Zvonimir Soldo

Zvonimir Soldo

Soldo as manager of 1. FC Köln
Personal information
Date of birth	(1967-11-02) 2 November 1967 (age 55)
Place of birth	Zagreb, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia
Height	1.89 m (6 ft 2 in)
Position(s)	Centre back Defensive midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1988–1990	Dinamo Zagreb	36	(0)
1990–1991	NK Zadar	26	(2)
1991–1994	Inter Zaprešić	55	(2)
1994–1996	Croatia Zagreb	51	(3)
1996–2006	VfB Stuttgart	301	(15)
Total		469	(22)
International career
1994–2002	Croatia	61	(3)
Managerial career
2008	Dinamo Zagreb
2009–2010	1. FC Köln
2017	Shandong Luneng (assistant)
2020	Admira Wacker
2021–2022	Tractor
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Zvonimir Soldo (born 2 November 1967) is a Croatian football manager and former player. During his playing career, he mostly played as defensive midfielder.

Club career

Early career

After studying law for six semesters at the University of Zagreb, Soldo's parents convinced him to pursue a career as professional football player.

Soldo's professional career began with NK Dinamo Zagreb which he left for NK Zadar after two years. 1991 through 1994, he played for NK Inter Zaprešić before returning to his former club, now named NK Croatia Zagreb.

Runner-up in both Croatian league and cup in his first season back at Zagreb, the next campaign saw Soldo's side complete a domestic double in 1995/96. After achieving all he could in domestic football, Soldo headed for German side VfB Stuttgart.

VfB Stuttgart

Zvonimir Soldo at his Bundesliga farewell match

Soldo made his Bundesliga debut on 17 August 1996 against FC Schalke 04. This was the beginning of his time in Stuttgart which would last for ten years and during which he would lead VfB Stuttgart on the pitch as captain nearly 200 times.

During this period, Soldo played another 300 times in the Bundesliga and 47 times in European competitions, won the German cup in 1997 and reached the European Cup Winners' Cup final in 1998, as well as finishing as runner-up in the 2002–03 campaign.

After being an exemplary sportsman and role model for younger players all these years, Soldo played his last Bundesliga match for Stuttgart on 6 May 2006.

In recognition of his merits, Soldo received the Staufer medal, a decoration awarded by the state of Baden-Württemberg.

International career

Soldo was also a long-time member of the national team and made his debut for Croatia in an April 1994 friendly match away against Slovakia, coming on as a 46th-minute substitute for Slavko Ištvanić. He earned a total of 61 caps, scoring 3 goals ^[1] and was an important member of the squad that finished third in the 1998 World Cup and also made notable appearances at the Euro 96 and 2002 FIFA World Cups. His final international was a June 2002 FIFA World Cup match against Italy ^[2] and Soldo retired from international football after that tournament.

Coaching career

Dinamo Zagreb

On 14 January 2008 Zvonimir was appointed as a new manager of Dinamo Zagreb after Branko Ivanković's resignation. Prior to that he was managing Dinamo's youth team. He became Prva HNL Champion and Croatian Cup Winner. He offered his resignation in the night after the cup final to make space to old/new manager Branko Ivanković.

1. FC Köln

From June 2009 to October 2010, Soldo was the manager of German Bundesliga club, 1. FC Köln (Cologne) after the club's former coach Christoph Daum surprisingly left to sign for Fenerbahçe. ^[3]

Admira Wacker

Soldo replaced Klaus Schmidt as manager of Admira Wacker in February 2020, but on 13 September 2020, ^[4] he resigned following a 1–4 loss to Rapid Wien. ^[5]

Tractor S.C.

On 14 November 2021, he was appointed as coach of Tractor. ^[6]

Career statistics

Scores and results list Croatia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Soldo goal.

List of international goals scored by Zvonimir Soldo

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	11 October 1997	Bežigrad, Ljubljana, Slovenia	Slovenia	2–0	3–1	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
2	21 August 1999	Maksimir, Zagreb, Croatia	Malta	1–0	2–1	UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
3	5 September 2001	Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	San Marino	3–0	4–0	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification

Honours

Player

Inker Zaprešić

• Croatian Cup: 1992

Dinamo Zagreb

• Croatian First League: 1995–96
• Croatian Cup: 1995–96

VfB Stuttgart

• DFB-Pokal: 1996–97
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Runner-up: 1997–98
• UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2000 ^[7]
• Bundesliga Runner-up: 2002–03

Croatia

• FIFA World Cup third place: 1998

Manager

Dinamo Zagreb

• Croatian First League: 2007–08
• Croatian Cup: 2007–08

Orders

• Order of Danica Hrvatska with face of Franjo Bučar – 1995 ^[8]
• Order of the Croatian Trefoil – 1998 ^[9]

References

1. "Appearances for Croatia National Team". RSSSF. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
2. "Player Database". EU-football. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
3. "Bestätigt: Soldo entlassen". RevierSport (in German). 24 October 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
4. Soldo novi trener austrijskog prvoligaša Admire - N1info (in Croatian)
5. "ZVONIMIR SOLDO VERLÄSST FC FLYERALARM ADMIRA" (in German). Admira Wacker. 13 September 2020.
6. "Zvonimir Soldo takes charge of Tractor". tehran times . 14 November 2021. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
7. "Stuttgart 1-1 Auxerre (Aggregate: 3 - 1)". uefa.com. Archived from the original on 2 July 2004. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
8. "ODLUKU KOJOM SE ODLIKUJU REDOM DANICE HRVATSKE S LIKOM FRANJE BUČARA" (in Croatian). hrvatska.poslovniforum.hr.
9. "PREDSJEDNIK TUDJMAN ODLIKOVAO HRVATSKU NOGOMETNU REPREZENTACIJU" (in Croatian). hrt.hr.

External links

• Zvonimir Soldo at FIFA (archived)
• Zvonimir Soldo at the Croatian Football Federation (in Croatian)
• Zvonimir Soldo at Fussballdaten.de (in German)
• Zvonimir Soldo at National-Football-Teams.com
• Zvonimir Soldo at Soccerway.com
• Zvonimir Soldo at WorldFootball.net