Article by Liviu Manolache, Cezar Titor – Published Wednesday, February 18, 2026, 6:11 p.m. / Updated Wednesday, February 18, 2026, 6:12 p.m.
The derby with Rapid, scheduled for Saturday evening, will have a special charge for Zeljko Kopic, not only in terms of the stakes and the pride surrounding the game. The duel at the National Arena will be the 100th match for the “dogs” technician in all competitions.
Zeljko Kopic has been Dinamo's coach since December 1, 2023, when he took over the team in an extremely difficult situation. He managed to save it in extremis from another relegation, and in the following season he took the “pack” to the play-offs, for the first time in eight years.
In the current season, Dinamo is, less than two weeks before the arrival of spring, engaged in the fight for the title. The team is already mathematically qualified for the play-offs, with three stages before the end of the regular season, and reached, for the first time since the introduction of the current format, the quarter-finals of the Romanian Cup, where they will meet Metalul Buzău, at the beginning of March.
Zeljko Kopic's 99 games in numbers:
In the 99 games played so far, the Croatian has recorded 40 wins, 34 draws and 25 defeats on the bench of the red and whites, with a positive goal difference, 126-101.
Strictly in Super League games, he has scored 51.31% of the points put into play, has an average of 1.29 goals scored and 1.04 conceded per game, with a winning percentage of 40.45%.
276 matcheshad Zeljko Kopic as a technician, before coming to Dinamo: 100 wins, 71 draws, 105 failures, but also a negative goal difference: 350-371. Zagorec, Segesta, Lucko, Cibalia, NK Zagreb, Slaven Belupo, Hajduk Split, Pafos, Dinamo Zagreb and Botev Plovdiv were the teams Kopic coached before coming to the Capital.
Several players were revitalized under his command. Cătălin Cîrjan went from reserve status at Rapid to captain at Dinamo, with 5 goals and 5 assists in the 2025-2026 season.
Alex Musi, former reserve at FCSB, became a starter at Dinamo, even if he is going through a more modest period of form, having 5 goals and a decisive assist this season. Also, Kennedy Boateng, who came after consecutive relegations, turned into one of the best defenders in the Super League, dangerous and offensive, with 4 goals scored in the current season.
Zeljko Kopic
Kopic has the third longest tenure in the Superliga, after Robert Ilyeș and Elias Charalambous. At the same time, only 7 mandates are longer than Kopic's in Dinamo's history: Iuliu Baratky (851 days), Ioan Andone (period 2003-2005, 1010 days), Nicolae Dumitru (1095 days), Cornel Dinu (1176 days), Ion Nunweiller (1197 days), Angelo Niculescu (1460 days), Mircea Lucescu (1685 days). At the moment, the Croatian has 810.
