Why Dinamo Zagreb’s Dani Olmo Took a Risk and Left Barcelona

 Dinamo Zagreb’s Dani Olmo (left) helped dismantle Atalanta and will face Manchester City in the Champions League. Photograph: Damir Sencar/AFP/Getty Images
Dinamo Zagreb’s Dani Olmo (left) helped dismantle Atalanta and will face Manchester City in the Champions League. Photograph: Damir Sencar/AFP/Getty Images
TT

Why Dinamo Zagreb’s Dani Olmo Took a Risk and Left Barcelona

 Dinamo Zagreb’s Dani Olmo (left) helped dismantle Atalanta and will face Manchester City in the Champions League. Photograph: Damir Sencar/AFP/Getty Images
Dinamo Zagreb’s Dani Olmo (left) helped dismantle Atalanta and will face Manchester City in the Champions League. Photograph: Damir Sencar/AFP/Getty Images

“They told me I was crazy,” admitted Miquel Olmo, who played for and later managed various clubs in Spain. “I was a coach in the Spanish second division and they massacred me for it, saying I was ruining my son’s career. Leaving Barcelona was not easy, especially if you were the captain, and he was also playing for the national team. It was the most difficult decision in his life.”

It is now more than five years since his son Daniel - known as Dani – left the famed La Masia to join Dinamo Zagreb. He was not lured by big money or big promises. Barely 16, a top prospect and team captain in his generation, he was closely followed by other elite European clubs – reportedly Manchester United and Manchester City were particularly interested in snatching the youngster away from the Camp Nou — but the Olmo family sought an option they thought would be best for Dani’s development.

His best chance, they felt, was not at Barcelona, where he would find it difficult to break through into the first team despite his exceptional talents. But choosing Croatia, even if it was a top club there, well-known for its academy that had produced such as Luka Modric and Mateo Kovacic, came as a shock to everyone. In Zagreb, however, where developing players and selling them is the core business, he was to be made into a club ‘project’.

Olmo had just signed a youth contract with Dinamo when he received a message from his Barcelona coach. “Leave out the nonsense, Dani,” he told him. “The Monday practice starts at 10.”

Andy Bara is a Croatian agent who came up with the idea of bringing Olmo to Zagreb after meeting his father at one of Barcelona’s youth camps where he was coaching. He says: “Barcelona refused to accept that Dani had left them, let alone joined Dinamo. They constantly sent him messages saying ‘Where have you gone?’ and ‘What have you done?’”

At first the idea must have sounded crazy indeed but in retrospect it was precisely because Olmo Senior was not a complete outsider to player development at Barcelona that his son and he could be convinced into making such a move. They had so little faith in the club that they would rather venture into the unknown, making a fresh start in a completely foreign and unglamorous football culture, than stay where Dani had already established himself as one of the leading talents.

That, of course, poses some uneasy questions about the future of player development at elite European clubs – questions which the Premier League clubs are certainly familiar with, especially after Jadon Sancho’s successful move to Borussia Dortmund.

Dani Olmo’s path will now serve as an example of what is possible because he has really made it big with Dinamo. Last season was definitely his breakthrough as he was voted the best player in the Prva HNL by coaches and captains, had a great season in the Europa League, where the club reached the knockout stages, and finished it with winning the Under-21 European Championship with Spain.

He arrived as a substitute but ended up scoring in the final and being selected in the team of the tournament. Still 21, he has continued to lead the young La Roja in this season’s qualifiers, scoring three goals in two games.

So what kind of player is Olmo? A quick dribbler with superb vision of the game and high resistance to pressing, both creative and tough in challenges. A model professional, he can play on both wings but is best fielded centrally behind the striker, where he finds rational and intelligent solutions either to set up goals for his teammates or to score himself.

In Dinamo’s 4-0 Champions League win over Atalanta he did not score or assist for any goals but was still ridiculously good – according to InStat, he won 24 challenges, including 12 successful dribbles (out of 14 attempts) and was the ever-present, central figure to all of his team’s attacks. And that was his Champions League debut.

He has obviously become too good for Dinamo and everyone expected him to join one of the bigger clubs but Dinamo asked for too much money – reportedly €40m, which is unheard of for a player in the Croatian League. If he continues to play like this, though, the club just might get their way.

“We won’t let them beat us easily,” Olmo says about the game against Manchester City on Tuesday. “We’ll play to win.”

They might not win, although Dinamo should by no means be underestimated this season and the Atalanta match proved that. But Olmo will still use the opportunity to show himself on the big stage, at the home of a club where he could have ended up five years ago if the family had gone for money rather than his best chance of development. Now he is pretty much set to make the leap back to the elite anyway.

