Action in the HNL is about to return after nearly two long and cold months of absence.
A small preview of what is yet to come was seen yesterday in the final quarterfinal match of the Croatian Cup featuring Dinamo Zagreb and Inter Zaprešić.
Dinamo came out victorious from the grounds at Zaprešić thanks to a 10th minute goal from Armin Hodžic. Dinamo will join the likes of Hajduk Split, Rijeka, and Slaven Belupo in the semi finals. The first semi final leg will take place on March 16.
League action will begin on Friday with a contest between Rijeka and NK Lokomotiva. The match will take place at noon EST at Rujevica, Rijeka’s temporary stadium that plays home to the club while the new Kantrida is under construction.
Rijeka is only two points away from the top of the table while Lokomotiva have slumped to a mid-table position.
Many transfers have occurred in the winter, with several players leaving Croatia, and little fan fare entering. Some big moves include Mijo Caktaš from Hajduk to Ruben Kazan for one million euros, Andrija Balić from Hajduk to Udinese for three million euros, Ivo Pinto from Dinamo to the Premier League’s Norwich City for 3.7 million euros, and Anas Sharbini from Rijeka to Palermo for one million euros.
Dinamo will also be without captain Arijen Ademi due to his suspension from play for four years after testing positive for a banned substance. Josip Pivarić will also be missed by the Modri and will finish his season recovering from a torn ACL along side Goncalo Santos who suffered from the same injury. Both players suffered injuries during friendly matches in the winter.
But the biggest move of the winter break comes from Dinamo Zagreb.
Executive chairman, Zdravko Mamic, has reportedly resigned from his position with the club.
“From today I am no longer the Executive Director of Dinamo Zagreb,” TotalCroatia.com reports.
“At Dinamo there was no professional players until I arrived in 2000. The club was in financial problems; the club had 100 court proceedings against them in 2000. I arrived and saved the club by pumping in my own money. I cleared the club from debt, from court proceedings and lifted the club and infrastructure,” Mamić said.
His resignation comes two days after USKOK, Croatia’s anti organized-crime task force, opened an investigation on him, his brother and Dinamo Zagreb coach, Zoran Mamić, and Zdravko’s son, Mario.
Mamić will however remain as an advisor for the club and promises that Dinamo will remain champions for the next ten years.
Investigators site Mamić’s illegal withdrawal of nearly 70 million kunas from Dinamo account as their reason to extend their investigation.
No word on if Zoran Mamić will continue to coach Dinamo.
Alen Halilovic scored a goal for Sporting Gijon in a 2:2 draw. Mario Gavranovic must have hit rock bottom if he is at Rijeka. Gavranovic was playing in the Swiss league before that. I don’t think he is anything special.
Hopefully next he resigns from the savez
Maminjo – Vargic is staying at Rijeka until the end of the season though, then he’s off to Italy. Same with Posavac with Zadar.
Fans won’t be back like before because of the smoke and mirrors. He still has the same power and even the same position in the savez. I think one of the reasons is because USKOK is focusing on his dealings solely with Dinamo. Third times a charm? Let’s hope.
The Radosevic loan experiment ends at Rijeka, but he just got loaned out to Eibar in La Liga.
Hopefully it works out for him playing in the top league. Last chance for him to resurrect his near-dead career.
Oh wow.
I didn’t realize that Mario Gavranovic was transferred to Rijeka.
Remember him?
We lost him to the Swiss, but he never panned out at all.
Didn’t know that Ivan Vargic signed with Lazio too (for almost 3M euro too). That’s good for him. He’s a good goalie.
Geez.
Looking at these transfers above, Dinamo made more cash off of their veteran journeyman (Ivo Pinto) than Hajduk did on arguably their biggest prospect (Balic).
I’m curious to see if the fans return or not. I’m guessing not yet.
I’m curious as to why he hasn’t left or been kicked out of the savez?
Sadly he resigned in name only. He’s still part of the club as an advisor and as such, nothing sadly hasn’t changed.
Samo Hajduk, Bog, i nitko vise.