Dragan Skočić has taken over the duties as the head coach of the Croatian U-21 national team, after arranging the details of the collaboration with Marijan Kustić.
The Croatian Football Federation (HNS) posted the following news:
Dragan Skočić has taken over the duties as the head coach of the Croatian U-21 national team, after arranging the details of the collaboration with the president of the Croatian Football Federation, Marijan Kustić. His appointment has been confirmed by the Executive committee of the Croatian Football Federation.
The Croatian U-21 national team has qualified for the European Championship for the third consecutive time and the former head coach, Igor Bišćan, was appointed as the coach of Dinamo Zagreb. Dragan Skočić is taking over the helm of the young national team after signing the contract with the president of the Federation, Marijan Kustić, at the Federation’s headquarters.
The last position of Dragan Skočić was leading the Iranian national team, which he successfully led to the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. By collecting 25 points in 10 matches in the third round of qualifiers, he set a new record for the Iranian national team. Despite achieving extraordinary results, Skočić didn’t have the chance to lead Iran at its final match.
Before coaching the Iranian national team, Skočić led Rijeka, Interblock Ljubljana, Al Arabi, Al Nassr, Malavan, Foolad, Rayka Babol and Sanat Naft. Some of his coaching successes were winning the Croatian Cup with Rijeka and the Slovenian Cup and the Supercup with Interblock, taking Al Arabi to the finals of the Crown Prince Cup and of the Federation Cup, as well as leading Al Nassr and Foolad in the Asian Champions League. Skočić was among the nominees for the 2021 World’s Best National Coach award by IFFHS.
– I am taking on this function with a lot of pride, ambition and optimism and I would like to thank president Kustić and the Federation management for the trust they have shown. Igor did a great job with our young national team and I hope to end the current cycle in the right way and with the best performance at the European Championship, and afterwards to start working on forming the new generation. We have many talented and good players and I look forward to helping them reaching their potentials with my knowledge and experience – said the new U-21 national team head coach, Dragan Skočić.
– We are thrilled to have arranged this collaboration with such a renowned, successful and recognized expert, which confirms how much importance we lay on the development of our young football players. I am so grateful to Dragan for accepting our proposal and deciding to take on this challenge, although he is extremely sought after as a coach after his outstanding achievements with the Iranian A national team. I wish Dragan good luck and success and I must say that the Federation will give him the greatest support to achieve the results and development goals we have jointly set – pointed out the president of the Croatian football federation Marijan Kustić.
