Dinamo Zagreb celebrates 112th birthday
- by croatiaweek
- in Sport
Dinamo Zagreb turns 112
ZAGREB, 26 April 2023 – The most successful club in Croatian football history – Dinamo Zagreb – celebrates its 112th birthday today.
The first Croatian Citizens’ Sports Club, HŠK Građanski, where the club’s lineage stems from, was formed on 26 April 1911.
In 1945 HŠK Građanski dissolved and Dinamo Zagreb was established. Until the early 1990s, its foundation year was considered to be 1945 but during the breakup of Yugoslavia, the club began claiming direct lineage to Građanski Zagreb and HAŠK.
(Photo: GNK Dinamo)
Dinamo Zagreb has won 23 Croatian first division titles, 16 Croatian Football Cups and 6 Croatian Super Cups. The club has spent its entire existence in the top flight.
(Photo: Ex13/CC BY-SA 3.0)
Dinamo Zagreb is also the only Croatian club with European silverware, 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.
View this post on Instagram
To mark their birthday, Dinamo Zagreb presented the naming of the Luka Modrić training ground at the club’s Maksimir Stadium headquarters. Fans were given the opportunity to choose the name for one of the training grounds.
The choice was between the names of four former Dinamo Zagreb midfield virtuosos who have won the Champions League and have left a significant mark on the Croatian national football team – Luka Modrić, Zvonimir Boban, Robert Prosinečki, and Mateo Kovačić.
View this post on Instagram
Modrić, who was a former Dinamo Zagreb captain who later went on to captain the Croatian national team and become the world’s best player as well as one of the best players in Real Madrid’s history, received the most votes with 44.91%.
View this post on Instagram
Some other big-name players to play for the Maksimir club over the years include Drazen Jerković, Zlatko and Niko Kranjčar, Eduardo da Silva, Dejan Lovren and Mario Mandžukić.
