GNK Dinamo Zagreb

For the women's team, see ŽNK Dinamo Zagreb. For their youth teams, see GNK Dinamo Zagreb Academy.

Dinamo Zagreb
Full nameGrađanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb
(Dinamo Zagreb Citizens' Football Club)
Nickname(s)Modri, Plavi (The Blues)
Purgeri (The Citizens)
Short nameDinamo, DZG
Founded26 April 1911; 113 years ago (1911-04-26)
(as 1. HŠK Građanski)[1]
9 June 1945; 79 years ago (1945-06-09)
(as FD Dinamo)
GroundStadion Maksimir
Capacity35,123[2] (Reduced to 24,851 because of earthquake damage)
PresidentVelimir Zajec
ManagerNenad Bjelica
LeagueSuperSport HNL
2023–24SuperSport HNL, 1st of 10 (champions)
Websitegnkdinamo.hr
Current season

Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb (English: Dinamo Zagreb Citizens' Football Club),[3][4][5] commonly referred to as simply Dinamo Zagreb (pronounced [dǐnamo zâːɡreb]),[6][7] is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Croatian football, having won twenty-five Prva HNL titles, sixteen Croatian Cups, еight Croatian Super Cups, and one Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. The club has spent its entire existence in top flight, having been members of the Yugoslav First League from 1946 to 1991, and then the Prva HNL since its foundation in 1993.

At the end of the World War II, the new communist government of Yugoslavia considered Croatian clubs like HŠK Građanski as fascist and nationalist, because they had operated under the former Independent State of Croatia, which was an Axis member during the war. As such, they were formally disbanded and, in 1945, FD Dinamo was founded as a club to act as an unofficial successor to HŠK Građanski, getting around the ruling party's disapproval. They entered the Yugoslav First League in its inaugural 1946–47 season, finishing as runners-up. In their second season in Yugoslav top flight in 1947–48 they finished as Yugoslav champions, which was their first major trophy. The club won three more league titles and seven Yugoslav Cups. Amid the breakup of Yugoslavia and formation of the Croatian football league system, Dinamo left the Yugoslav league in 1991. Dinamo are, to date, the only Croatian club to win a European trophy, having won the 1966–67 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup by defeating Leeds United in the final. They also finished runners-up in the same competition in 1963 when they lost to Valencia.

Until the early 1990s, its foundation year was considered to be 1945 but amid the political turmoil during the breakup of Yugoslavia the club began claiming direct lineage to pre-WWII clubs Građanski Zagreb and HAŠK. In order to reflect this, in June 1991, it was renamed HAŠK Građanski, which lasted until February 1993 when it was renamed Croatia Zagreb. They won five league titles and participated in the 1998–99 and 1999–2000 UEFA Champions League group stages carrying that name, before reverting to the more widely recognized "Dinamo Zagreb" on 14 February 2000. Although the subject of the club's name was dropped for a while, in 2011, club management increasingly began claiming again that Dinamo is the direct descendant of Građanski (which had originally been founded in 1911 and disbanded in 1945) and in April that year decided to prepend the adjective "Građanski" to the club's official name, turning it into the present-day GNK Dinamo (Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo or Dinamo Citizens' Football Club).

The team's traditional colour is royal blue, which has been replaced for European matches in recent times with the darker navy blue. The club's biggest rivals are Hajduk Split, and matches between the two teams are referred to as "Eternal Derby".

  1. ^ "History | Dinamo Zagreb". Archived from the original on 19 November 2020. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  2. ^ "Stadion Maksimir". GNK Dinamo Zagreb. Archived from the original on 28 October 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  3. ^ "Članovi sportskog savez grada Zagreba" [Members of the Sports Association of Zagreb] (in Croatian). Sportski savez Grada Zagreba. Archived from the original on 18 December 2014. Retrieved 2014-11-12.
  4. ^ "NK Dinamo ponovo promijenio ime" [NK Dinamo changed its name again] (in Croatian). ZGportal Zagreb. 13 April 2011. Archived from the original on 12 December 2020. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  5. ^ "Dinamo od danas ima novo ime – Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo" [Dinamo from today has a new name – Citizens' Football Club Dinamo] (in Croatian). Metro Portal. 12 April 2011. Archived from the original on 15 January 2021. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  6. ^ "dìnamo". Hrvatski jezični portal (in Croatian). Archived from the original on 25 September 2020. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  7. ^ "Zágreb". Hrvatski jezični portal (in Croatian). Archived from the original on 25 September 2020. Retrieved 8 March 2020.