Mislav Oršić back at Dinamo: the return of the player who marked European nights at Maksimir
Mislav Oršić is once again a Dinamo player, after ending his spell at Cypriot side Pafos as a free agent. According to an Index Sport report from 09 June 2026, the 33-year-old winger signed for the Zagreb club after his contract with Pafos expired, completing a return that had been announced in Croatian football circles over the past few weeks. Oršić thus returns to Maksimir more than three years after leaving for Southampton in January 2023. He previously played for Dinamo from 2018 to 2023, and according to the same source that spell ended with 216 official appearances and 91 goals. The return is important both in sporting and symbolic terms because a player is coming back to the dressing room whose matches against Tottenham, Atalanta and Chelsea remained among the most recognisable European moments in Dinamo’s recent history.
Arriving without a transfer fee after parting ways with Pafos
Oršić returns to Dinamo as a free agent, which means the Zagreb club is not paying a transfer fee for him. On 09 June 2026, Tportal reported that Pafos had officially said goodbye to the Croatian winger after the expiration of his contract and that his return to Maksimir had been agreed. According to the same report, the Cypriot club thanked him for his professionalism, dedication and contribution in one of the most successful periods in the club’s history. Such wording is not merely a suitable farewell message, because during the period in which Oršić was in the team, Pafos achieved results that carried historical significance for the club. As SigmaLive English reported, Pafos won the first Cypriot championship title in its history in May 2025, while the official club announcement from May 2026 also mentions winning the Cypriot Cup with a 2:0 victory over Apollon in the final.
According to available data published by Croatian media, Oršić played for Pafos from January 2025 and recorded eight goals and 17 assists in 67 appearances. He particularly stood out in European matches, and UEFA statistics for the 2025/26 Champions League list two goals and two assists in his contribution for the Cypriot club. In September 2025, HRT reported that Pafos had then won its first point in a historic Champions League appearance, which further explains the value of Oršić’s performances after a period in which, due to injury and reduced playing time outside Croatia, he had to rebuild continuity. His Cypriot episode can therefore be read as a sporting recovery, not merely as a transitional stop before returning to Zagreb. He comes to Dinamo with new experience, but also with the clear expectation that he will be more than a rotation player.
A European signature that is not forgotten at Maksimir
In the Dinamo context, Oršić’s name is above all associated with European matches. UEFA documentation records Dinamo’s 4:0 win against Atalanta in the Champions League on 18 September 2019, when Oršić scored a hat-trick on a night that strongly marked the Zagreb club’s return to the group stage of the elite competition. The match against Tottenham on 18 March 2021 had an even greater impact, when Dinamo defeated them 3:0 after extra time at Maksimir and advanced to the quarter-finals of the Europa League. In its report from that match, Britain’s Sky Sports stated that Oršić’s hat-trick overturned Tottenham’s 2:0 advantage from the first leg and knocked the London club out of the competition. In domestic football memory, that encounter remained one of Dinamo’s greatest European victories of the modern era.
In September 2022, Oršić was once again the scorer in a great Dinamo night, this time against Chelsea in the Champions League. UEFA’s match page confirms Dinamo’s 1:0 victory at Maksimir, and the goal came in the 13th minute after a quick transition that became one of the most frequently replayed moves from Oršić’s first spell at the club. Dinamo also described him in official announcements before his departure as one of the most important European goalscorers in the club’s history. In that sense, his return is not just another arrival of an experienced player, but the return of a footballer who changed the team’s international status with concrete goals. Precisely for that reason, his second spell will also be measured through the prism of the memories he left behind, although the sporting assessment will have to be tied to his current form and the needs of the present team.
The path after leaving: Southampton, Trabzonspor and a difficult return to rhythm
Oršić left Dinamo in January 2023, when he moved to Southampton. HRT reported at the time that he had signed a contract with the English Premier League club for two and a half years, after coming to Zagreb as one of the most important players of the Croatian champion and a national team player with a bronze medal from the World Cup in Qatar. The English episode did not bring the kind of continuity he had at Dinamo, and after that he continued his career at Trabzonspor. The Turkish club was supposed to be an opportunity for a new beginning, especially because he was welcomed there by Nenad Bjelica, the coach who had played an important role in his rise at Dinamo. But already in the summer of 2023, a heavy blow followed.
In July 2023, citing Trabzonspor’s confirmation, Sportnet reported that Oršić had suffered a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament and an injury to the medial collateral ligament in training. Such an injury usually requires a long recovery, and in his case it interrupted the possibility of quickly establishing himself at his new club. After that, the path toward returning to competitive rhythm was slower and more demanding than in earlier stages of his career. That is why the Cypriot period gains additional weight: at Pafos he played again, took part in winning trophies and collected European minutes. Dinamo now gets him as an experienced player who has gone through both top-level European nights and the more difficult side of professional football, including rehabilitation after a major injury.
