Barcelona midfielder reveals how he was approached by Croatian national team | OneFootball

Dani Olmo was one of Spain’s most influential players in their successful UEFA Euro 2024 campaign, with the Barcelona playmaker emerging as one of their key sources of goals and creativity.

At age 26, Olmo has featured in 41 matches for the Spanish national team and is considered a key player for coach Luis de la Fuente.

However, Olmo’s story could have been a whole lot different had he made some important decisions earlier in his career.

Olmo was approached by Croatia

In a recent interview with GQ (h/t Mundo Deportivo), Dani Olmo revealed that the Croatian football federation tried to naturalise him so that he could play for the Hrvatska.

First off, though, the midfielder discussed his decision to leave La Masia to join Dinamo Zagreb, saying:

“When Dinamo came for me, I was going to make the transition from cadet to youth. The normal thing would have been to continue or go to a team in England, but my dream was to play for Barça.”

“At that time, I didn’t feel like they would trust me in the future. Dinamo convinced me with a short- and medium-term project, I trained with professionals and I knew it was the best thing for me,” Olmo further revealed.

Dani Olmo still keeps Dinamo close to his heart (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Olmo played for Dinamo Zagreb for almost six years between 2014 and 2020. During this time, he made 124 competitive matches for the Croatian outfit.

Olmo’s spell at Dinamo Zagreb was crucial in helping him become a professional footballer, before the Spaniard eventually left the club to join RB Leipzig in 2020.

Explaining his decision to turn down the Croatian national team, Olmo explained how he always had the dream of playing for the Spanish national team.

“I’m Spanish and I’ve always felt that way. They wanted to naturalize me for the 2018 World Cup. Maybe they offered me more security, but I knew that the opportunity in Spain was going to come to me.

“When I saw them reach the final against France, I was really happy, but I never thought I could have been there or that maybe I had made a mistake. I had been with the U-21s and my dream was to play for Spain, you can’t change that for a World Cup,” he confessed.

Olmo, though, admitted that Croatia was a crucial part of his life and there is still a part of Croatia that still lives within him.

“There is a lot of Croatian in me, I grew up there, I arrived as a boy and left as a man,” he concluded.