Slaven Bilić is the New Croatia Head Coach!

HNS have officially announced that Slaven Bilić has returned to the Croatia hot seat after 14 years, the first manager to ever have a second term with the Croatian senior national team. As was revealed in the media beforehand, the 57-year-old coach has signed a deal until EURO 2028.

Bilić’s Background

Slaven Bilić is known worldwide as a player and as a manager. During his playing days, he was one of the key parts of the Croatian national team that proved its place at the top of world football in 1998. After retiring in 2000 at Hajduk Split, he took charge of the club as manager the following year in a shock managerial appointment at the time. Many fans and journalists believed he wasn’t ready to start managing that fast after retiring as a player. But Bilić did an okay job. He didn’t win anything with his boyhood club but kept them competitive and close to the 1st spot.

After leaving Hajduk, he entered the Croatia national team setup, taking over as head coach of the U21s. He joined the side during the 2006 UEFA European U21 Championship qualifiers and led the team to first place, securing a play-off vs. Serbia and Montenegro U21. It was a highly emotional tie that Croatia lost 3-1, failing to qualify for the tournament. But the team still played some good football, and it was a decent spell overall, with Bilić overseeing the young talents of Luka Modrić, Vedran Ćorluka, Eduardo, Ognjen Vukojević and Niko Kranjčar.

Then, in July of 2006, after an embarrassing World Cup performance in which Croatia didn’t win a group stage game and finished 3rd behind Australia and Brazil, Slaven Bilić was appointed as manager of the senior national team. It was a very tough job to take at the time, as Croatian football and the national team weren’t in a promising place. Bilić immediately made his squad younger, leaving a lot of the older players behind and introducing the generation of U21s he had coached.

The 2008 EURO qualifiers were expected to be the toughest qualifying cycle the national team had ever faced, but Bilić and his new young core made that group, England, Russia, Israel, Macedonia, Estonia and Andorra, look easy, topping it with just one loss. Then, heading into the EURO, Croatia lost Eduardo da Silva to a horrific injury. Croatia still topped their group with fantastic performances and qualified for the quarter-finals, where we faced Turkey…

Then came 2010 World Cup qualifying, in which Croatia again faced England, alongside Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Andorra. Croatia finished 3rd in the group, missing out on 2nd place to Ukraine by just one point and missing out on the World Cup for the first time in the country’s history. A few injury problems played into the poor result, and the Turkey defeat had clearly had a mental effect on the young core. But Bilić kept his job and led Croatia to a 2nd-place finish in the EURO 2012 qualifying group behind 1st-placed Greece. Then, in the play-offs, Croatia got revenge on Turkey, winning 3-0 on aggregate to qualify for the EURO.

The group draw was less than ideal, pitting Croatia against the future two tournament finalists, Spain and Italy. Bilić and his men missed out on the knockout stages by just one point, finishing on 4 points after beating Ireland, drawing with Italy and narrowly losing to Spain. Slaven announced before the tournament that this would be his final one as manager of the national team. In this first stint, he managed 65 games, winning 42, drawing 15 and losing just 8 — making him the best Croatia manager in terms of points per game, with 2.15.

After leaving Croatia, he managed: Lokomotiv Moscow, Besiktas, West Ham, Al-Ittihad, West Brom, Beijing Guoan, Watford and Al-Fateh. Bilić also refused job offers as he was waiting for the Croatia call since the tail end of 2025 when it became increasingly likely that Dalić wouldn’t extend his contract with the national team.

Why Bilić now?

HNS reportedly held talks with Slaven Bilić before the 2026 World Cup, as it became clear that Zlatko Dalić would be leaving after the tournament. The federation also communicated the idea of hiring Bilić to the players, who responded positively to the potential hire. And it makes sense: this is a manager with a proven track record of doing exactly what Croatia needs right now.

Back in 2006, Bilić inherited a national team in transition and used his U21 experience to fast-track Modrić, Ćorluka, Kranjčar and company into the senior setup, rebuilding the whole squad around them within two years. Croatia is at a similar crossroads today. The Modrić generation is finally winding down, and the federation needs someone who will play the young talents. Bilić has already done exactly that once, with players who are now the most decorated generation in Croatian football history; there’s no better evidence he can do it again.

The national team right now has a lot of good young talent that needs to get acquainted with each other, and Bilić’s history of blending youth development with senior management makes him one of the better options for doing that. He is also the only manager, alongside Dalić now, to have left the national team on a positive note, which is why he’s the first manager to return to the Croatia hot seat in our history.

What’s next?

Slaven Bilić’s first cycle back will be in September, in the new, longer international break, in which Croatia will open its Nations League campaign and play four games, including a home-and-away set against Spain, through the end of September and start of October. Away vs. Czechia; away vs. Spain; home vs. England, played behind closed doors at an empty Rujevica due to UEFA sanctions; home vs. Spain, at Poljud with fans. It will be a very tough task for the new/old coach and the new young core. The Nations League is also very important, as it decides the pots for the EURO qualifying groups. If Croatia doesn’t finish last, we’ll be in Pot 1 for the qualifiers.

It has also been reported by Croatian outlets that Slaven Bilić wants to keep Luka Modrić around, and that the pair will soon meet to talk about Luka’s position in the national team under the coach who made him a key player for Croatia. Luka is also set to meet with AC Milan’s new manager, Ruben Amorim, and everything is pointing towards the 40-year-old playing another season in a top-five league.

Best of luck to Slaven Bilić, and may his second term be more successful than his previous one!