Fabio Cannavaro is the new head coach of Dinamo

Fabio Cannavaro is the new head coach of the first team of GNK Dinamo. This decision was supported by the President of the club and the Executive Board at the 15th meeting of the Executive Committee, as well as by the Management and the Sports Director.

We thank the outgoing coach Nenad Bjelica for his contribution and dedication, and wish him success in his future career.

Mr. Bjelica took over Dinamo in September this year and led the team to success in the UEFA Champions League. Unfortunately, the results in the SuperSport HNL were not as expected, which led the club's Management and Sports Director to make changes. Winning the HNL is imperative and the focus of this decision to change the coach.

“Unfortunately, the result is the most important rule in football, and in 11 rounds of the Croatian First Football League (HNL) we have achieved only 4 victories and have one of the worst streaks in the domestic championship. There is never a good time to change the coach, but we have decided to make this move now so that the new coach has time to convey his ideas to the players during the preparations and so that everyone is ready for the continuation of the championship. We want a turnaround in results in the HNL. The new coach nurtures a style of play that we need to regain dominance in the HNL, builds the game and imposes dominance. He has a great charisma that can convey rich player experience, but also coaching experience as he has had success in China where he was a champion. He is hungry for success and that is why he has been waiting for the challenge of a club that belongs to the top and has the ambition to win titles. He knows our team very well, but also the entire HNL. He knows what goals are ahead of him at Dinamo and is aware of the situation in which the club finds itself. The primary task is to return to the top of the HNL and continue with good results in Europe," explained the club's sports director Marko Marić.

The President of the Management Board, Zvonimir Manenica, stated that the lack of results in the HNL forced the Management Board to accept the option of changing the coach.

"The decision of the club's management was that we need to take the necessary steps to stop this negative crisis, because we haven't had such results in the domestic league for a long time. We thank coach Bjelica for everything, he gave his all, achieved great results in the Champions League, but the domestic league is the club's priority and unfortunately the results were lacking there. We have the opportunity for a new breakthrough for the club in Europe, but we can only achieve that by winning the title. We are aware of the risks and responsibilities, so this was not a hasty decision, but a detailed analysis was made to determine the best course of action without the daily pressure that exists in Dinamo due to its high ambitions. That's why we waited to make a decision after the match with Varaždin and took time to make the decision calmly. We are aware of our responsibilities and now we are solely focused on the future in order to achieve all our goals. We are primarily focused on the transfer window, working actively on it, but we are not speculating with names until it's finalized and official." We have set an imperative for most of the reinforcements to be agreed upon as soon as possible so that they can join the team and work with the new coach and other teammates as soon as possible. We have presented the financial framework to the Executive Board and the possibilities ahead of us. We are facing a challenging continuation in which the most important thing is to enable the players and the new coach to have peaceful and quality preparations in order to achieve the most important goal, which is defending the title of champions," said Manenica. Fabio Cannavaro will join the first team at the gathering on January 3 when he will also be officially presented. We congratulate Mr. Cannavaro on his new position and wish him good luck and success on the Dinamo bench.