National-team context and experience of big matches
Oršić’s return to Dinamo also has a national-team dimension, although his role in the Croatian national team has changed in recent years. According to data from the Croatian Football Federation, he has made 28 appearances and scored two goals for the senior national team, and made his first appearance on 09 September 2019. His best-known national-team moment was the goal against Morocco in the third-place match at the 2022 World Cup. In its report from that match, FIFA stated that Croatia beat Morocco 2:1 with goals from Joško Gvardiol and Mislav Oršić, thereby winning the bronze medal in Qatar. That goal further strengthened Oršić’s status as a player who often appeared in high-pressure matches.
For Dinamo, it is also important that Oršić’s profile differs from many wingers who rely exclusively on speed. His most recognisable trait for years was cutting in from the left side onto his right foot, shooting from medium range and the ability to quickly attack the space behind the defence in transition. Over the years, such a profile must adapt to physical condition and match rhythm, but experience can compensate for part of the lost explosiveness. In the domestic league, such a player can bring Dinamo solutions against opponents who defend deep, while in European matches his value depends on whether he can still make decisions at speed. That will be one of the key questions of his return: how much of the Oršić from his first Dinamo spell remains in the current Oršić, and how much he can offer in a new, different role.
Boban’s sporting policy and the return of proven values
Oršić’s return is happening in a period in which Dinamo is going through a new phase of club management and the formation of sporting policy. GNK Dinamo’s official announcement states that Zvonimir Boban took over the role of President of the Management Board on 1 June, with special emphasis on sporting matters. In that context, Oršić’s arrival can be seen as a move that combines competitive need and symbolism. Dinamo gets a player who knows the club, the pressure of Maksimir and the demands of playing on multiple fronts, but also a person whose return can have a strong effect on the atmosphere around the team. Such transfers, however, also carry clear responsibility because they cannot be based only on emotion and memory.
For the current team, Oršić can mean additional depth in the wing positions, greater threat from set pieces and long-range shots, and experience in European duels. His arrival simultaneously increases competition in attack, which may affect the playing time of younger players and future decisions on outgoing transfers. Such a development naturally opens questions about the distribution of roles in the wing part of the squad, but final squad decisions should be confirmed separately from Oršić’s signing itself. In sporting terms, the greatest benefit for Dinamo would be if Oršić manages to combine experience, health and continuity of appearances. In that case, his second stay at the club would not be merely a nostalgic return, but a real reinforcement for a season in which Dinamo will again seek stability in domestic competitions and a step forward in Europe.
What the return means for Dinamo and for Oršić
For Dinamo, this deal carries relatively low financial risk because the player arrives without a transfer fee, but with high public expectations. Oršić’s first spell set a benchmark that will be difficult to repeat, especially because his best-known moments were tied to matches that do not happen often. Still, his return may have practical value if he gives the coach an additional option in matches in which Dinamo need a player capable of changing the rhythm with a single move. In doing so, the way his minutes are managed will be important, especially considering his earlier injury and the fact that he is a player in his 34th year of life. Dinamo will look to him for experience and impact, but also for a professional example to players who are only just entering senior football.
For Oršić, the return to Maksimir is an opportunity to reconnect his career with the environment in which he played his best football. After the Southampton episode, the injury at Trabzonspor and the restoration of form at Pafos, the return to Dinamo comes at a moment when he no longer has to prove how much he meant to the club, but how much he can still help on the pitch. This is a different challenge from the one in 2018, when he arrived at Dinamo as a player who still had to write his Maksimir story. Now he returns as a footballer with an established status, but also with the obligation to justify that status in the present. It is precisely that difference that will determine the tone of his second Dinamo chapter, which begins with great interest but will, like every return in football, ultimately be judged through performances, results and contribution to the team.
Sources:
- Index.hr – report on the return of Mislav Oršić to Dinamo, his free-agent status and statistics from his first Dinamo spell (link)
- tportal – information on Pafos’s official farewell to Oršić, the expiration of his contract and his output at the Cypriot club (link)
- Pafos FC – official announcement of Mislav Oršić’s arrival at the Cypriot club in January 2025 (link)
- SigmaLive English – report on Pafos’s first Cypriot championship title in history in 2025 (link)
- Pafos FC – official announcement on winning the Cypriot Cup in 2026 (link)
- HRT – report on Pafos’s first point in a historic Champions League appearance (link)
- GNK Dinamo – official announcement on Oršić’s departure from Dinamo in 2023 and an overview of his major European moments (link)
- GNK Dinamo – official announcement on Zvonimir Boban and his role at the club (link)
- UEFA – Mislav Oršić’s statistics in the 2025/26 Champions League for Pafos (link)
- UEFA – data on the Dinamo – Atalanta 4:0 match in the 2019/20 Champions League (link)
- UEFA – data on the Dinamo – Chelsea 1:0 match in the 2022/23 Champions League (link)
- Sky Sports – report on the Dinamo – Tottenham 3:0 match and Oršić’s hat-trick in the 2021 Europa League (link)
- HRT – report on Oršić’s move to Southampton and the length of his contract with the English club (link)
- Sportnet – report on Trabzonspor’s confirmation regarding Oršić’s knee injury in 2023 (link)
- Croatian Football Federation – Mislav Oršić’s profile and national-team statistics (link)
- FIFA – report on the Croatia – Morocco match for third place at the 2022 World Cup (link)