Information about Dinamo Youth Academy

Dinamo has always paid special attention to training and upbringing of young players. The first junior team was founded in 1945., and the coach was the famous goalkeeper of “Građanski”- Maks Mihelčić. Soon after that, Martin Bukovi joined the youth staff as an expert coach, but left it two years later, deeply disappointed with the banning of “Građanski”. In 1950., the junior team blossomed under the coaching and leadership of Mirko Kokotović. They won three Championships that year: Zagreb’s, Croatian and Yugoslav Championship.

Toni Pogačnik, Dragutin Franković and Milan Antolković trained the juniors after Mirko Kokotović. In 1952., Branko Horvatek started training one of the best generations “blue” generations. Many famous players were formed during his coaching: Dražen Jerković, Mladen Košćak, Marijan Kolonić, Mladen Klobučar and many others. They won the Champions title in 1954. and then followed the period of 18 years without any success. The decision to found the Junior School “Hitrec-Kacian” was brought on December 27^th, 1967. and Branko Horvatek was elected its Chairman on  July 1^st, 1968. His return marked the beginning of a new successful era for Dinamo’s juniors. Apart from him, the coaches: Zorislav Srebrić, Marko Jurić, Pero Dujmović, Vladimir Čonč, Ivan Đalma Marković, Mirko Belić, Rudolf Cvek and Zdenko Kobešćak were also meritorious for the extraordinary success that the juniors achieved in the period of 1972.-1974. Milan Antolković became the director of the junior school in 1972. and four great players came out of his school: Zlatko Kranjčar, Velimir Zajec, Josip Kuže and Marijan Vlak.

Dinamo’s juniors were the Yugoslav Champions five times (1950., 1954., 1972., 1973., 1974.) and they won the Yugoslav Junior Cup two times (1967. and 1973.). Mirko Bazić led the Hitrec-Kacian football school until 1998. During his leadership, many famous coaches were working with 350 youngsters: Đemal Mustedanagić, Fahrija Dautbegović, Stjepan Lamza, Stjepan Deverić, Miro Stipić, Vinko Šaka, Igor Gabrijelić, Gordan Ćiprić, Davor Parlov, Zdenko Kobešćak and Krasnodar Rora. Ilija Lončarević became the Director of the school in 1999, and Marko Mlinarić led the school from 2000.-2001. Hrvoje Braović was the director from 2001-2002, and his successor was Božidar Šikić who considerably intensified the trainings. Each category has its own coaches. The aim is to train as many talented players for the first team as possible. Mirko Jozić was the director of the school from 2006 to 2007. A well-known coach, former selector of the Croatian National Team, Mirko announced certain improvements in the training of the juniors in order to enable them join the strongest team in the future. Current director of youth academy is Romeo Jozak, who began his successful tenure in 2008. Under Jozak every youth category has achieved notable results, including Croatian titles for juniors and cadets two years running.