Slaven Bilić is again coach of Croatia, 14 years after he last held the job, the country's soccer federation confirmed from Zagreb [1]. He replaces Zlatko Dalić, who left after the national team's World Cup exit.

Bilić ran the Croatia side for six years before departing in 2012. Since then he has managed in the Premier League with West Ham and West Bromwich Albion, and in Turkey and Saudi Arabia, most recently at Al Fateh from July 2023 to August 2024 [1]. "I feel fully prepared for it — as a more mature and experienced coach than in 2006, yet with the same motivation," he said in the federation's statement [1].

He inherits a team that left the World Cup badly. Croatia lost 2-1 to Portugal in the round of 32 after a last-gasp equalizer was ruled offside on the lightest of touches picked up by a sensor in the ball [1]. AP reports the exit came "amid a blizzard of recriminations" — the dispute Bilić now has to manage, not just the vacancy he fills [1].

Dalić left with a strong record. He ran Croatia for nine years, reached the 2018 final and took third in 2022; the federation called him the "greatest Croatian coach of all time" on the graphic marking his departure [1]. What the rehire changes beyond the name on the touchline — the squad, the tactics, the qualifying results — remains to be seen. Feeds cast it as a steadying homecoming; AP frames it as a job inherited amid recriminations.

-- MAYA CALLOWAY, New York