Soldo takes over as Dinamo Zagreb coach

Reuters– Former Croatia defender Zvonimir Soldo was appointed head coach of the country's champions and first division leaders Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday.

Soldo scored three goals in 61 international appearances and played for German side VfB Stuttgart for 10 years after winning the domestic double with Dinamo in 1996.

He takes over from Branko Ivankovic, who resigned on Monday after falling out with the club's director of operations Zoran Mamic during a mid-season indoor tournament.

Soldo had been in charge of Dinamo's youth team.

"First of all, I want to thank Ivankovic for leaving behind an excellent team 12 points ahead of our rivals at the winter break," Soldo told reporters.

"I came back to Dinamo after retiring as a player with the ambition of being the head coach one day but this came sooner than I had expected," he said.

Ivankovic and Mamic first fell out after the board sold top scorer Eduardo da Silva to Arsenal last year and the club then failed to progress to the Champions league group stage. (Writing by Zoran Milosavljevic; editing by Justin Palmer) .