“Everything changed,” says Miquel Olmo. “Today they say we were courageous and made the best decision.”

The Guardian Sport



Paolini and Italy Beat Slovakia to Win Billie Jean King Cup

Italy's Jasmine Paolini (C) and Team Italy teammates hold up the trophy after winning the Billie Jean King Cup Finals at the Palacio de Deportes Jose Maria Martin Carpena arena in Malaga, southern Spain, on November 20, 2024. (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP)
Italy's Jasmine Paolini (C) and Team Italy teammates hold up the trophy after winning the Billie Jean King Cup Finals at the Palacio de Deportes Jose Maria Martin Carpena arena in Malaga, southern Spain, on November 20, 2024. (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP)
TT

Paolini and Italy Beat Slovakia to Win Billie Jean King Cup

Italy's Jasmine Paolini (C) and Team Italy teammates hold up the trophy after winning the Billie Jean King Cup Finals at the Palacio de Deportes Jose Maria Martin Carpena arena in Malaga, southern Spain, on November 20, 2024. (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP)
Italy's Jasmine Paolini (C) and Team Italy teammates hold up the trophy after winning the Billie Jean King Cup Finals at the Palacio de Deportes Jose Maria Martin Carpena arena in Malaga, southern Spain, on November 20, 2024. (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP)

Two-time Grand Slam finalist Jasmine Paolini capped a breakthrough season by leading Italy to its first Billie Jean King Cup title since 2013 on Wednesday, defeating Rebecca Sramkova 6-2, 6-1 to seal a 2-0 victory over Slovakia in the final of the women’s team competition.
When Paolini's win ended, she was joined on court by her teammates, and they embraced each other, then danced and sang along as the Gypsy Kings' version of “Volare” blared on the loudspeakers, The Associated Press reported.
The No. 4-ranked Paolini was the runner-up at the French Open in June and at Wimbledon in July, making her the first woman since Serena Williams in 2016 to get to the title matches at Roland Garros and the All England Club in the same season. Before this year, Paolini, who is 28, had lost in the first or second round in all 16 career appearances at majors.
“Unbelievable year. Unbelievable. A crazy year. To finish like this, with a title ... it’s amazing. I don’t have words to describe it. I’m trying just to enjoy every moment,” Paolini said. “I feel lucky to be in the position. I feel lucky to be part of this team.”
She also teamed with Sara Errani to win a doubles gold medal at the Paris Olympics in August. They were lined up to play in the concluding match against Slovakia, but it wasn't needed because Italy clinched the best-of-three series by sweeping the two singles matches.
“Jasmine raised her level really high this year. ... She’s an example for all of us,” said her teammate, 78th-ranked Lucia Bronzetti, who took Wednesday’s opener by a 6-2, 6-4 score against Viktoria Hruncakova before a crowd that included International Tennis Hall of Famer and equal rights pioneer Billie Jean King herself.
Bronzetti called it an “honor” to compete in front of the woman for whom the event is named, saying, “She is a great person, a great legend.”
Italy, which eliminated Iga Swiatek and Poland in the semifinals, earned its fifth championship a year after finishing as the runner-up to Canada.
“I’m so proud of them. They fight every day,” Italian captain Tathiana Garbin said. “This journey was incredible.”
The triumph adds to what’s been quite a recent run for Italy in tennis, including two Grand Slam trophies in 2024 and the No. 1 men’s ranking for Jannik Sinner, who helped his country claim last year’s Davis Cup. Sinner and Italy meet Argentina in the men’s quarterfinals Thursday.
This is the first time the two premier International Tennis Federation team events are being held at the same site, although the women’s matches are being played in a much smaller venue. They are using a temporary court set up under a white tent, with a capacity of 4,000; the men are playing in a permanent arena with 9,200 seats that were full Tuesday for Rafael Nadal’s last match before retirement in Spain’s loss to the Netherlands.
Bronzetti never had played a BJK Cup singles match until this week. She said she didn’t find out until Tuesday night that she would be in the lineup against Slovakia.
“I didn’t sleep very well,” Bronzetti said.
“You’re not playing just for yourself,” she said. “You’re playing for your team and your country.”
Serenaded by chants of her first name — “Loo-Chee-Ah! Loo-Chee-Ah!” — that mingled with the sounds of a drum and red plastic horn played in the cheering section behind Slovakia’s bench, Bronzetti claimed the last three games of the first set and the last four of the match.
She trailed 4-2, 40-15 in the second set but turned it around.
“I was a little worried I was going to a third,” Bronzetti said.
Slovakia, which won the BJK Cup in 2002, eliminated the United States, Australia and Britain to get to the final this time.