Dinamo Zagreb: Croatian giants with a great youth academy

Dinamo Zagreb is a professional football club based in the capital city of Croatia. They compete in the top tier of Croatian club football. In fact, since its foundation in 1945, they have never been relegated from the top flight either in the Yugoslav First League from 1946 to 1991 or the Croatian First Football League since 1992. Dinamo Zagreb has won the most Croatian top flight league titles with 21, the most Croatian Football Cups with 15 and the most Croatian Football Super Cups with 6.
Dinamo Zagreb is known for its famous youth academy which is the best in Croatia and one of the best in Europe. The club has produced the likes of Vedran Corluka (former Tottenham player and 103 caps for Croatia), Andrej Kramaric (currently at Hoffenheim), Mateo Kovacic, Niko Kranjcar (former Portsmouth and Tottenham striker), Dejan Lovren and Sime Vrsaljko to name a few. However, the two jewels in the crown are undoubtedly Luka Modric and Davor Suker. The Dinamo Zagreb academy is so good that it was awarded one of the 6 Best Youth Academies in Europe in 2011. The other five winners are Ajax, Arsenal, Barcelona, Inter Milan and Sporting Clube de Portugal. The award was decided in 4 areas: Academy in world terms (how it is viewed from outside across the world), Path to first team, Methodology and Organization. In the Croatia squad for the 2018 World Cup which reached the final, 14 out of 23 players came through the ranks of Dinamo Zagreb.
The recruitment of kids begins as young as 8 from Zagreb and its surrounding areas. Until the age of 11, they play in small pitches. From the age of 12, the players move from small pitches to big pitches to get an experience of 11v11. At the U13 level, there are 5 sessions per week in addition to a match. It is from this stage that the technical and tactical demands start getting higher. The coaches communicate with the players in training intensively. From the U15 level, there are 5 or 6 sessions per week depending on periodisation in addition to a match. There are a lot of individual tactics and basic group tactics are taught. All players are required to play in at least two different positions equally well. This is done to encourage versatility. From the age of 16, players go through more demands with regards to group and team tactics as some of them will make it to the first team and sign professional contracts. They also have periodisation for conditioning. Technical and tactical proficiency are of utmost importance.
As we can see, technique is an important strain of the policy of the club. The club has several demands for progressive ball possessions. No wonder, some of the midfielders who are press resistant came through the ranks of Dinamo Zagreb in the form of Modric and Kovacic. The Dinamo Zagreb academy will continue to produce world class talents through its ranks. No two doubts about it.