Dabac announces Dinamo's first summer moves: Beljo stays, Radeljić arrives at Maksimir
Dinamo sporting director Dario Dabac has announced the first outlines of the summer transfer window after a season in which the Zagreb club won the double crown and brought domestic trophies back to Maksimir. On HRT's Stadion programme, he spoke about the demanding period behind the team, the renewed winning mentality and personnel moves that should mark the beginning of building the squad for the new season. The most important message concerns striker Dion Drena Beljo, the league's top scorer, for whom Dabac confirmed that he will remain at Dinamo next season as well. At the same time, he revealed that Stjepan Radeljić, Rijeka's defender and a Bosnia and Herzegovina international, is joining the team, confirming one of the current champion's first concrete moves on the market. According to Dabac's words for HRT, Dinamo had to go through reorganisation after last season, and the way the team reached the league title and the Cup is interpreted within the club as a particularly important indicator of the direction in which it wants to continue.
Beljo's stay as the foundation of the attack for the new season
Dion Drena Beljo was one of the key names of Dinamo's season, and confirmation of his stay is important because of sporting continuity, but also because of the message the club is sending ahead of the summer. According to Dinamo's official announcement from April, by the 32nd round Beljo already had 29 league goals, making him the HNL's top scorer in the period since the introduction of the league format with ten clubs. The club also stated at the time that in HNL history only the great names of Croatian club football remained ahead of or level with that achievement: Eduardo da Silva with 34 goals in the 2006/07 season and Goran Vlaović with 29 goals from the 1993/94 season. Later reports by HRT and tportal stated that Beljo continued the season in the same rhythm, and his role in the closing stages of the championship further strengthened the impression that Dinamo has in him a central striker around whom it can build its attacking structure. For that reason, Dabac's statement that Beljo is staying is not only information about one player, but also an announcement that Dinamo does not want to enter the new season with great uncertainty in the most important attacking position.
Beljo arrived at Dinamo in July 2025, after a spell at German side Augsburg and a loan at Rapid Vienna, and HRT reported at the time that he had signed a multi-year contract with the Maksimir club. His arrival was already presented then as one of Dinamo's most important incoming deals, and the season that followed showed why the club saw him as a long-term solution. In the final part of the championship, he became a striker who brings not only goals, but also the possibility for the team to play more directly, with more presence in the penalty area and a clearer finishing phase of attacks. According to HRT's report after the victory over Varaždin on 26 April 2026, it was Beljo who scored the decisive goal in the match in which Dinamo celebrated the league title. Such details explain why keeping him is, from a sporting point of view, just as important for the club as bringing in new players.
Radeljić as the first reinforcement in the back line
In HRT's programme, Dabac also confirmed the arrival of Stjepan Radeljić at Dinamo, which turned the announced search for a defender into a concrete name that had already been linked with Maksimir for weeks. Radeljić is a centre-back for Rijeka and a Bosnia and Herzegovina international, and according to data from the Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he was born on 5 September 1997 in Nova Bila, is 201 centimetres tall and, before Rijeka, played for Zrinjski, Stuttgart, Osijek, Široki Brijeg and Sheriff. Such a profile brings Dinamo height, experience in the domestic championship and an international track record through appearances abroad and for the national team. For a club entering the summer after winning the double crown, defensive reinforcement has broader significance than rotation alone: it is preparation for a new season in which the champions will be expected to confirm their dominance in domestic football and make a serious appearance in European qualifiers. According to several sports media reports during April and May, Radeljić's contract with Rijeka expires on 30 June, so his arrival would be completed without a transfer fee, although at the time of the first media reports the clubs did not immediately disclose all details of the deal.
