Zoran Mamić


Zoran Mamić is a Croatian professional football manager and former player. He is currently the manager and the director of football of Gornja Špičkovina.
Mamić was previously manager of Dinamo Zagreb, Al-Nassr, Al-Ain and Al-Hilal. In his first season with the UAE club, he won the first double in the club's 50th year history: UAE Pro-League and UAE President's Cup. He has been convicted to 4 years and 11 months of prison for stealing millions from Dinamo.

Club career

Mamić played for Dinamo Zagreb between 1989 and 1996, after which he went on to spend nine years playing for various clubs in Germany. Between 1996 and 1998, he made 45 Bundesliga appearances and scored four league goals for Bochum. In 1998 he moved for two seasons to Bayer Leverkusen, but only made 15 Bundesliga appearances for the club without scoring a goal. He then returned to Bochum for the 2000–01 season and made another 23 Bundesliga appearances for the club.
In 2001 he moved to 2. Bundesliga side Greuther Fürth and spent two seasons with the club, making 48 appearances and scoring one goal in the 2. Bundesliga. He subsequently played one season apiece for 2. Bundesliga clubs LR Ahlen and Eintracht Trier, making 21 league appearances for Ahlen and 30 league appearances for Trier, scoring one goal for the latter club. In his career in Germany, Mamić made 83 Bundesliga appearances with four goals scored as well as 99 2. Bundesliga appearances with two goals scored.
In 2005 he returned to Dinamo Zagreb and finished his playing career at the club in late March 2007, after which he continued to work for the club as their sporting director. He captained the Dinamo Zagreb team that won the Croatian League championship in 2006. His last match for Dinamo Zagreb was on 3 March 2007 in their 3–1 away win over Varteks.

International career

Mamić won six international caps for the Croatia national team between October 1996 and June 1998, also being a member of the country's bronze medal-winning squad at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, although he did not play a single minute during the team's seven matches.

Managerial career

Dinamo Zagreb

On 22 October 2013, following the sacking of Branko Ivanković, Mamić was named caretaker manager of Dinamo Zagreb by his brother and the club chairman Zdravko Mamić. This was the second time in only two months that he was appointed as interim coach, as he had taken over the team from Dinamo's previous coach Krunoslav Jurčić after their 2–0 home defeat against Austria Wien in the Champions League play-off in August 2013. He ended his first match as interim coach with an away win against Slaven Belupo. A week later, Dinamo faced Austria Wien in the second leg of the Champions League play-offs. In Vienna, Mamić and Krznar led Dinamo to a 3–2 win, failing to clinch a spot in the Champions League group stage in the last 10 minutes of the match, as Dinamo had a 3–1 lead. After sacking of coach Ivanković, Mamić was again appointed as interim coach. He chose former Dinamo Zagreb players, Damir Krznar and Igor Cvitanović, to be his assistants. In November 2013, after string of positive results, including an 0–0 match against PSV Eindhoven in the Europa League, Mamić suffered his first defeat as Dinamo Zagreb coach, in away match against PSV Eindhoven. In December 2013, Mamić led Dinamo to one of their biggest Eternal Derby triumphs against Hajduk Split, when they won 5–0 in the Croatian Cup quarter-finals. Mamić was led Dinamo to another Champions League season in 2015–16, after a total 6–2 aggregate win against KF Skënderbeu Korçë in the play-off round. In the group stage, Dimano started with a shocking 2–1 home win over Arsenal. With Arsenal further losing to Olympiacos, Dinamo Zagreb was favored to at least manage third place in the group, and secure Europa League Round of 32. However, Dinamo lost the remainder of their matches and were eliminated as last in the group. Mamić still hailed the campaign as the most memorable, due to the historic win against Arsenal.

Al Nassr

In the summer 2016, Mamić accepted an offer from Al-Nassr from Saudi Arabia and after several amazing years in Dinamo went abroad. Mamić started the season very good and after several rounds it was obvious that after many years without a trophy Al-Nassr will have more than a chance to win something with the Croatian coach on the bench. The most notable result was Saudi Crown Prince Cup semi-final win against biggest rivals and one of the biggest Asian clubs Al-Hilal. Al-Nassr completely dominated against the favorized opposition and eventually won the game 2–0 to qualify for the final. Unfortunately for Al-Nassr fans for whom Mamić was and still is a legend - the coach left before had the chance of winning the so wanted trophy.
In February 2017, after a lot of financial problems in the club and despite the fact of having an offer for a several year contract, Mamić resigned and couple of days later signed a contract for the biggest club in the United Arab Emirates - Al Ain.

Al-Ain

Mamić signed an 18 months contract but came to the bench when the club has already lost every chance of winning a trophy this season. Only competition that the new coach started from beginning was the 2017 AFC Champions League. Al Ain won the group and qualified for the next round undefeated where the next opponent was Iranian Esteghlal. In the first leg in Iran, in front of 80,000 fans home team got a late winner but week after Al Ain crushed their opponents 6–1 to qualify for the quarter-final. In the quarter-final stage, after the summer break, the opponent was the toughest possible - Al-Hilal. First game in Al Ain ended without goals but set pieces mistakes in the return game were expensive and Al Ain was eliminated.
First couple of months were just setting up and in his first real season - he brought glory to The Boss. Al Ain dominated the UAE Pro-League from start until the end and eventually clinched a title with 7 points advantage ahead of Al Wahda. Wins like 7–0, 6–2, 6–0, 5–0 and 4–0 became a regular thing and in the end Al Ain won the title with more than 3 goals per game percentage and the most scored goals in the history of the competition. It was the first trophy for Al Ain after three seasons and only a couple of days later, on 3 May, Mamić added a UAE President's Cup trophy too. By that he earned his place in the history books of the club because it was the first double in the club's history. At the end of the season it was announced that Mamić agreed to an extension of the contract with Al Ain until June 2019.

Al-Hilal

On 31 January 2019, Mamić was named the head coach of Al-Hilal. He was sacked on 27 April 2019, following a 5–0 home defeat to Al-Taawoun.

Return to Dinamo

On 5 June 2019, Mamić returned to Dinamo Zagreb, being appointed as the sporting director.
On 7 July 2020, following the dismissal of Igor Jovićević, he was named the interim manager of Dinamo Zagreb until the end of the season. In his first game on 12 July, he led the team to a 2–3 home defeat to fierce rivals Hajduk Split. He was intented to be a caretaker just for three league matches, however he was appointed as full manager after Matjaž Kek refused to coach Dinamo.

Managerial statistics

Personal life

Born in Zagreb as the third child of Josip and Lucija Mamić, Zoran is a younger brother of Croatian sportsman Zdravko Mamić. Both brothers have been found guilty for siphoning millions of Euros from Dinamo Zagreb and evading millions of unpaid taxes. The decision of the court is not final so Zoran is at the moment a free man while his brother is currently evading arrest warrants by residing in non-extradition country. Their assets in Croatia are confiscated. Both of their parents are coming from Bosnia and Herzegovina; a father Josip is from Zidine, and mother Lucija is from Bukova Gora.
Mamić married Ana Šikić in 2014, and divorced her in 2016. From his first marriage with Vanja Horvat, a daughter of the famous handballer Hrvoje Horvat, he has two children: a daughter Nina, and son Bruno.

Honours

Player

Club

Dinamo Zagreb
Bayer Leverkusen
Croatia
Dinamo Zagreb
Al Ain