ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Slaven Bilić is back as coach of Croatia after the team’s most successful coach Zlatko Dalić left following the World Cup.

Bilić returns to a job he left 14 years ago, after six years in charge, with experience of coaching in the Premier League with West Ham and West Bromwich, as well as in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

“I am genuinely happy to start this challenge and I feel fully prepared for it — as a more mature and experienced coach than in 2006, yet with the same motivation and desire to see Croatia stay powerful, bold, and successful,” Bilić said in a statement.

He takes over a Croatia team which exited the World Cup amid a blizzard of recriminations. Its last-gasp equalizer was ruled offside over the lightest of touches detected by a sensor in the ball, ensuring a 2-1 loss to Portugal in the round of 32.

That ended nine years in charge for Dalić, who led Croatia to its only World Cup final in 2018, a loss to France, and then third place in 2022. The national soccer federation hailed him as the “greatest Croatian coach of all time” on a social media graphic when he stepped down last week.

Bilić was a standout defender on the team which was third at the 1998 World Cup, a landmark result for the then-newly independent nation. His last coaching job was with Saudi club Al Fateh from July 2023 to August 2024.

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