After their World Cup campaign ended with elimination in the round of 32, Croatia turned the page and started again from scratch. After nine years, the era of Zlatko Dadic has come to an end, and former West Ham and Watford man Slaven Bilic has taken his place on the national team bench, having already served as head coach from 2006 to 2012. First game, first win over the Czech Republic, built on familiar certainties: decisive goals from Modric - who at 41 became the oldest scorer in the history of the national team - and Marco Pasalic, an Orlando City midfielder and simply a namesake of the Atalanta player.
AFPRole and characteristics
For the second Nations League game against Spain, the head coach threw Dion Drena Beljo straight into the starting line-up at centre-forward. The Dinamo Zagreb player, born in 2002, had made just two other appearances for the national team, both three years ago. In his first start, he made his mark straight away with a header, a trademark of the 1.95m-tall striker. He is left-footed, strong in the air and good at shielding the ball. He also shoots from distance, and last year he finished as the Croatian league's top scorer with 31 goals.
Frosinone and Monza wanted him
A standout season has put him firmly in the transfer spotlight. Frosinone and Monza were among the clubs interested last summer, both having tracked him since his time at Osijek. He then moved to Augsburg in the Bundesliga and, after a year on loan at Rapid Vienna, Dinamo Zagreb brought him back to Croatia for €4 million, with president Zvonimir Boban pushing hard to get the deal done. His valuation now stands at around 15, and Boban himself revealed he had turned down a very important offer from one of Europe's five major leagues.
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