Velimir Zajec
Zajec with Dinamo Zagreb in 2010
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 12 February 1956 | ||
| Place of birth | Zagreb, FPR Yugoslavia | ||
| Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||
| Playing position | Defender/Midfielder | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Dinamo Zagreb | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1974–1984 | Dinamo Zagreb | 238 | (13) |
| 1984–1988 | Panathinaikos | 67 | (11) |
| Total | 305 | (24) | |
| National team | |||
| 1977–1985 | Yugoslavia | 36 | (1) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 1996–1997 | Panathinaikos | ||
| 1998–1999 | Dinamo Zagreb | ||
| 2004–2005 | Portsmouth | ||
| 2010 | Dinamo Zagreb | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Velimir Zajec (born 12 February 1956) is a Croatian former footballer and manager.
Zajec began his career at Dinamo Zagreb in 1974, aged 18. During 10 years at the club, he helped them to two domestic cup wins, as well as the league title, their first title honour in 24 years. In 1979 and 1984, he was named the Yugoslav Footballer of the Year.
He then transferred to Greek club Panathinaikos, for whom he was tremendously successful, playing over 100 games. He was also one of the best players at the time.
Zajec won 36 international caps for Yugoslavia, and captained them at both the 1982 World Cup and the 1984 European Championships.
Following retirement, he spent two years (1989–1991) as Director of Football at former club Dinamo Zagreb before returning to Panathinaikos to run their academy. Before long, he was promoted to head coach of the club. After a period he again, he returned to Zagreb, this time as head coach, before moving once more back to Panathinaikos in 2002 to become Director of Football.
In late October 1998, Zajec replaced Zlatko Kranjčar as manager at Dinamo Zagreb (then known as Croatia Zagreb), following Kranjčar's poor record in the UEFA Champions League group stage, where the team only managed to grab a single point in three matches (drawing with Ajax at home, before losing to both Olympiacos and Porto on the road). The team's performance in the UEFA Champions League improved under Zajec, as they managed to stay undefeated in the remaining three group matches, beating Porto and Ajax and drawing with Olympiacos. Dinamo nevertheless did not manage to go through to the quarter-finals after finishing second in their group, behind Olympiacos (at the time, only the first-place finishers and the two best second-place finishers went through).
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