Dinamo agrees arrival of Gabrijel Šivalec: Slaven Belupo's young winger comes to Maksimir through a player exchange
Dinamo has agreed the arrival of Gabrijel Šivalec, the 18-year-old winger from Slaven Belupo who over the past year has established himself as one of the more interesting names of the younger generation in Croatian football. According to information published by Tportal on June 11, 2026, citing Sportske novosti, the deal has been conceived as an exchange without a classic transfer fee: Šivalec is expected to move to Dinamo, while Ivan Cvetko, Dinamo's young defender, would go in the opposite direction to Koprivnica. The same source states that Šivalec should sign a contract with the Maksimir club under a three-plus-three-year model, which points to a longer-term development plan rather than only a short-term strengthening of the squad. Until a formal club announcement is made, all operational details of the transfer should be treated as information from media reports, but the framework of the deal clearly shows the direction in which Dinamo wants to work with young players. In Maksimir, according to the available information, Šivalec is not expected to enter the regular first-team rotation immediately, but rather to be gradually introduced into the senior rhythm through Dinamo's second team and under constant supervision from the first-team coaching staff.
Development plan through Dinamo's second team
The initial idea, as Tportal reports, is for Šivalec to play for Dinamo's B team, namely GNK Dinamo II, in the SuperSport First NL, with the possibility of joining the first team if the coaching staff's assessment calls for it. Such a model can be particularly important for a young winger because it gives him continuity of matches at senior level, but without the pressure that would come with an immediate fight for minutes in a team with high result expectations. The Croatian Football Federation previously announced that the inclusion of Dinamo's second team had been discussed at the plenum of SuperSport First NL clubs, with the proposal envisaging GNK Dinamo II entering the second tier of competition. In a later announcement, the HNS stated that the regulations of the SuperSport HNL and the SuperSport First NL had been adopted for the next competitive year, which is important for the wider context of squad planning for the 2026/27 season. For Dinamo, that framework is particularly significant because the second team can become a transitional space between youth football, loans and the first team, and Šivalec, by profile and age, fits precisely into such a development path.
Who is Gabrijel Šivalec
Slaven Belupo's official profile states that Gabrijel Šivalec was born on May 5, 2008 in Zabok, that he is 171 centimetres tall and that he is registered in the club squad as a forward. In the senior roster of the Koprivnica club he wore the number 26, while the club statistics for the 2025/26 season list him with 21 appearances and two goals for Slaven Belupo. Tportal, citing Sportske novosti, states that last season he played 18 league matches and three in the Cup, with two goals and one assist. Slaven Belupo's official website lists September 12, 2025 as the date of his senior debut, showing how quickly he went from his first minutes in the top tier to a transfer taking him to Maksimir. He is a player who functions best on the left wing, but in younger age groups and senior appearances he has shown the profile of a forward who can attack space, enter finishing zones and use one-on-one situations.
Šivalec's football path further explains why he attracted the attention of bigger clubs. In an interview published on Slaven Belupo's official website after his first start, the player himself said that he began playing football very early at Mladost from Zabok, and that Slaven Belupo noticed him at a selection trial before his arrival in Koprivnica. In the same text, the club stated that he had passed through several top-division generations of Slaven's football school and had gradually moved closer to the first team. In only a few weeks in the autumn of 2025, he recorded his senior debut, scored goals in the Cup, received a chance from the first minute and was called up to a younger Croatian national team. For a player who was still 17 at the time, such a sequence of events represented a sudden acceleration of his career, but also confirmation that Slaven Belupo did not view him only as a project for the future, but as a footballer who could already be given senior responsibility.
National-team record and experience on the world stage
An important part of Šivalec's profile consists of appearances for Croatia's younger national teams. According to Tportal, he previously played for national selections from U-17 to U-19, and he was also at the World Cup with Croatia's U-17 team. In FIFA's official overview of the Croatian squad for the 2025 U-17 World Cup in Qatar, Šivalec is listed among the forwards in the squad led by head coach Marijan Budimir. His appearance at that tournament did not remain merely participation: in its statistical review of the tournament, FIFA highlighted that Šivalec scored the 2500th goal in the history of U-17 World Cups, in Croatia's 3:0 victory against the United Arab Emirates. Such a detail does not in itself determine a future career, but in developmental terms it carries weight because it shows that the young player has already gone through a competition where he encounters different playing styles and the high intensity of international football. For Dinamo, which traditionally follows players with national-team experience in younger categories, such a record represents an additional argument for investing in his development.
What Dinamo gets with Šivalec's arrival
Šivalec's arrival fits into the logic of investing in younger players who already have senior minutes but have not yet reached their full market value. In him, Dinamo gets a winger-attacker profile who is most comfortable on the left side of the attack, with experience of the SuperSport HNL, the Croatian Cup and younger national teams. If media reports about a three-plus-three-year contract are confirmed, the club opens up a sufficiently broad time frame so that it does not have to develop the player in a hurry or immediately expose him to the pressure of Maksimir. For Šivalec, meanwhile, the biggest challenge is the move from an environment in which a young player can more easily break through to playing time into a club where competition is stronger and every appearance comes under greater scrutiny. That is precisely why the plan with the second team can be crucial: regular matches in the First NL could give him room to adapt to Dinamo's demands, while also allowing the first-team coaching staff to monitor his progress from close range.
