from 1993, before reverting to Dinamo Zagreb on 14 February 2000.

The ground is the Stadion Maksimir in Zagreb, capacity 24,851. The traditional playing colour is royal blue, with a navy blue used for European matches in recent years.

The head coach is Mario Kovačević, who has been in charge since the 2025/26 season. The season before him was chaotic by comparison: Sergej Jakirović was in place until 19 September 2024, Sandro Perković took a few days as caretaker, Nenad Bjelica ran the team from 26 September to 29 December 2024, Fabio Cannavaro from 29 December to 9 April 2025, and Perković finished the season as caretaker again from 10 April. The club president is Zvonimir Boban, appointed in 2025.

Recent seasons

Dinamo won the Croatian league in 2020/21 with 85 points and in 2021/22 with 79, that season taking 24 wins, 7 draws and 5 defeats from 36 matches, ten clear of Hajduk Split on 72. They won again in 2022/23 with 81 points, 24 wins, 9 draws and 3 defeats, 81 goals scored and 28 conceded, with Hajduk second on 71. The 2023/24 title came with 82 points, 25 wins, 7 draws and 4 defeats, 67 scored and 30 conceded, ahead of Rijeka on 74.

Then the run stopped. In 2024/25 Dinamo finished second on 65 points from 19 wins, 8 draws and 9 defeats, 69 scored and 41 conceded; they finished level on points with Rijeka and lost the title on the head-to-head record. They took it straight back in 2025/26 with 86 points, 27 wins, 5 draws and 4 defeats, 93 goals scored and only 28 conceded, eighteen points clear of Hajduk Split on 68. Dion Drena Beljo scored 31 league goals that season and 38 in all competitions.

Honours and landmarks

Dinamo have won the Croatian top flight 26 times: 1992/93, 1995/96 through 1999/2000, 2002/03, 2005/06 through 2015/16, 2017/18 through 2023/24, and 2025/26. That is 26 of the 35 championships contested since Croatian independence, against six for Hajduk Split, two for Rijeka and one for NK Zagreb. They have won the Croatian Cup 18 times, most recently in 2025/26, and the Croatian Super Cup eight times, in 2002, 2003, 2006, 2010, 2013, 2019, 2022 and 2023. The league and cup double has been done on fourteen occasions.

From the Yugoslav era the honours list records nine national championships, five of them won as Građanski before the war in 1923, 1926, 1928, 1936/37 and 1939/40, and four as Dinamo in 1947/48, 1953/54, 1957/58 and 1981/82, together with eight Yugoslav Cups in 1938, 1951, 1959/60, 1962/63, 1964/65, 1968/69, 1979/80 and 1982/83. The club also won the Balkans Cup in 1976/77.

The landmark is the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup of 1966/67, still the only major European trophy won by a club from Croatia.

Notable scorelines

The heaviest defeat in the club's history came away to Bayern Munich on 17 September 2024, 9-2 in the opening round of the Champions League league phase, a match in which Harry Kane scored four times and set a record for the most goals by one team in a Champions League fixture. Before that, UEFA's own record for Dinamo had their worst home European result as 1-7 against Olympique Lyonnais at Maksimir on 8 December 2011 in the Champions League group stage, and their worst away result as 0-5 at Bayern Munich on 29 September 2015. In 2025/26 their heaviest defeat was 0-4 to Lille in the Europa League.

Their biggest wins of 2025/26 were both 7-0, against Karlovac 1919 and against Osijek. The club's all-time record domestic win and record domestic defeat were not established from the sources read here.

European record

Across their history Dinamo have played 395 matches in European competition, winning 162, drawing 84 and losing 149, scoring 573 goals and conceding 510.

The 1966/67 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup is the high point. Dinamo got past Spartak Brno of Czechoslovakia in the first round, winning the first leg 2-0 and drawing the second 2-2 after extra time, going through on the toss of a coin under the new rules that had scrapped replays that season. In the second round they eliminated Dunfermline Athletic on away goals after a 4-4 aggregate. Bologna and Eintracht Frankfurt were beaten in the later rounds. The final, delayed into the following autumn, was won 2-0 on aggregate against Leeds United: Dinamo won the first leg 2-0 at Maksimir on 30 August 1967 in front of 32,000, Marijan Čerček scoring on 39 minutes and Krasnodar Rora on 59, and held Leeds to a goalless draw at Elland Road on 6 September in front of 35,604. Ivan Horvat was the Dinamo manager, Slaven Zambata the captain and Zlatko Škorić the goalkeeper; Don Revie managed Leeds.

Dinamo reached the semi-finals of the Cup Winners' Cup in 1960/61. They have played in the Champions League group stage in 1998/99, 1999/2000, 2011/12, 2012/13, 2015/16 and 2019/20, beating Arsenal 2-1 at Maksimir in 2015/16 and Atalanta 4-0 in 2019/20.

The best modern run was the 2020/21 Europa League, which took them to the quarter-finals. In the round of sixteen they trailed Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 from the first leg and won the return 3-0 after extra time, Mislav Oršić scoring on 62 minutes, 82 minutes and 106 minutes to put Dinamo through 3-2 on aggregate. In that campaign the club went 526 consecutive minutes in the competition without conceding, a UEFA record that passed Manchester United's mark.

In 2024/25 Dinamo entered the new Champions League league phase and finished 25th of 36 with 11 points from three wins, two draws and three defeats, 12 goals scored and 19 conceded, which was not enough to reach the knockout phase. In 2025/26 they dropped into the Europa League, played ten matches for three wins, two draws and five defeats, 16 scored and 22 conceded, and went out at the knockout phase play-offs.

Quotes

Zvonimir Boban, on being confirmed as club president in 2025: "I entered the Maksimir stadium for the first time on September 1, 1982 and the desire remained the same." He added, in the same speech, "I usually speak from the heart, but today I had to write things down. I want to thank my idol Velimir Zajec for the trust he's shown me. Zeko, I hope to justify it."

Mario Kovačević, after the 3-2 extra-time win over Thun in the Champions League second qualifying round on 28 July 2026: "I'm pleased that we showed true character with such a comeback."

Kovačević, before the return leg of a Champions League qualifying tie in August 2026: "We want to be at the right level now too, we won't think about the result from the first match but will focus on playing well again and winning."

Right now (2026/27)

Mario Kovačević is still the head coach. Dinamo lead the Croatian league with 9 points from three matches, including a 2-0 home win over Slaven Belupo on 31 July 2026. Dion Drena Beljo has four league goals and six in all competitions.

The summer business brought in the forwards Smail Prevljak and Aleks Stojaković. Ismaël Bennacer returned to AC Milan at the end of his loan, Sandro Kulenović went to Torino for a reported three million euros and Monsef Bakrar to Al Ahly for the same figure, leaving the club roughly 7.45 million euros up on the window.

Dinamo entered the Champions League at the second qualifying round and drew 1-1 away to Thun before winning 3-2 after extra time at Maksimir. In the third qualifying round they beat Kauno Žalgiris 5-0 at home and 2-1 away. The play-off round is against Viking of Norway. The first leg at Maksimir on 18 August 2026 finished 2-2, Dinamo two goals up inside ten minutes before Peter Kristiansen and the Viking captain Zlatko Tripić levelled it before half time. The second leg is at the Lyse Arena in Stavanger on 26 August 2026, with a place in the league phase at stake; it would be the first time Viking had reached it. UEFA's preview notes that Dinamo have won 21 of their last 24 two-legged Champions League qualifying ties and arrive on a fifteen-match unbeaten run.

Sources

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.