GNK Dinamo Zagreb Academy

GNK Dinamo Zagreb Academy, also known as Hitrec-Kacian (Croatian pronunciation: [xîtrets kâtsijaːn]), 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 academy, 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, Vedran Ćorluka, Eduardo, Robert Prosinečki and Zvonimir Boban.^[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

Croatian football league system

• Croatian U-19 Prva HNL
  • Winner (10): 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2018, 2019
• Croatian U-17 Prva HNL
  • Winner (17): 1992, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
• Croatian U-15 Prva HNL
  • Winner (10): 1997, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2015, 2016, 2017

• Croatian Cup U-19
  • Winner (7): 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013
• Croatian Cup U-17
  • Winner (4): 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
• Croatian Cup U-15
  • Winner (3): 2015, 2016, 2018

Yugoslav football league system

• Yugoslav Championship U-19
  • Winner (5): 1950, 1955, 1972, 1973, 1974
• Croatian Championship U-19
  • Winner (17): 1950, 1951, 1954, 1955, 1963, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1986
• Croatian Championship U-17
  • Winner (2): 1959, 1985

• Yugoslav Cup U-19
  • Winner (2): 1967, 1973
• Croatian Cup U-19
  • Winner (5): 1963, 1967, 1968, 1973, 1978

Internationals

• FIFA Youth Cup
  • Winner (1): 2018
• Manchester United Premier Cup
  • Winner (1): 2012–13
• Premier League International Cup
  • Runners-up (1): 2018–19
• UEFA Youth League
  • Quarterfinals (2): 2018–19, 2019–20
• Kvarnerska rivijera
  • Winner (9): 1961, 1967, 1977, 1981, 1984, 1986, 1999, 2008, 2019
• International Nereo Rocco Tournament
  • Winner (2): 2002, 2009

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 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 da Silva, Niko Kranjčar, Dejan Lovren, Milan Badelj, Ivan Kelava, Mateo Kovačić and Šime Vrsaljko.

Notable academy graduates

• Milan Badelj
• Igor Bišćan
• Zvonimir Boban
• Tomislav Butina
• Vedran Ćorluka
• Eduardo
• Joško Gvardiol
• 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

UEFA Youth League record

Season	Stage	Round	Opponent	Home	Away	Agg.
2015–16	Champions League Path	GS	Arsenal	0–2	2–1	1st out of 4
			Bayern Munich	0–1	2–1
			Olympiacos	2–2	3–1
	Knockout stage	R16	Anderlecht		2–0	0–3 (awd.)[5][6]
2016–17	Champions League Path	GS	Juventus	2–1	1–0	4th out of 4
			Lyon	1–2	0–2
			Sevilla	2–4	1–1
2018–19	Domestic Champions Path	1R	Viitorul Constanța	2–0	1–0	3–0
		2R	Astana	3–1	1–1	4–2
	Knockout stage	PO	Lokomotiv Moscow	1–1 (5–4 p)
		R16	Liverpool	1–1 (4–3 p)
		QF	Chelsea		2–2 (2–4 p)
2019–20	Champions League Path	GS	Atalanta	1–0	0–2	2nd out of 4
			Manchester City	1–0	2–2
			Shakhtar Donetsk	1–0	1–1
	Knockout stage	PO	Dynamo Kyiv		0–0 (4–3 p)
		R16	Bayern Munich		2–2 (6–5 p)
		QF	Benfica	1–3
2020–21	Knockout stage	R64	Rosenborg	Tournament cancelled
2022–23	Champions League Path	GS	Chelsea	4–2	0–4	3rd out of 4
			Milan	1–2	0–3
			Red Bull Salzburg	2–1	0–2
2023–24	Domestic Champions Path	1R	İstanbul Başakşehir	2–1	3–1	5–2
		2R	Basel	0–0	0–2	0–2

Players

GNK Dinamo Zagreb II

As of 14 January 2023^[7]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  BIH Faris Krkalić — DF  CRO Leon Sopić — FW  MNE Andrija Kolundžić

No. Pos. Nation Player — FW  CRO Vito Batistić — FW  SRB Luca Bigboy — MF  CRO Jovan Blagojevic

References

External links

• Official website (archived 29 July 2010)

This page was last edited on 15 March 2024, at 11:51