Damir Krznar (born 10 July 1972) is a Croatian professional football

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

who is the manager of

Slovenian PrvaLiga The Slovenian PrvaLiga ( sl, Prva slovenska nogometna liga, ), currently named Prva liga Telemach due to sponsorship reasons, also known by the abbreviation 1. SNL, is the top level of the Slovenian football league system. Contested by ten club ...

club Celje.

Playing career

Club

Krznar spent his career playing for Varteks,

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb ( en, Dinamo Zagreb Citizens' Football Club, link=yes, italics=yes), commonly referred to as GNK Dinamo Zagreb or simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo ...

and Inter Zaprešić.

International

He made his international debut coming in as a second half substitute for

Robert Jarni Robert Jarni (born 26 October 1968) is a Croatian former professional footballer who played as a left winger or wingback and current manager. Jarni started his professional career with Hajduk Split in 1986, and went on to spend 10 years playin ...

against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

on 22 April 1998, which was his only appearance for the Croatia national team.

Managerial career

Career as assistant

In the period between 2010 and 2021, Krznar worked as an assistant coach to

Ilija Lončarević Ilija Lončarević (born 8 October 1944) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of Croatian Second Football League club Kustošija. Managerial career Lončarević led Inker Zaprešić to t ...

at Inter Zaprešić, to

Krunoslav Jurčić Krunoslav "Kruno" Jurčić (; born 26 November 1969) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player. Playing career Club Jurčić started his professional career at Dinamo Zagreb in 1988, before moving to Inker Zaprešić in 1991 ...

Ante Čačić Ante Čačić (; born 29 September 1953) is a Croatian professional football manager who is the current head coach of Croatian Football League club Dinamo Zagreb. Čačić graduated on the Faculty of Physical Education at the University of Zagr ...

Branko Ivanković Branko Ivanković (; born 28 February 1954) is a Croatian former footballer who played as a midfielder, and the current manager of the Oman national team. After a 12-year playing career at Varteks, Ivanković started his coaching career at the ...

and

Zoran Mamić Zoran Mamić (; born 30 September 1971) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player, and convicted fraudster. He was most recently the manager of Croatian First Football League club Dinamo Zagreb. He is a wanted criminal in Cr ...

, and to Mamić at

Al Nassr Al Nassr Football Club ( ar, نادي النصر السعودي; '' Naṣr'' meaning ''Victory'') is a Saudi Arabian football club based in Riyadh. Formed in 1955, the club plays its home games at the Mrsool Park. Their home colours are yello ...

, Al Ain and Al Hilal. He served as Dinamo interim manager on two occasions; from August to September 2013, and from July to September 2015.

Dinamo Zagreb

After Zoran Mamić was sentenced to five years in prison on 15 March 2021, he resigned on the same day and was succeeded by Krznar, who made his debut as Dinamo head coach on 18 March in a 3–0 victory over

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

Stadion Maksimir Maksimir Stadium ( hr, Stadion Maksimir, ) is a multi-use stadium in Zagreb, Croatia. It takes its name from the surrounding neighbourhood of Maksimir. The venue is primarily the home of Dinamo Zagreb, the top club of the country with 23 le ...

, thus qualifying for the

quarter-finals A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

of the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League for the first time in the history of the club. Furthermore, Krznar became the first ever manager to eliminate Spurs head coach José Mourinho from the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

(the Portuguese took part in the competition two more times before–in 2002–03 coaching

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, and in 2016–17 coaching Manchester United–winning both editions). However, Dinamo went on to lose their quarter-final fixture against

Villarreal Villarreal ( ca-valencia , Vila-real) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's ...

3–1 on aggregate. On 9 May 2021, Dinamo secured its 22nd

Croatian First League The Hrvatska nogometna liga () ( en, Croatian football league), also known as HNL or for sponsorship reasons the SuperSport HNL, is the top Croatian professional football (soccer), football league competition, established in 1992. Previously, i ...

title with a 5–1 victory over Rijeka, and the 32nd national league title in total. Ten days later, Dinamo also won the Croatian Cup title, with a victory against Istra 1961 by a scoreline of 6–3. Krznar left Dinamo on 1 December 2021 after being eliminated by Rijeka in the

of the Croatian Cup. However, the next month, he took over the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

of Dinamo, playing in the Croatian Second League, where he stayed until the team was dissolved following the 2021–22 season.

Maribor

On 16 August 2022, Krznar took charge of the reigning

champions Maribor, signing a two-year contract. At the time of his arrival, Maribor was sitting in last place in the league with only three points out of five games. He led the club to third place in the league and also reached the cup final, earning a contract extension until 2026. However, after a poor start to the 2023–24 season, Krznar terminated his contract by mutual consent and left the club on 2 October 2023. In total, he led Maribor in 55 matches and achieved 28 wins, 13 draws and 14 defeats.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Dinamo Zagreb * Prva HNL: 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–00, 2002–03 * Croatian Cup: 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2003–04 *

Croatian Super Cup The Croatian Football Super Cup is a football match between the winners of the Croatian national top league and football cup. The Super Cup is always held at the beginning of a new football season, and is only held when different clubs win the t ...

: 2002, 2003

Manager

Dinamo Zagreb * Prva HNL: 2020–21 * Croatian Cup: 2020–21

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Krznar, Damir 1972 births Living people People from Zabok Men's association football midfielders Croatian men's footballers Croatia men's international footballers NK Varaždin (1931–2015) players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players NK Inter Zaprešić players Croatian Football League players Croatian football managers GNK Dinamo Zagreb managers NK Maribor managers NK Celje managers Croatian Football League managers Slovenian PrvaLiga managers Croatian expatriate football managers Croatian expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate football managers in Slovenia Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Slovenia