Dražen Ladić (; born 1 January 1963) is a Croatian professional football coach and former player who is the current assistant manager of the Croatia national team. Playing career Club Ladić was born in Čakovec, but grew up in the nearby village of Gornji Hrašćan and started his career at NK Varteks in 1977, transferring to the club's senior squad in 1980. He left Varteks for Dinamo Zagreb in 1984, but the club decided to loan him to Iskra Bugojno for two seasons immediately after they signed him. He eventually made his debut for Dinamo in July 1986 and stayed at the club until the end of his playing career nearly 14 years later, collecting a record-holding total of 802 appearances in official matches. During his time at the club, Ladić also played in several matches of both the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Cup. In 1997, he notably saved a penalty kick in Dinamo Zagreb's home match against Partizan Belgrade in the first qualifying round for the UEFA Champions League, which they won 5–0. The Dinamo team continued to compete in the UEFA Cup after an unlucky 4-3 defeat on aggregate in the last minute of extra time against Newcastle United in the second qualifying round for the UEFA Champions League and got all the way to the third round, where they lost 2–1 on aggregate against Atlético Madrid. In the autumn of 1998, Ladić debuted with Dinamo Zagreb in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League and played all six group matches before the club was eliminated from the competition by finishing second in their group, behind Olympiacos. The club repeated the success of qualifying for the UEFA Champions League group stages the following year, with Ladić making four group-stage appearances before being injured in the fourth group match against Sturm Graz and missing the final two matches before the team was eliminated from the competition after finishing last among the four teams in their group, one point behind the third-place Sturm Graz. He soon recovered from the injury and continued to play for Dinamo until the end of the 1999–2000 season, making his last appearance for the club in the Croatian Cup finals against Hajduk Split on 16 May 2000 in Zagreb. With Dinamo, he won the Croatian First League champions title six times, in 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000, as well as