​Zagreb, Croatia (AP) — Slaven Bilić has returned to coach the Croatian national team after Zlatko Dalić, the country’s most successful manager to date, stepped away in the wake of the World Cup. Bilić comes back to a role he left a little over a decade ago, boasting six years at the helm previously, and bringing with him a wealth of coaching experience from the Premier League with West Ham and West Bromwich Albion, along with stints in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
“I am genuinely happy to embark on this challenge and I feel fully prepared for it — a more mature and seasoned coach than I was in 2006, yet still driven by the same ambition to see Croatia remain powerful, bold, and successful,” Bilić stated, announcing his return. He inherits a program that arrived at the World Cup amid a storm of recriminations following a tense exit. Croatia’s final group-stage performance featured a stoppage-time equalizer that was ruled offside after a minuscule touch detected by a sensor in the ball, sealing a 2-1 defeat to Portugal in the round of 32.
This setback ended Dalić’s nine-year tenure, a period highlighted by taking Croatia to its first ever World Cup final in 2018, where they fell to France, and by finishing third in 2022. The Croatian Football Federation saluted Dalić as the “greatest Croatian coach of all time” in a social media tribute when he stepped down last week.
Bilić, who starred as a central defender for the national team that finished third at the 1998 World Cup—an achievement regarded as a historic milestone for the then newly independent nation—returns to a familiar mantle. His most recent coaching role was with Saudi club Al Fateh, a position he held from July 2023 until August 2024.