'Forever Ainawi' Zlatko Dalic leads Croatia in another hunt for glory at Euro 2024

Dalic, who has always credited his stint at Al Ain for helping him become a top-class manager, oversees his team's latest challenge that begins against Spain in Berlin

Zlatko Dalic credits his time in charge of Al Ain for his success as Croatia coach. AFP

From Al Ain to a fourth major international football tournament, with a World Cup runners-up finish and a third place, too, in between.

It represents a route so remarkable that it bears reminding.

Croatia head coach Zlatko Dalic spent three years as Al Ain manager from 2014, guiding the UAE club back to the summit of domestic football – he won the President’s Cup in his first season, the UAE league title the next – and to within a penalty kick of clinching the 2016 Asian Champions League.

Little more than a year and a half later, Dalic was on the touchline in Moscow as Croatia fell 4-2 to France in the 2018 World Cup final. An underdog coach had led an underdog side to its best finish at a global finals.

In 2022, and with countryman Dalic still at the helm, a ceaseless Croatia finally ran out of legs in the World Cup semi-finals in Qatar, although they recharged enough to defeat Morocco in the play-off for third. Experiencing his first job in senior international football, Dalic had a World Cup bronze to go with the silver, and an already extraordinary CV had another out-of-the-ordinary entry.

Now, Dalic will bid to usher Croatia beyond the quarter-finals of a European Championship for the first time in the country’s history – they fell at the last-16 stage in the past two editions – beginning with progression from a Euro 2024 Group B in Germany that contains defending champions Italy, three-time winners Spain, and Albania. They kick off their campaign on Saturday, against Spain in Berlin.

If Croatia are often labelled perennial overachievers, then Dalic is the perfect man to plot their path. He arrived at Al Ain in January 2014 as a relative unknown after modest stints in Saudi Arabia with Al Faisaly and Al Hilal. Initially, and with Spaniard Quique Sanchez Flores in the dugout, Dalic was announced as the club’s new “technical supervisor”.

A few days later, Sanchez Flores was gone, with Dalic his successor. The ensuing three years as manager were considered a success, although Dalic rarely got significant credit. Al Ain, UAE champions in successive seasons before he was appointed, were expected to thrive – boasting some of the finest Emirati and foreign talent, they were set up to – while Dalic was deemed for the most part too passive on the touchline.

Yet that disposition disguised his tactical acumen and man management; most probably, the latter is a quality that has brought the best out of this Croatia side – even if, in Luka Modric, Marcelo Brozovic and Mateo Kovacic, a country of 3.8 million can showcase a midfield of elite expertise and experience.

Yet few would have anticipated Dalic would last this long. Indeed, he enters the Euros as the tournament's third-longest serving manager, while last year he extended his contract through until the 2026 World Cup. In Croatia, and testament to all he has achieved, he is hugely popular.

It marks an incredible turnaround in profile. When Dalic was installed in October 2017, nine-and-a-bit months after his Al Ain departure, he was far from first choice to replace Ante Cacic. At the time, he had two days to rescue Croatia’s World Cup qualification.

But that he did: Croatia defeated Ukraine to finish second in their group and advance to the play-offs. There, they saw off Greece across two legs and a place in Russia was theirs. Since, Dalic has never looked back.

Except, in another sense, he has. The Bosnia-born coach has continually credited Al Ain for where he is now.

“I learnt at Al Ain where every week I was under pressure, from the fans, from the club, from everyone," Dalic told The National upon his appointment with Croatia in October 2017. "I learnt everything the last three years at Al Ain. Al Ain helped me get to this point."

At the 2018 World Cup, the enduring affinity to the UAE remained clear.

“I get so many messages,” Dalic told The National. “I cannot reply to them all. But so much support from Croatia and from the UAE and Saudi Arabia. It really gives me the strength to achieve something with my team.

"So many from Al Ain, where I spent three years, and they helped me make my name. They gave me an important job, the experience, the support – money also, of course – but with them I built my reputation. I keep them forever in my heart. And I can feel them at my back.”

Now 57, Dalic has kept in touch with numerous friends and former colleagues in the Emirates. This next month, there are sure to be more messages of encouragement, or perhaps even congratulations, as the former defensive midfielder without an international cap attempts to mastermind another momentous major-tournament tilt.

In his own words “forever Ainawi”, the seeds of Dalic’s managerial bloom were really sown in the Garden City.