Cup final to Studențesc București. Success with Dinamo Blažević took over Dinamo Zagreb on 11 December 1980, one of Yugoslavia's big four clubs (the other three being Hajduk Split, Red Star Belgrade and Partizan) in 1980. After a mediocre first season, in which Dinamo finished fifth, Blažević became an instant club legend in the 1981–82, winning the first Yugoslav league title for the Zagreb outfit after a 24-year drought. Next year, Dinamo won the Yugoslav Cup and led a long battle with Partizan and Hajduk Split in the league. Partizan became 1983 champions and Blažević left Dinamo for the first time. Grasshopper and Prishtina Blažević went back to Switzerland, winning the Swiss Championship with Grasshopper-Club Zurich in 1984. He advanced to the second round of 1984–85 European Cup where he lost to Juventus. After a less than expected second season Blažević left Grasshopper mid-season. In 1985, Blažević was once again in Yugoslavia, this time as manager of Kosovo's KF Prishtina. Under Blažević's leadership Prishtina achieved First Division status. To this day he is noted as a club legend. Second stint at Dinamo, Nantes and PAOK In the same year he became Dinamo Zagreb's coach for second time; during this period he failed to accomplish any significant results and therefore left again in 1988. His next team was FC Nantes of France; Blažević was there until 1990. After Nantes he spent a season in Greek club PAOK FC. Croatia tenure In the 1990s, with Croatia gaining independence, Blažević joined the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and became President Tuđman's admirer and close friend. For the third time he became Dinamo (then named NK Croatia Zagreb) coach and president at the same time. He won the 1993 Croatian Championship and 1994 Croatian Cup, but then left his favorite club once more, citing his reasons for doing so as needing to focus on managing the Croatian national team. Blažević was national team manager from 1994 on a part-time basis, but only a year later it became a full-time job as Croatia faced its first qualifying cycle for the European Championship. Croatia won the first place in qualifying group, sensationally ahead of Italy and directly entered Euro 96 in England. Blažević was about to gain some worldwide fame. From January to June 1996 Blažević took up a position as an advisor at HNK Rijeka to help newly appointed coach Nenad Gračan save his former club