Reuters– Former Croatia
defender Zvonimir Soldo was appointed head coach of the country's champions
and first division leaders Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday.
Soldo scored three goals in 61 international appearances and played for
German side VfB Stuttgart for 10 years after winning the domestic double
with Dinamo in 1996.
He takes over from Branko Ivankovic, who resigned on Monday after falling
out with the club's director of operations Zoran Mamic during a mid-season
indoor tournament.
Soldo had been in charge of Dinamo's youth team.
"First of all, I want to thank Ivankovic for leaving behind an excellent
team 12 points ahead of our rivals at the winter break," Soldo told
reporters.
"I came back to Dinamo after retiring as a player with the ambition of being
the head coach one day but this came sooner than I had expected," he said.
Ivankovic and Mamic first fell out after the board sold top scorer Eduardo
da Silva to Arsenal last year and the club then failed to progress to the
Champions league group stage. (Writing by Zoran Milosavljevic; editing by
Justin Palmer) .