In such an assessment, it is important to avoid premature conclusions. Šivalec is not yet a finished product, but a player in the development phase whose value depends primarily on continuity of work, physical progress and adaptation to more tactically demanding football. His advantage is that he already has senior appearances and international experience at national-team age-group level behind him, which reduces the risk of a complete unknown. On the other hand, moving to Dinamo brings for every young player the demand to fight for attention in a system that simultaneously produces its own talents, brings in reinforcements and has high expectations in domestic and European competitions. If the second team truly serves as a development platform, Šivalec could get exactly what young attackers often lack: enough competitive minutes, but also daily contact with a higher level of training.
Slaven Belupo gets Ivan Cvetko in the exchange
The other part of the deal concerns Ivan Cvetko, the defender who is expected to leave Dinamo for Slaven Belupo. Dinamo officially announced back in March 2024 that Cvetko had signed a multi-year contract with the club, describing him as a player who can primarily play as a centre-back, but who also covers the left-back position. The same announcement stated that he was born on November 23, 2005 in Zagreb, that he took his first football steps at Sesvete and that he came to Dinamo when he was not yet nine years old. Dinamo also highlighted at the time that Cvetko had passed through all age groups at Maksimir, while he made his official senior debut in a Croatian Cup match against Gorica, when he came on in the closing stages of the encounter. According to Tportal, Cvetko spent last season on loan at Rudeš, which means that he comes to Koprivnica with experience of senior football in the second tier.
For Slaven Belupo, such a profile can be a rational response to the departure of an attacking talent. The Koprivnica club is losing a player who has already attracted wider public attention, but in return it is getting a defender formed in Dinamo's academy, with the possibility of covering two defensive positions. In a team that often has to balance between developing its own players, league stability and financial sustainability, an exchange without a classic transfer fee can make sense if Cvetko gets a bigger role in Koprivnica than he would realistically have had at Dinamo. For the player himself, a move to Slaven Belupo could mean a clearer path towards minutes in the SuperSport HNL, especially if he establishes himself as a centre-back or left-back in a system that requires reliability in defence. The exchange is therefore not only the transfer of one young forward to a bigger club, but also an attempt by two environments to find a developmentally acceptable solution for players of different profiles.
Why the deal matters for both clubs
With this deal, if it is officially confirmed in the announced form, Dinamo continues the practice of reacting early to domestic talents before they reach a significantly higher price on the market. Such transfers do not always bring an immediate effect in the first team, but they can be important for the long-term structure of the squad, especially if the club has a competitive space in which young players can play senior football. Slaven Belupo, on the other hand, once again confirms the role of a club where young players can get an opportunity, but also shows that talent development can serve as negotiating capital in relations with financially stronger clubs. For Croatian football in general, it is important that players between the ages of 18 and 21 do not lose continuity, because it is precisely in that period that it is often decided whether promising youth potential will become stable senior value. In that sense, Šivalec's departure to Dinamo and Cvetko's path towards Koprivnica will be interesting to follow not only through the prism of the transfer, but also through the question of how much both of them will play next season.
Formal confirmation from the clubs should clarify the final contract details, registration status and any additional clauses. According to currently available information, the key elements of the deal are clear: Šivalec is expected to arrive at Dinamo on a multi-year contract, Cvetko is expected to strengthen Slaven Belupo, and the transfer would be realised as an exchange without a classic transfer fee. For Šivalec, the decisive factor will be how he adapts to Dinamo's development system and how quickly he shows that he can turn the senior minutes from Koprivnica into progress at a higher level of competition. For Cvetko, meanwhile, Koprivnica will represent an opportunity to stabilise himself in a top-division environment after Dinamo's academy and a loan spell at Rudeš. Ultimately, the value of this deal will not be measured only on the day of signing, but by whether both young players receive in their new environments the space they need for the next step in their careers.
Sources:
- Tportal – report on the agreed arrival of Gabrijel Šivalec at Dinamo, the contract model, the development plan in the second team and Ivan Cvetko's departure to Slaven Belupo (link)
- NK Slaven Belupo – official profile of Gabrijel Šivalec with basic biographical data, position, appearances, goals and debut date (link)
- NK Slaven Belupo – interview and club text about Šivalec's first appearance in the starting line-up, his football path from Mladost Zabok and development at Slaven Belupo (link)
- Croatian Football Federation – announcement on the plenum of SuperSport First NL clubs and the proposal to include GNK Dinamo II in the competition (link)
- Croatian Football Federation – announcement on the decisions of the Executive Board and the adoption of the regulations of the SuperSport HNL and SuperSport First NL for the next competitive year (link)
- GNK Dinamo – official announcement about Ivan Cvetko, his profile, positions, arrival at Dinamo's academy and senior debut in the Cup (link)
- FIFA – official Croatia squad at the 2025 U-17 World Cup in Qatar with Gabrijel Šivalec among the forwards (link)
- FIFA – statistical review of the 2025 U-17 World Cup in Qatar, which states that Šivalec scored the 2500th goal in the history of the competition (link)