Fourth of September 2023 – With the opening of a new restaurant in Varazdin called The Family in his honor, Zlatko Dalic will no longer be associated with the sporting world alone.
Zlatko Dalic claimed that this concept had been “brewing inside him for some time” and that he had wanted to produce something unusual, as Zeljko Jankovic wrote in the Vecernji list. “Well, I often get gifts, t-shirts, football jerseys, awards, and other items, so I was really seeking a solution to keep everything together. In that regard, I’d like to express my gratitude to everyone who assisted me in coming up with a plan to tie everything together! Croatia.”
MEET THE FAMILY, ZLATKO DALIC’S NEW VARAZDIN RESTAURANT
How many memories can one spot contain? This amount is insurmountable, as evidenced by Zlatko Dalic’s most recent investment. On the night of its official launch, he went around his freshly opened restaurant in Varazdin, The Family, with justifiable pride. Although this new building is around 600 square meters in size and has 150 seats, it is much more than your typical chain restaurant in continental Croatia serving beans, sausages, and a variety of handmade rakija (not that there’s anything even remotely wrong with any of that, of course!).
Zlatko Dalic’s restaurant is a sort of museum dedicated to the Croatian national team, so it probably won’t need to put much of an effort into drawing customers. the lowly beginnings of the national squad to the modern day in which it has gained respect all around the world. Naturally, and for good cause, The Family has a particularly notable “Dalic era”. Nowhere else in the nation will you find as many Croatian jerseys from games, each one intertwined with the history of the team into its very fibers. The national team’s captains, goalkeepers, and then carefully chosen jerseys from every competition Croatia has participated in are all honored on a special wall.
On one wall, there is a particular area reserved for the medals from the League of Nations finals and two World Cups. For Zlatko Dalic, it was crucial that the three medals be placed in plain view on the right as soon as someone entered the room at Ulica Brace Radica 1 in Varazdin. Dalic shared some of his most memorable experiences with the public for the first time, including the books that were donated in his honor by football fans or different associations. The valiant Croatian military unit The Tigers (Tigrovi) traveled bravely, and there are numerous tales about their voyage. There are also novels about his city of Livno, and so on.As you descend the stairs, you will notice an altar with a statue of the Virgin Mary in the center and a large number of rosaries and other religious objects all around it. Zlatko Dalic received each of these during his recent footballing career as a representative for Croatia.
Visitors will be able to view a truly significant portion of the Croatian national football team’s history in the three-story building, which includes enlarged images of the most famous player celebrations and welcomes. Dalic singled out a few texts he sent when he was experiencing his greatest sporting joy. They discuss the Croatian people, the valiant defenders who lost their lives to establish an independent Croatia against the Greater Serbian attack, and humility, faith, love, God.
LUKA MODRIC AND MATEO KOVACIC GIVE IT THE THUMBS-UP
Plus, the restaurant is right in the middle of Varazdin, and just in front of it is an ancient golf cart that Dalic also purchased at a charitable auction two years ago. It has the signatures of Croatia’s national team idols and is totally painted in Croatian colors. Time seemed to stop when Mateo Kovacic and Luka Modric entered this particular area created for Croatia and the national team, which has accomplished so much in a very short period of time since Croatian independence.
