Željko Kopić
 Kopić in 2021 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 10 September 1977 | ||
| 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 football manager and former player who is the current head coach of Liga I club Dinamo București.
Playing career
[edit]Club
[edit]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
[edit]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 2024/2025 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 in the 2024/2025 season, an award bestowed by Gazeta Sporturilor. Kopić was also nominated for Manager of the Year for the 2024/2025 season.[9]
Managerial statistics
[edit]- As of match played 8 November 2024
| Team | Nat | From | To | Record | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win % | ||||
| Lučko | 
|
23 August 2011 | 31 May 2012 | 24 | 5 | 12 | 7 | 24 | 29 | −5 | 20.83 |
| Cibalia |
|
30 July 2012 | 25 November 2012 | 15 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 14 | 24 | −10 | 26.67 |
| NK Zagreb |
|
6 June 2014 | 10 June 2015 | 37 | 13 | 7 | 17 | 53 | 63 | −10 | 35.14 |
| Slaven Belupo |
|
10 June 2015 | 24 October 2017 | 96 | 29 | 27 | 40 | 109 | 114 | −5 | 30.21 |
| Hajduk Split |
|
13 November 2017 | 6 September 2018 | 34 | 16 | 10 | 8 | 63 | 39 | +24 | 47.06 |
| Pafos | 
|
19 October 2018 | 6 November 2019 | 36 | 14 | 9 | 13 | 45 | 52 | −7 | 38.89 |
| Dinamo Zagreb |
|
2 December 2021 | 21 April 2022 | 19 | 13 | 2 | 4 | 27 | 10 | +17 | 68.42 |
| Botev Plovdiv | 
|
3 August 2022 | 7 December 2022 | 15 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 25 | 19 | +6 | 40.00 |
| Dinamo București | 
|
1 December 2023 | present | 43 | 16 | 14 | 13 | 54 | 50 | +4 | 37.21 |
| Career total | 319 | 117 | 84 | 118 | 414 | 400 | +14 | 36.68 | |||
Honours
[edit]Manager
[edit]Hajduk Split
- Croatian Cup runner-up: 2017–18
References
[edit]- ^ Željko Kopić više nije trener Slaven Belupa, evo tko će voditi Farmaceute - ePodravina (in Croatian)
- ^ Rogulj, Daniela. "Carrilo's Successor Confirmed! Former Slaven Belupo coach Zeljko Kopic to Lead Hajduk". Total Croatian News. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
- ^ "Željko Kopić u novoj misiji spašavanja, preuzeo je Pafos..." www.24sata.hr (in Croatian). Retrieved 2022-12-04.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Željko Kopić je novi trener Boteva iz Plovdiva". NACIONAL.HR (in Croatian). Retrieved 2022-12-04.
- ^ "Желко Копич е новият треньор на Ботев". botevplovdiv.bg (in Bulgarian). Retrieved 2022-12-04.
- ^ "Nakon Dinama, opet Dinamo: Željko Kopić sjeda na klupu velikana". Gol.hr (in Croatian). Retrieved 2023-12-29.
- ^ https://fbref.com/en/squads/4472d406/2023-2024/c47/Dinamo-Bucuresti-Stats-Liga-I
- ^ https://www.gsp.ro/superlativele2024.html
External links
[edit]- Željko Kopić at Soccerway.com
- Željko Kopić at WorldFootball.net
- 1977 births
- Living people
- Footballers from Osijek
- Men's association football midfielders
- Croatian men's footballers
- NK Čakovec players
- NK Marsonia players
- Sydney United 58 FC players
- NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac players
- Croatian Football League players
- Croatian expatriate men's footballers
- Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia
- Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Australia
- Croatian football managers
- HNK Segesta managers
- NK Lučko managers
- HNK Cibalia managers
- NK Zagreb managers
- NK Slaven Belupo managers
- HNK Hajduk Split managers
- Pafos FC managers
- GNK Dinamo Zagreb managers
- Botev Plovdiv managers
- FC Dinamo București managers
- Croatian expatriate football managers
- Expatriate football managers in Cyprus
- Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus
- Expatriate football managers in Bulgaria
- Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria
- Expatriate football managers in Romania
- Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Romania