Zlatko Dalić

Zlatko Dalić is the head coach of Croatia at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, his third in charge. Born in Livno on 26 October 1966, in what was then Yugoslavia and is now Bosnia and Herzegovina, he had a modest playing career as a midfielder, mostly at Hajduk Split and Varteks, before turning to coaching in his late thirties.

His defining work as a club coach came in the Gulf. After spells at Al-Faisaly and Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia, he took charge of Al-Ain in 2014 and over three seasons won the UAE league in 2014–15, reached the AFC Champions League final in 2016 and became a national celebrity in the Emirates. He was almost an unknown back home when the Croatian Football Federation appointed him on 7 October 2017, just days before a do-or-die qualifying play-off.

What followed reshaped Croatian football. He guided the team to the 2018 World Cup final — only the second nation under five million inhabitants to reach a World Cup final — then to third place at Qatar 2022 and the inaugural Nations League final in 2023. Croatia are in Group L of the 2026 tournament. With Luka Modrić now in his final international tournament, Dalić has one last chance to deliver Croatia's most historic generation a piece of major silverware.