Radeljić's arrival at Dinamo is also interesting because of the relationship between the two clubs that met in the final of the SuperSport Croatian Football Cup. The Croatian Football Federation reported that on 13 May 2026 in Osijek, Dinamo defeated Rijeka 2:0 and thus, after securing the league title, also won the Cup. In that match, Luka Stojković scored both goals, while Beljo played an important assisting role for the second goal, according to the HNS report. Radeljić is therefore moving from Rujevica to a club that finished the season ahead of Rijeka both in results and trophies, which makes his transfer one of the more notable moves within the domestic market. For Dinamo, bringing in a player from a direct competitive environment is also an indication of the intention not only to supplement the squad, but also to strengthen it in positions assessed as crucial for the next cycle. Dabac's confirmation therefore removes part of the uncertainty surrounding the first major summer move and opens the question of which other positions will be subject to reconstruction.
A season marked by reorganisation and the return of trophies
In HRT's Stadion, Dario Dabac emphasised that the season was demanding but championship-winning, and that he is especially pleased by the way Dinamo reached the title and won the Cup. In his assessment, after the previous season a reorganisation of the entire team was necessary, and he sees the return of a winning mentality to the dressing room as one of the biggest gains. Official SuperSport HNL data show that Dinamo finished the season in first place with 86 points, with 27 wins, five draws and four defeats, and a goal difference of 93:28. Hajduk finished second with 68 points, while Varaždin and Rijeka were behind them, confirming the gap that both Dabac and former international Tomislav Ivković commented on in the programme. According to tportal's broadcast of the HRT programme, Ivković assessed that Dinamo were superior to the rest of the league, referring to the table and the number of goals scored.
Dinamo's league title was confirmed four rounds before the end, on the day when the team defeated Varaždin 2:1 at Maksimir, while the draw between Rijeka and Hajduk enabled the Zagreb club to become mathematically unreachable. The official club announcement highlighted that this was Dinamo's 26th HNL title and 36th overall, further strengthening its status as the most decorated Croatian club in the domestic championship. In the same announcement, Dinamo stated that it had already reached 85 goals scored in the season, which equalled its best performance in the period of the “league of 10”, with the possibility of increasing the number in the remaining rounds. The final SuperSport HNL table shows that Dinamo eventually reached 93 goals, giving additional weight to claims about an attackingly dominant season. In that context, Dabac's summer announcements do not come from a position of necessary crisis repairs, but from the position of a club that wants to keep the core of a winning team and selectively remove weak points.
Stojković's turnaround and the message about player development
Alongside Beljo and Radeljić, Dabac paid particular attention in the programme to Luka Stojković, a player who in the closing stages of the season became one of the symbols of Dinamo's rise. According to tportal's broadcast of the HRT programme, the sporting director said that during the winter Stojković had been close to leaving the club, but that the coaching and sporting sectors invested a lot of time in resolving the problems from the autumn part of the season. Such a statement is important because it shows that Dinamo's sporting policy was not focused only on buying and selling, but also on attempting to internally improve the status of players who were already in the dressing room. Stojković then scored both goals in the Cup final against Rijeka and practically single-handedly steered the result of the match towards Dinamo, according to the HNS report. His story thus became an argument in favour of the assessment that, in certain cases, patience can pay off just as much as going to the market.
Dabac's message about Stojković fits into Dinamo's broader model, which traditionally relies on a combination of developing its own or young players, bringing in reinforcements from the domestic market and maintaining competitiveness in Europe. Dinamo's official announcement from April 2025, when Dabac took over as sporting director, described him as a former Maksimir youth player and, until recently, a club scout, with experience in working with young footballers, scouting and sporting management. In the same text, the club emphasised that the development of its own players is one of Dinamo's fundamental tasks. That is why his comment about Stojković is more than a passing compliment to a player who scored in the final; it suggests that in the summer transfer window too, decisions will be made in line with the assessment of who can progress within the existing squad and where an external solution is necessary. The arrival of Radeljić and Beljo's stay currently look like the first examples of such a combination of stability and selective strengthening.
