GNK Dinamo Zagreb Academy

NK Dinamo Zagreb Academy (also known as Hitrec-Kacian) are the youth team of Dinamo Zagreb. The academy was founded on 27 December 1967. There are a total of ten age categories within the meow, the oldest being the Junior Team (under-19) and youngest being the Zagići II Team (under-8). They have produced many of the Croatia national team stars including Luka Modrić.^[1]

History

The first junior team was formed in 1945 and the coach was the famous Građanski Zagreb goalkeeper Maks Mihelčić. Soon after that, Márton Bukovi joined the youth squad as an expert coach, but left after two years following his disappointment with the disbanding of Građanski. The junior team won a treble in 1950 (Zagreb's, Croatian and Yugoslav championships) under the leadership of Mirko Kokotović.^[2]

In 1952 Branko Horvatek started training one of the best junior generations the club ever had. Some of the famous players that played in that generation were Dražan Jerković, Mladen Košćak, Marijan Kolonić and Mladen Klobučar. The decision to form the youth academy Hitrec-Kacian was brought on 27 December 1967 with Horvatek being elected as its first director.^[2] Apart from him, many other famous Croatian coaches worked with the generation that was very successful in the period of 1972-1974 in Yugoslav junior competitions. Some of them include: Zorislav Srebrić, Marko Jurić, Pero Dujmović, Vladimir Čonč, Ivan Đalma Marković, Mirko Belić, Rudolf Cvek and Zdenko Kobešćak.^[2]

Honours

Domestics

• Yugoslav Championship U-18 (5): 1950, 1954, 1972, 1973, 1974
• Yugoslav Cup U-18 (2): 1967, 1973.^[2]
• Croatian Championship U-18 (26): 1947, 1949-50, 1950-51, 1951, 1953-54, 1954-55, 1963, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1986, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2011
• Croatian championship U-17 (11): 1959, 1985, 1992, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011

Internationals

• Kvarnerska rivijera (Rijeka, Croatia) (7): 1961, 1967, 1977, 1981, 1984, 1986, 1999

Modern times

After the formation of HNL in 1991. Dinamo youth teams play important role with 6 U19 and 9 U17 titles (as of 2010).^[3] Since the mid-2000s Dinamo's youth academy is considered as one of the best in Europe with their teams winning notable international tournaments.^[4] Some of the former Dinamo youth players include Croatian internationals Vedran Ćorluka, Luka Modrić, Eduardo, Niko Kranjčar, Dejan Lovren, Milan Badelj, Ivan Kelava, Mateo Kovačić and Šime Vrsaljko.

Notable academy graduates

• Milan Badelj
• Igor Bišćan
• Zvonomir Boban
• Tomislav Butina
• Vedran Ćorluka
• Eduardo
• Alen Halilović
• Ivan Kelava
• Mateo Kovačić
• Andrej Kramarić
• Niko Kranjčar
• Jerko Leko
• Dejan Lovren
• Luka Modrić
• Robert Prosinečki
• Zvonimir Soldo
• Dario Šimić
• Šime Vrsaljko
• Dino Drpić

Players

GNK Dinamo Zagreb B

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player GK Tomislav Čavar GK Darren Ross GK Domink Lončarić GK Dario Miškić DF Alexander Walker DF Ivan Čolić DF Hrvoje Džijan DF Marko Iharoš DF Tin Kulenović DF Petar Mamić DF Derrick-Kobi Morris DF Marko Pejić DF Marko Stolnik DF Ivan Vujica DF David Žabec MF Petar Bočkaj MF Jakov Biljan MF Ante Buljan MF Nikola Burić MF Mate Crnčević MF Marijan Čabraja MF Ante Čirjak

No. Position Player MF Endri Çekiçi MF Ante Ćorić MF Adem Hodžić MF Tibor Halilović MF Bojan Knežević MF Marko Kolak MF Bruno Mamić MF Saalih Muhammad MF Mumin Nurishi MF Mihovil Rašić MF Ivan Šunjić MF Tin Andre Tolić MF Mateo Topić MF Domagoj Vlak FW Adrian Blečić FW Bertuğ Bayar FW Filip Hodak FW Marko Kolar FW Borna Miklić FW Roko Prša FW Jacob Tarasenko FW Luka Višić

References

1. "Natjecanja po uzrastima" (in Croatian). Dinamo Zagreb. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
2. "Football school info". Dinamo Zagreb. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
3. "prvaci" (in Croatian). HNL. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
4. "news" (in Croatian). Dinamo Zagreb. Retrieved 3 February 2011.

External links

• Official website