Zlatko Kranjčar

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Zlatko Kranjčar [ˈzlatkɔ ˈkraɲtʃaːr] (born November 15, 1956) is a former Croatian football striker.

Born in Zagreb, he started to play for Dinamo Zagreb at the age of 10 in 1966 and stayed in the club until 1983. He appeared in a total of 556 matches for the club and scored 98 goals in the championship. Then he transferred to Austrian club SK Rapid Wien for which he played until 1990. The last club in his playing career was SKN St. Pölten for which he played for two months in 1991.

Between 1977 and 1983 he collected 11 caps and scored 3 goals for Yugoslavia. He also has two caps and scored one goal for the Croatian national team and is notable as the first team captain of the Croatian team in their first international match against the United States on October 17, 1990 in Zagreb.

He started his coaching career in 1991 as an advisor in FC Austria Klagenfurt, from 1992 until 1994 he coached a Croatian club Segesta Sisak and in 1994 he transferred to Croatia Zagreb, where he won the Croatian championship and cup in the first season. In 1996 he turned back to Austria to coach the club FC Linz and turning back to Croatia in 1997 he coached the clubs NK Slaven Belupo, Segesta Sisak and NK Samobor until 1998, when he came back to Croatia Zagreb and led the club to another win in both the Croatian championship and cup as well as to an appearance in the UEFA Champions League. In 1999 he started to coach an Egyptian club FC El Masry and in 2000 he went on to coach a Slovenian club NK Mura, where he also stayed for one season. In 2002 he became the Croatian championship winner with NK Zagreb.

After an unsuccessful appearance of Croatia at the Euro 2004, Kranjčar was named a new coach of the country's national squad and he led the team in 18 international matches. They played fifteen matches in the World Cup 2006 qualifying rounds and won the group, but performed relatively badly in their three 2006 World Cup finals matches and were eliminated in the group stages. Due to this and to Kranjčar's inability to gracefully handle growing criticism, the Croatian Football Federation decided not to renew his contract on July 14, 2006.

His son Niko is also a professional footballer who is currently playing for Portsmouth F.C. in the English Premiership, and the Croatian national team.

Preceded by: Otto Barić

Croatia national football team manager 2004-2006

Succeeded by: Slaven Bilić

	Croatia squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup
1 Pletikosa | 2 Srna | 3 Šimunić | 4 R. Kovač | 5 Tudor | 6 Vranješ | 7 Šimić | 8 Babić | 9 Pršo | 10 N. Kovač | 11 Tokić | 12 Didulica | 13 Tomas | 14 Modrić | 15 I. Leko | 16 J. Leko | 17 Klasnić | 18 Olić | 19 N. Kranjčar | 20 Šerić | 21 Balaban | 22 Bošnjak | 23 Butina | Coach: Z. Kranjčar