Dalic to stay on as Croatia coach for 2022 World Cup

Luka Stanzl/PIXSELL via www.imago-images.de

Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic, who led the nation to the 2018 World Cup final, will remain in charge of the team until the 2022 tournament, the country's football federation said Thursday.

Dalic's contract was to expire this summer and the federation agreed with him to prolong it until the end of 2022 when the World Cup in Qatar is due to be held, a Croatian Football Federation (HNS) statement said.

"The crown of that agreed period would be FIFA's World Cup in Qatar where Croatia would defend the silver from Russia if it makes it there through qualifiers," it said.

HNS head Davor Suker said that for the federation "it was not questionable at any moment" if Dalic would lead the squad into Euro 2020, delayed by a year until next summer.

"I'm very glad that we have agreed to prolong our cooperation until the 2022 World Cup," Suker said.

The nation of 4.2 million people reached the World Cup final in 2018 for the first time, inspired by captain Luka Modric, but eventually lost to France.

Dalic, 53, took over as Croatia coach in October 2017.

The former defensive midfielder's most notable previous coaching spells came outside of Europe -- he was in charge of top Saudi Arabian clubs Al-Faisaly and Al-Hilal.

In 2014 he took over Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates, where he was named coach of the year twice, and led them to the 2016 Asian Champions League final.