Livaković remains an open topic
One of the issues Dabac also touched on concerns Dominik Livaković, the goalkeeper who arrived at Dinamo in January, but whose status is also connected with Fenerbahçe. According to tportal's broadcast of the statement from the HRT programme, Dabac said that mutual desire between Livaković and Dinamo exists, but that the Turkish club must also be taken into account, especially because Fenerbahçe has elections at the end of the month and it is not yet clear with whom talks will be held. Such wording shows that Dinamo is not closing the door on an agreement, but also that it does not want to publicly present the deal as settled before the circumstances in Istanbul are clarified. In sporting terms, the goalkeeper question could be one of the more important issues in preparing for the new season because the stability of the back line does not depend only on centre-backs but also on a clear hierarchy in goal. If Radeljić joins the defence, the decision on Livaković could further determine the shape of the defensive block with which Dinamo will enter European and domestic commitments.
Livaković is a player with major national-team and European experience, so it is no surprise that his name stands out particularly in discussions about Dinamo's squad. Still, Dabac's statement points to caution: the club may have a desire, the player may have a desire, but transfer or loan relations depend on a third party and a broader context. It is also a reminder that the summer transfer window rarely begins only with the official opening of the market; serious talks, checks and agreements begin earlier, and many deals depend on the calendars of other clubs, contracts and changes in management structures. Dinamo has, according to Dabac's announcements, already defined at least two priorities: to keep the attacking backbone with Beljo and strengthen the defence with Radeljić. The outcome around Livaković could be the next important question that will determine the ambitions and shape of the team in the new season.
What Dinamo's announcements mean for the summer transfer window
The first signals from Maksimir indicate a transfer window in which Dinamo is not planning a broad reconstruction, but rather targeted strengthening of a team that has already won the championship and the Cup. Beljo's stay preserves the most productive part of the attack, Radeljić's arrival fills the defensive line with a player experienced in the SuperSport HNL, while the open question of Livaković shows that key decisions could also concern the goalkeeper position. In the background of all this remains the need to prepare the team for European challenges, in which the Croatian champion traditionally seeks a financial and sporting step forward. According to the final SuperSport HNL table, Dinamo finished the season with a large points advantage and by far the best goal difference, but such domestic dominance does not automatically guarantee success in international matches. That is why the summer will be important not only because of the number of arrivals and departures, but also because of the assessment of whether the current team can raise its level for the European rhythm.
In HRT's programme, Dabac appeared from the position of a sporting director who wants to emphasise continuity, but also clearly announce that work for the new season is already under way. In such a framework, Beljo, Radeljić, Stojković and Livaković become four points through which Dinamo's sporting policy can be read: keeping the main scorer, bringing in a proven defender, developing a player who was close to leaving and attempting to resolve the status of a high-class goalkeeper. After the double crown, expectations will be higher and the margin for error smaller, especially because the league title and the Cup create the impression that the team already has a firm base. The transfer window will therefore not only be a search for new names, but a test of the club's ability to maintain a balance between results, financial sustainability and squad development. Dabac's first messages suggest that Dinamo will start by stabilising the most important lines of the team, and then move towards additional corrections that will depend on the market and European plans.
Sources:
- HRT Sport – information about Dabac's appearance on the Stadion programme, confirmation of Beljo's stay, Radeljić's arrival and the context of Livaković's status, according to the broadcast of statements and HRT's earlier reports (link)
- tportal – broadcast of key statements by Dario Dabac from HRT's Stadion programme and summary of Dinamo's announced personnel moves (link)
- GNK Dinamo – official report on securing the league title, Beljo's goalscoring performance and the club's figures in the season (link)
- GNK Dinamo – official announcement on the appointment of Dario Dabac as sporting director and his professional profile (link)
- Croatian Football Federation – official report on the SuperSport Croatian Football Cup final, Dinamo's victory over Rijeka and the winning of the double crown (link)
- SuperSport HNL – final table of the 2025/26 season and official data on Dinamo's league performance (link)
- Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina – official profile of Stjepan Radeljić with biographical and career data (link)