The 1990–91 season was Dinamo Zagreb's 45th season in the Yugoslav First League. It proved to be their last season played in the Yugoslav league system. Following the season's completion and due to the breakup of Yugoslavia, Croatian clubs, including Dinamo, decided to leave the league to form Prva HNL.

Dinamo Zagreb finished runners-up in the league, with ten points behind champions Red Star Belgrade. In their last appearance in the Yugoslav Cup Dinamo have beaten Borac Bosanski Šamac in the round of 32 (7–0) and FK Sarajevo in the round of 16 (5–1 on aggregate) before reaching the quarter-finals where they were knocked out by Borac Banja Luka (2–3 on aggregate).

In European competitions Dinamo were drawn to play Italy's Atalanta in the 1990–91 UEFA Cup. After a goalless draw in Bergamo in the first leg, the return leg at Maksimir ended in a 1–1 draw, with Atalanta going through on away goals rule.

Players

Squad The following is the full list of players who appeared in league matches for Dinamo in the 1990–91 season.

First Federal League

Matches DateOpponentsVenueResultScoreF–ADinamo scorersAttendanceRef15 August 1990BudućnostAL0–13,606212 August 1990VeležH (N)W2–1Šuker (2)2,944319 August 1990RijekaAD0–0 (1–3 p)3,301426 August 1990Borac Banja LukaHW2–1Mladenović, Medford9,16851 September 1990PartizanAL1–2Šuker12,483 615 September 1990ZemunHW2–0Šuker (2)7,825726 September 1990VojvodinaAL1–3Šuker4,500829 September 1990OsijekHD1–1 (6–7 p)Boban3,89497 October 1990SarajevoAD0–0 (5–4 p)1,6291013 October 1990Hajduk SplitHD1–1 (4–3 p)Šuker13,2291121 October 1990Spartak SuboticaAD0–0 (4–2 p)1,600124 November 1990Sloboda TuzlaHW3–1Boban (2), Medford2,1311318 November 1990Red StarAL1–3Petrović18,1301425 November 1990RadHW2–1Mladenović, Prskalo2,267152 December 1990Proleter ZrenjaninAL1–3Medford4,800165 December 1990Radnički NišHW2–0Šuker, Boban1,445179 December 1990ŽeljezničarAW3–1Preljević, Cupan, Mladenović1,4041816 December 1990OlimpijaHW3–0Šuker (pen.), Boban, Mladenović3,1171917 February 1991BudućnostHW6–0Šuker (pen.), Boban, Shala (2), Mladenović, Adžić3,6502024 February 1991VeležAW2–1Boban, Škrinjar5,085213 March 1991RijekaHW3–1Adžić, Shala, Boban7,8372210 March 1991Borac Banja LukaAD1–1 (5–6 p)Boban6,6072317 March 1991PartizanHD0–0 (4–3 p)17,0522422 March 1991ZemunAD1–1 (7–6 p)Petrović1,370257 April 1991VojvodinaHD2–2 (7–6 p)Židan, Šuker4,9712614 April 1991OsijekAL1–2Šuker7,5892721 April 1991SarajevoHW8–1Šuker (2), Boban (3), Gašpar, Shala, Mladenović4,2082827 April 1991Hajduk SplitAW2–1Šuker (2)28,000295 May 1991Spartak SuboticaHW3–1Šuker (2), Boban3,8423011 May 1991Sloboda TuzlaAW3–0Gliha, Deverić, Boban9723118 May 1991Red StarHW3–2Šuker (pen.), Gašpar, Židan14,5463226 May 1991RadAW2–0Šuker, Boban1,100332 June 1991Proleter ZrenjaninHW4–1Šuker (2), Shala, Deverić4,964345 June 1991Radnički NišAD1–1 (4–5 p)Adžić6,500359 June 1991ŽeljezničarHW2–1Shala (2)1,5803616 June 1991OlimpijaAW3–1Boban, Shala, Gliha1,606

Standings

Results summary

Marshal Tito Cup

RoundDateOpponentsVenueResultScoreF–AScorersAttendanceRefR328 August 1990Borac Bosanski ŠamacAW7–0R16 (1st leg)15 August 1990SarajevoH (N)W1–0R16 (2nd leg)22 August 1990SarajevoAW4–1QF (1st leg)10 October 1990Borac Banja LukaAL2–3QF (2nd leg)21 November 1990Borac Banja LukaHD0–0

Europe

RoundDateOpponentsVenueResultScoreF–AScorersAttendanceRefR1 (1st leg)19 September 1990 AtalantaAD0–029,033R1 (2nd leg)3 October 1990 AtalantaHD1–1Boban 54'19,488

Players Dinamo used a total of 28 players during the 1990–91 season, and there were 15 different goalscorers for the club. The club played 41 competitive matches this season (36 in the league, 3 in the national cup, and 2 in the UEFA Cup). Five players were named in the starting lineup 30 or more times.

