Zlatko Dalić to remain Croatia head coach
- by croatiaweek
- in Sport
Zlatko Dalić
Despite being knocked out of Euro 2024 in the group stages, Zlatko Dalić will remain the head coach of the Croatian national football team.
This was confirmed today by the president of the Croatian Football Federation (HNS), Marijan Kustić.
“He is the head coach and will continue to be the head coach of the Croatian national team. We have talked and agreed. I can exclusively reveal this,” Kustić told Nova TV.
Dalić has been in charge of the Croatia national team since 2017.
Under his leadership, the team secured second place in the 2018 FIFA World Cup and third place in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Additionally, he guided them to qualify for UEFA Euro 2020 and UEFA Euro 2024. As a result, he is widely considered the greatest manager in the team’s history.
Zlatko Dalić and Luka Modrić
Kustić also commented on the future of captain Luka Modrić in the team.
“I hope he will stay and continue to captain the team in the Nations League and the World Cup, but he will decide for himself. I believe he will stay, and I truly wish for that,” Kustić said about Modrić.
Earlier, he responded to a question about whether being knocked out in the group stage of the Euros was a failure.
“It is a failure. Our goal was to qualify for the Euros. We said we wanted to progress from the group stage, and anything beyond that would be an excellent result. We didn’t get out of the group; it’s not what we expected. What can I say, let’s keep our heads up and focus on the Nations League, which is coming up soon,” Kustić said.
Croatia ended their Euro campaign in Germany with just two points and third place in their group, behind Spain and Italy but ahead of Albania.
(Photo credit: Кирилл Венедиктов/Soccer.ru/Creative Commons)
The team, which has twice finished third in the world and played in the World Cup final six years ago, had their worst tournament performance in history.
No Croatian generation that has qualified for a major tournament (Croatia only missed Euro 2000 and the 2010 World Cup) has ever recorded a worse finish (with goal difference taken into account).
Dalić has thus overseen both the greatest successes and the greatest failure at major tournaments.
