{"id":2061,"date":"2018-07-14T09:17:23","date_gmt":"2018-07-14T09:17:23","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2018-07-14T09:17:23","modified_gmt":"2018-07-14T09:17:23","slug":"the-saudi-connection-of-the-coach-that-led-croatia-to-the-world-cup-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/riyadh\/en\/fifa-world-cup\/the-saudi-connection-of-the-coach-that-led-croatia-to-the-world-cup-final\/","title":{"rendered":"The Saudi Connection Of The Coach That Led Croatia To The World Cup Final"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After stunning England in the semi-finals, Croatia is all set to play France in the finals of what is one of the most watched sporting events in the world.<\/p>\n

From its players to its coach, all were brought to global fame thanks to the heroics they showed during the World Cup. But what many don\u2019t know is that its coach Zlatko Dalic that led the team to their maiden world cup final has a Saudi connection.<\/p>\n

Dalic was initially famed Croation coach Miroslav Blazevic\u2019s assistant. Blazevic was famous for having taken the less than a decade old country to the World Cup semi-finals in 1998.<\/h3>\n

During a press conference at the World Cup Dalic said: \u201cI am not ashamed to say I learnt a lot from \u2018Ciro\u2019 Blazevic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dalic worked with Blazevic for two years before getting an offer from Saudi Arabian club Al-Faisaly in 2010. Dalic readily accepted the offer and started managing the team.<\/h3>\n

From there he moved on to Al Hilal where he enjoyed a successful stint. He was initially coaching the B team of Al Hilal but was promoted mid-season to the main team. Under his reign, Al Hilal went on to win the Saudi Prince Cup and ended as runners-up in the Saudi Pro League. Al Hilal even tweeted out a message for their former coach.<\/p>\n

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Congratulations to @DalicZlatko<\/a>
on qualifying for the #WorldCup<\/a> final.
All the best next Sunday #CRO<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 \u0646\u0627\u062f\u064a \u0627\u0644\u0647\u0644\u0627\u0644 \u0627\u0644\u0633\u0639\u0648\u062f\u064a (@Alhilal_FC) July 11, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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In return, Dalic tweeted in support of Saudi fans.<\/h3>\n
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Thank you for supporting my National team Croatia!???????????????????????? pic.twitter.com\/r4m4nqxtF1<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Zlatko Dali\u0107 (@DalicZlatko) July 10, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After stunning England in the semi-finals, Croatia is all set to play France in the finals of what is one of the most watched sporting events in the world. From its players to its coach, all were brought to global fame thanks to the heroics they showed during the World Cup. But what many don\u2019t … ","protected":false},"author":402,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"acf":{"legacy_image":"https:\/\/cloud.lovinsaudi.com\/images\/_relatedEntryImage2x\/Untitled_180714_050937.png?mtime=20180714050936","legacy_full_image":"https:\/\/cloud.lovinsaudi.com\/images\/_featuredImage\/Untitled_180714_050937.png?mtime=20180714050936 880w","legacy_meta_tags":"The Saudi Connection Of The Coach That Led Croatia To The World Cup Final - Lovin Saudi<\/title><meta name=\"description\" content=\"After stunning England in the semi-finals, Croatia is all set to play France in the finals of what is one of the most watched sporting events in the world.\nFrom its players to its coach, all were brought to global fame thanks to the heroics they showed during the World Cup.\">\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lovinsaudi.com\/fifa-world-cup\/the-saudi-connection-of-the-coach-that-led-croatia-to-the-world-cup-final\">\n<!-- <link rel=\"amphtml\" href=\"https:\/\/lovinsaudi.com\/fifa-world-cup\/the-saudi-connection-of-the-coach-that-led-croatia-to-the-world-cup-final\/amp\">\n --><meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Saudi Connection Of The Coach That Led Croatia To The World Cup Final\">\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\">\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lovinsaudi.com\/fifa-world-cup\/the-saudi-connection-of-the-coach-that-led-croatia-to-the-world-cup-final\">\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\">\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cloud.lovinsaudi.com\/images\/Untitled_180714_050937.png?mtime=20180714050936\">\n<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"668\">\n<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\">\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"photo\">\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"lovinsaudi\">\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The Saudi Connection Of The Coach That Led Croatia To The World Cup Final\">\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"\">\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\" After stunning England in the semi-finals, Croatia is all set to play France in the finals of what is one of the most watched sporting events in the world.\nFrom its players to its coach, all were brought to global fame thanks to the heroics they showed during the World Cup.\n\">\n<meta name=\"twitter:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lovinsaudi.com\/fifa-world-cup\/the-saudi-connection-of-the-coach-that-led-croatia-to-the-world-cup-final\">\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cloud.lovinsaudi.com\/images\/Untitled_180714_050937.png?mtime=20180714050936\">\n"},"image_feature":null,"author_name":"MohammedMirza","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/riyadh\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/riyadh\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/riyadh\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/riyadh\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/402"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/riyadh\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/riyadh\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/riyadh\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/riyadh\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovin.co\/riyadh\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}