Josip Šutalo (born 28 February 2000) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

club

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

. Born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he plays for the Croatia national team.

Club career

Dinamo Zagreb

In July 2014, Šutalo moved from

Neretva The Neretva (, sr-Cyrl, Неретва), also known as Narenta, is one of the largest rivers of the eastern part of the Adriatic basin. Four Hydroelectricity, hydroelectric power plants with Dam, large dams (higher than 15 metres) provide flood ...

to the youth academy of

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb (), commonly referred to as simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Cr ...

. On 1 September 2018, he made his debut for Dinamo Zagreb II in a 3–1 win against Bijelo Brdo. On 30 October 2019, he made his debut for Dinamo's first team in a 3–0 victory against

Opatija Opatija (; ; ) is a List of cities and towns in Croatia, town and a municipality in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in northwestern Croatia. The traditional seaside resort on the Kvarner Gulf is known for its Mediterranean climate and its historic bu ...

in the

Croatian Cup Croatian Cup may refer to: *Croatian Football Cup *Croatian Football Super Cup *Croatian Women's Football Cup *Croatian Basketball Cup, also known as Krešimir Ćosić Cup *Croatian Handball Cup *Croatian Water Polo Cup The Croatian Water Polo C ...

. On 1 July 2020, he made his

Prva HNL The Hrvatska nogometna liga (; ), abbreviated as HNL and also known for sponsorship reasons as the SuperSport HNL, is a professional association football league in Croatia and the highest level of the Croatian football league system. Establish ...

debut in a 1–0 win against Inter Zaprešić. On 18 January 2021, Šutalo joined Istra 1961 on loan until the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

. He made his debut on the next day in the

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against Gorica, which ended in a 1–1 draw. On 19 May, he played in the Cup final, where he scored an own goal as his team lost 6–3 to his parent club Dinamo. He later returned to Dinamo for the 2021–22 season. On 23 July 2021, he recorded his first goal and assist for Dinamo in a 4–0 win against Hrvatski Dragovoljac. He made his debut in the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

on 16 September, as Dinamo lost 2–0 to

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

. He scored his first goal in that competition on 4 November in a 3–1 win over

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid (), commonly known as Rapid Wien or Rapid Vienna in English, is an Austrian professional football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the f ...

. On 6 September 2022, he made his Champions League debut in a 1–0 win over Chelsea.

Ajax

On 21 August 2023, Šutalo joined

side

for a reported fee of €20.5 million, signing a five-year contract. He made his debut on 3 September and was immediately given the captain's armband for the match, a goalless draw away to

Fortuna Sittard Fortuna Sittard (; ) is a professional football club from the municipality of Sittard-Geleen, Netherlands. The club currently plays its football in the 12,500 capacity Fortuna Sittard Stadion and features in the Eredivisie. The club was establi ...

. Šutalo featured regularly in his first season, making 23 appearances and scoring one goal in the Eredivisie, along with 8 appearances in UEFA club competitions as Ajax competed in both the

and

Europa Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual association football, football competition organised since 2021 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European foot ...

during a challenging season for the club. In the 2024–25 season, Šutalo continued as a key player in central defence. By late March 2025, he had played 21 league matches, scoring two goals, and made 16 appearances in the UEFA Europa League (including qualifiers), scoring once in the qualification rounds. Known for his ball-playing ability, Šutalo maintained a high pass completion rate (around 93%) and contributed significantly to build-up play. He also recorded strong interception numbers during this period.

International career

Šutalo made his debut for Croatia national team on 10 June 2022 in a 1–0 victory over

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

in the Nations League, having been named in the starting lineup. On 17 December 2022, he made his debut for Croatia at a major tournament in the 2–1

third place play-off Many sports playoffs and knockout tournaments include a third place playoff, third place match, bronze medal game, or consolation game to decide which competitor or team will be credited with finishing third and fourth. This game is typically com ...

victory over

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

at the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

. On 5 June 2023, he was named in the final squad for the

2023 UEFA Nations League Finals The 2023 UEFA Nations League Finals was the final tournament of the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League, 2022–23 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the third season of the international Association football, football competition involving the men's ...

, playing both games as Croatia finished as runners-up to

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Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Dinamo Zagreb * HNL: 2019–20, 2021–22,

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

* Croatian Super Cup:

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Croatia *

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third place:

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is an international European football competition played by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The competition was devised to minimise friendlies a ...

runner-up:

Individual

* Croatian First Football League Team of the Year: 2021–22,

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sutalo, Josip 2000 births Living people Footballers from Čapljina Croatian sportspeople from Bosnia and Herzegovina Men's association football central defenders Croatian men's footballers 21st-century Croatian sportsmen Croatia men's youth international footballers Croatia men's international footballers 2022 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2024 players GNK Dinamo Zagreb II players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players NK Istra 1961 players AFC Ajax players First Football League (Croatia) players Croatian Football League players Eredivisie players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Croatian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands