Dinamo Zagreb academy third for producing players at Euro 2020

Luka Modrić and Šime Vrsaljko both products of Dinamo’ academy (Screenshot)

Nine players from Dinamo Zagreb’s famed academy will be at Euro 2020, placing the Croatian club third in terms of producing players at this year’s tournament. 

Eight of the players are in the Croatia squad, whilst the ninth will play for Spain. 

Milan Badelj, Josip Brekalo, Joško Gvardiol, Mateo Kovačić, Andrej Kramarić, Dejan Lovren, Luka Modrić and Šime Vrsaljko in the Croatia squad, and Dani Olmo, who is a member of Spain’s squad, are all Dinamo academy graduates. 

The development ranking is based on one criteria — players who trained at the club for a minimum of three seasons between the age of 15 and 21, 24sata writes.

Ahead of the Croatian champions are Ukrainian club Dynamo Kyiv, who have 11 players at this year’s Euro, and in first place, Dutch club Ajax, who produced 14 players at the tournament.  

In third place with Dinamo Zagreb is FK Rabotnichki from North Macedonia, whilst eight players at Euro 2020 have come from academy’s at RB Salzburg (Austria), FC Helsinki (Finland), Lech Poznań (Poland), Manchester City (England) and Žilina (Slovakia).

Also playing at Euro 2020 from Dinamo Zagreb, but not meeting the development criteria, are Dominik Livaković, Mislav Oršić, Luka Ivanušec and Bruno Petković for Croatia, and Arijan Ademi and Stefan Ristovski for North Macedonia.

In 2018 at the World Cup in Russia, Dinamo Zagreb’s academy produced 10 players — Vrsaljko, Ćorluka, Lovren, Kovačić, Kramarić, Modrić, Jedvaj, Badelj, Pjaca and Pivarić — and there were 14 players from Dinamo in the Croatia squad, which was a FIFA World Cup record. Only Slavia Praha had the same number of players back at the 1934 World Cup.