Nenad Bjelica is the new coach of Dinamo

Nenad Bjelica will once again lead Dinamo's first team starting this Thursday. Almost four and a half years after leaving Dinamo, coach Bjelica is beginning his second term at the helm of the Maksimir club. He has signed a long-term contract with the Blues, and the team will play in the upcoming league match against Lokomotiva at Maksimir, followed by a Champions League clash against Monaco on Wednesday, also in Zagreb.

Bjelica's first stint at Maksimir began in May 2018, one round before the end of the season when Dinamo had already secured the league title for that season. He led the team to their first cup victory, winning the final against Hajduk 1-0 in Vinkovci.

He welcomed his debut match on the blue bench four days earlier, on May 19, 2018, in a victory against Inter Zaprešić with 3:1 in the last round of the championship, and until his departure in April 2020, he created an impressive streak: in matches played on the Maksimir pitch, he did not suffer a single defeat in HNL, Cup, or Super Cup matches. The streak ended at 36. We also include the last match of his tenure in the statistics, a victory against Istra 1961 with 2:0, where the team was formally led by his assistant Rene Poms.

In both of his European seasons with Dinamo, he played in the group stages of UEFA competitions. He led the Blues to the round of 16 of the Europa League in a great style in the 2018/19 season, which was Dinamo's first entry into the spring part of the UEFA calendar after 49 years. In the Champions League qualifiers, they overcame Israeli Hapoel Beer Sheva and Kazakh Astana, but were defeated by Swiss Young Boys in the play-offs. They continued their European journey in the Europa League by securing a convincing first place in the group: behind Dinamo were Fenerbahçe, Spartak Trnava, and Anderlecht. In the knockout stage in the spring, they defeated Viktoria Plzeň, but were stopped in the round of 16 by Benfica in extra time of the second leg match in Lisbon.

The Blues were competitive the following season in the Champions League when they skipped Georgian Saburtalo, Hungarian Ferencvaros with a resounding 4-0 in the middle of Budapest and Norwegian Rosenborg on their way to the group stage. The unforgettable 4-0 against Atalanta at the start of the Champions League with a hat-trick from the lively Mislav Oršić was a fairytale introduction to the competition that we will remember for two draws against Shakhtar Donetsk - a big 2-2 in Kharkiv and still mourned 3-3 in Maksimir with two goals conceded deep into the referee's added time... 

Bjelica reached a then-record nine wins in one season in UEFA competitions with Dinamo in his first competitive year on the European scene. The Blues first matched that number in the 2020/21 season if we count the victory against Cluj in the penalty shootout as a win, not a draw, and then again in the 2021/22 season. However, in both cases, different coaches led the team to those nine wins.

Furthermore, Bjelica holds the record for the most goals scored in a single European season: the Blues scored 28 goals in the 2018/19 campaign. They achieved the same record-breaking performance in the previous season, 2023/24, but with different coaches.

In his debut competitive year with the Blues on the international scene, he sat on the bench for as many as 16 matches. This includes the Zagreb match against Benfica in which he was formally suspended. However, he was the one preparing, training, and organizing the team, and ultimately determining the tactics and lineup. With those 16 matches, he has already become a club record holder: no coach in Dinamo's history has managed to lead the team in so many European matches in one season. The previous maximum was 12 matches, and that limit has only been surpassed by Damir Krznar, who stopped at 13.

In his previous term, Bjelica took over the Blues at the very end of the season when they had already won the championship, later he signed two championship titles, one Cup and Super Cup along with a place in the Europa League round of 16 and entry into the Champions League.

In his first term, Dinamo played 101 official matches with a record of 73 wins, 15 draws, and 13 losses, including two matches in which he was suspended and his assistant Poms formally led the team.

We congratulate Coach Bjelica on his new position and wish him good luck and success at the helm of Dinamo.