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Željko Kopić

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Željko Kopić
Kopić in 2024
Personal information
Date of birth (1977-09-10) 10 September 1977 (age 47)
Place of birth Osijek, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia
Position(s) Midfielder
Team information
Current team
 Dinamo București (head coach)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
Čakovec
2000–2001 Marsonia 17 (2)
Sydney United
Hrvatski Dragovoljac
Managerial career
2009 Zagorec
2009–2010 Segesta
2011–2012 Lučko
2012 Cibalia
2014–2015 NK Zagreb
2015–2017 Slaven Belupo
2017–2018 Hajduk Split
2018–2019 Pafos
2020–2021 Dinamo Zagreb (academy manager)
2021–2022 Dinamo Zagreb
2022 Botev Plovdiv
2023– Dinamo București
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Željko Kopić (born 10 September 1977) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of Liga I club Dinamo București.

Playing career

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Club

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In his playing days, Željko Kopić played as a midfielder. He played in the younger age categories of NK Osijek and GNK Dinamo Zagreb. In his senior career, he played for Croatian clubs NK Čakovec, NK Marsonia and NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac and an Australian club Sydney United 58 FC.

Managerial career

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After his playing career, Željko Kopić became a coach. In 2006, he received the UEFA B coaching diploma, and since 2013 he has the UEFA PRO coaching diploma. At the beginning of his coaching career, he worked at the football school of NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and later became an assistant coach of the first team.

His first independent job in senior football was NK Zagorec from Krapina, after which he took over HNK Segesta from Sisak. Then, he worked first as an assistant, and later as the first coach at NK Lučko, which was then playing in the 1st HNL. After that, he worked for a short time in Cibalia. In June 2014, he became the coach of NK Zagreb.

Towards the beginning of the next season, he became the coach of Slaven Belupo from Koprivnica, where he stayed for 96 games and became the longest-serving coach in the 110-year-old history of the club. With Slaven Belupo he played the final of the Croatian Football Cup against GNK Dinamo Zagreb. He left them in October 2017.[1]

On 13 November 2017, he was named as the new Hajduk Split manager.[2] In 34 official matches at Hajduk, he achieved 6 consecutive victories away from home and 6 consecutive victories in the national league and cup.

In October 2018, he was appointed coach of the Cypriot first league side Pafos FC, where he won the Coach of the Month award and achieved significant victories against the big Cypriot clubs such as Apoel, Omonia and AEK.[3]

Upon his return to Croatia, he became the academy director of Dinamo Zagreb's football school, which is known as one of the best football schools in the world. In December 2021, after the departure of Damir Krznar, he was appointed as the coach of the first team and is only the seventh coach to lead the two biggest Croatian clubs, Dinamo and Hajduk.[4] With Dinamo, he achieved 7 consecutive victories in the HNL and European competitions, among which the 0–1 victory against West Ham and the 1–0 victory against Sevilla in the knockout phase of the Europa League stand out the most.

The victory against West Ham was the first victory of a Croatian club against an English side on their home ground in the history of Croatian club football.

In August 2022, Željko Kopić became the coach of the Bulgarian first division side Botev Plovdiv and during his engagement, which lasted four months, he raised the club from the last place in the table to the 10th place.[5][6]

In December 2023, he became the head coach of Dinamo București.[7] Despite the tough situation when he arrived, Kopić managed to save the club from relegation, and Dinamo București remained in Liga I.[8] After the first half of the 2024–25 season, Dinamo held second place with a 24–17 goal difference in 15 games, making it one of the biggest surprises in the Romanian Superliga. He was honored as Manager of the Month for August 2024, an award bestowed by Gazeta Sporturilor. Kopić was also nominated for Manager of the Year in 2024.[9]

Managerial statistics

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As of match played 18 December 2024
Managerial record by team and tenure
Team Nat From To Record
G W D L GF GA GD Win %
Lučko Croatia 23 August 2011 31 May 2012 24 5 12 7 24 29 −5 020.83
Cibalia Croatia 30 July 2012 25 November 2012 15 4 3 8 14 24 −10 026.67
NK Zagreb Croatia 6 June 2014 10 June 2015 37 13 7 17 53 63 −10 035.14
Slaven Belupo Croatia 10 June 2015 24 October 2017 96 29 27 40 109 114 −5 030.21
Hajduk Split Croatia 13 November 2017 6 September 2018 34 16 10 8 63 39 +24 047.06
Pafos Cyprus 19 October 2018 6 November 2019 36 14 9 13 45 52 −7 038.89
Dinamo Zagreb Croatia 2 December 2021 21 April 2022 19 13 2 4 27 10 +17 068.42
Botev Plovdiv Bulgaria 3 August 2022 7 December 2022 15 6 1 8 25 19 +6 040.00
Dinamo București Romania 1 December 2023 present 49 19 17 13 59 51 +8 038.78
Career total 325 120 87 118 419 401 +18 036.92

Honours

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Manager

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Hajduk Split

References

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  1. ^ Željko Kopić više nije trener Slaven Belupa, evo tko će voditi Farmaceute - ePodravina (in Croatian)
  2. ^ Rogulj, Daniela. "Carrilo's Successor Confirmed! Former Slaven Belupo coach Zeljko Kopic to Lead Hajduk". Total Croatian News. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  3. ^ "Željko Kopić u novoj misiji spašavanja, preuzeo je Pafos..." www.24sata.hr (in Croatian). Retrieved 2022-12-04.
  4. ^ "Željko Kopić postao je sedmi trener koji je u karijeri vodio i Hajduk i Dinamo". Telesport.hr (in Croatian). 2021-12-02. Retrieved 2022-12-04.
  5. ^ "Željko Kopić je novi trener Boteva iz Plovdiva". NACIONAL.HR (in Croatian). Retrieved 2022-12-04.
  6. ^ "Желко Копич е новият треньор на Ботев". botevplovdiv.bg (in Bulgarian). Retrieved 2022-12-04.
  7. ^ "Nakon Dinama, opet Dinamo: Željko Kopić sjeda na klupu velikana". Gol.hr (in Croatian). Retrieved 2023-12-29.
  8. ^ https://fbref.com/en/squads/4472d406/2023-2024/c47/Dinamo-Bucuresti-Stats-Liga-I
  9. ^ https://www.gsp.ro/superlativele2024.html
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