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 academy, the oldest being the Junior Team (under-19) and youngest being the Zagići II Team (under-8).^[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]

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).^[2]

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 2000's 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 and current prominent first team players Milan Badelj, Ivan Kelava and Šime Vrsaljko.

Notable academy graduates

• Luka Modrić
• Dejan Lovren
• Milan Badelj
• Šime Vrsaljko
• Vedran Ćorluka
• Ivan Tomečak
• Niko Kranjčar
• Zvonimir Soldo
• Igor Bišćan
• Zvonomir Boban
• Tomislav Butina
• Eduardo
• Hrvoje Čale
• Dino Drpić
• Andrej Kramarić
• Jerko Leko
• Dario Šimić
• Robert Prosinečki
• Zoran Mamić

Players

U19 & U17

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

No. Position Player GK Oliver Zelenika GK Kristijan Jajalo GK Kristijan Srbljaković GK Marko Mikulić DF Herdi Prenga DF Tomislav Brlečić DF Toni Gorupec DF Daniel Graovac DF Josip Čalušić DF Filip Mrzljak DF Bruno Marotti DF Marcel Novko DF Karlo Kamenar DF Jozo Šimunović DF Josip Konyit MF Marko Dabić MF Filip Leko MF Tin Karamatić MF Luka Čakarun MF Matija Čakarun MF Zdenko Bilac MF Marko Grčić

No. Position Player MF Tomislav Haramustek MF Mario Babić MF Josip Lisica MF Edgar Nava MF Mateo Kovačić MF Danijel Miškić MF Alex Molano MF Antonio Vidović MF Sandro Marin MF Safet Šivšić MF Marko Alvir MF Karlo Težak MF Hrvoje Plum FW Ivan Ljubičić FW Luka Hadžić FW Kruno Ivančić FW Danijel Martinko FW Filip Mihaljević FW Domagoj Pavičić FW Mario Šitum FW Tomislav Horvat FW Luka Leko

Source: Transfermarkt.de HNL Statistika

References

1. ^ "Natjecanja po uzrastima" (in Croatian). Dinamo Zagreb. http://www.nk-dinamo.hr/natjecanja/Default.aspx. Retrieved 2010-07-24. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} "Football school info". Dinamo Zagreb. http://www.nk-dinamo.hr/skola/en/default.aspx. Retrieved 2010-07-24. 
3. ^ "prvaci" (in Croatian). HNL. http://prva-hnl.hr/blog/prva-hnl-juniorikadeti/pobjednici-u-obje-kategorije-do-sada-2/. Retrieved 03 February 2011. 
4. ^ "news" (in Croatian). Dinamo Zagreb. http://www.nk-dinamo.hr/page/17/vijest/prikaz/1693/default.aspx. Retrieved 3 February 2011. 

External links

• Official website