The leading player in appearances was goalkeeper Dražen Ladić, who started 35 out of 36 league matches. The leading goalscorers in the league were Davor Šuker (22) and Zvonimir Boban (16), who finished second and third in the 1990–91 season goalscoring table, behind only Crvena Zvezda's Darko Pančev (34) who also won the European Golden Shoe for that season.

Boban scored the club's only hat-trick of the season, in a 8–1 thrashing of FK Sarajevo at Maksimir, in April 1991. Šuker had six braces in the league, with Kujtim Shala scoring two braces, and Boban one.

Dinamo was the second-highest goalscoring team in the league in 1990–91, producing 88 goals in 36 matches (2.44 per game) and had shared third-best defense, conceding 36 goals, including 10 clean sheets.

A feature of the Yugoslav league in this period were penalty shoot-outs, played in case of tied results at the end of regular time, with only the winning team earning a point. The rule was introduced to encourage attacking football and combat allegations of match-fixing. In the 1990–91 season Dinamo had ten draws in the league, and went on to win six of these shoot-outs.

In 1990–91 Dinamo were undefeated at Maksimir across all competitions, recording 13 wins and 4 draws in 17 league matches at home, winning 29 points (26 for straight wins plus 3 penalty kick wins) out of the maximum 34 (85.3%). In the cup, Dinamo played five matches, one of them at home, a 0–0 draw vs. Borac Banja Luka in the second leg of the quarter-finals in November 1990.

This does not include two "home" matches which FSJ ordered to be played outside of Zagreb due to the pitch invasion and violent rioting in the abandoned home game vs Red Star at the end of the previous season, in May 1990. Dinamo played these two matches at Stadion Kantrida in Rijeka in August: the 2–1 league win against Velež on 12 August, and the 1–0 win against Sarajevo in the Marshal Tito Cup three days later.

In Europe Dinamo held Italy's Atalanta to a 1–1 draw at Maksimir in the UEFA Cup, only getting knocked out due to the away goals rule.

Boban scored the club's only European goal of the season, against Italian club Atalanta in the return leg of the first round of the UEFA Cup at Maksimir in October 1990. At the end of the season Boban was transferred to Milan, where he would spend the following decade, while Šuker was sold to Sevilla in Spain, where he would soon become one of the league's top scorers of the early 1990s.

Before the season, Dinamo's Šuker and Panadić had been part of the Yugoslavia squad under national manager Ivica Osim at the 1990 FIFA World Cup played in Italy in July 1990. Just before that summer's tournament, Yugoslavia played a friendly at Dinamo's Stadion Maksimir in June 1990, in a controversial match which proved to be the last game played by Yugoslavia in Zagreb or anywhere else in Croatia.

Nevertheless, during the 1990–91 season the following Dinamo players earned full international caps for Yugoslavia: Petrović (1) Boban (4), Ladić (2), Šuker (2). The last Yugoslavia match to feature players from Croatian clubs was a Euro 1992 qualifier against Faroe Islands, played in Belgrade in May 1991. Petrović, who also left for Sevilla along with Šuker at the end of season, later earned 16 caps for FR Yugoslavia (later renamed "Serbia and Montenegro"), while Ladić, Boban and Šuker went on to become stalwarts in the star-studded Croatia national football team which reached the quarter-final at the UEFA Euro 1996 in England and the semi-final at the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France.

Squad statistics Key

Pos = Playing position

Nat. = Nationality

DoB (Age) = Date of birth (age)

Apps = Appearances

GK = Goalkeeper

DF = Defender

MF = Midfielder

FW = Forward

Numbers indicate starting appearances + appearances as substitute. Goals column shows total goals, numbers in brackets indicate penalties scored in regular time, excluding penalty shoot-outs in case of ties.Players with name struck through and marked left the club during the playing season. Age as of 6 August 1990, first matchday of the season. Pos.Nat.NameDoB (Age)LeagueCupEuropeTotalAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsGK350 0 2 0 420DF322 0 2 0 392FW3222 (5) 3 2 0 3925MF286 3 2 0 329DF280 0 2 0 330MF2616 0 2 1 3017DF26+22 1 2 0 353DF25+50 0 0+1 0 350FW248 3 2 0 2911MF19+44 0 0 243DF19+210 0 0 0 211DF180 0 2 0 230FW13+210 0 0 0 152MF11+101 1 0 0 252FW10+43 0 0+2 0 193DF100 0 1 0 140MF8+30 0 1 0 150MF7+91 0 1 0 191DF7+11 0 0 0 91MF6+20 1 0 0 111DF4+100 0 1+1 0 70FW3+42 0 0 0 72MF2+50 1 0 0 111FW1+12 0 0 0 22GK10 0 0 0 10DF10 0 0 0 20FW0+60 0 0 0 60FW0+40 0 0 0 50MF0 0 0 0 0 10

See also 1990–91 Yugoslav First League 1990–91 Yugoslav Cup

References

External links 1990–91 Yugoslav First League final tables at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation Yugoslavian First Division 1990-91 article by Jonathan Wilson at When Saturday Comes (July 2007) Almanah YU-fudbal 90-91., p. 8-9