Sveto ime Dinamo is the motto of the most successful club in Croatia's short history. 'The holy name of Dinamo' is a rough translation, and the team from the capital Zagreb have been blessed with ten league titles and eight cup wins since the Hrvatska Nogometna Liga was founded in 1991. This year, the Modri (Dark Blues) surpassed themselves, winning their third consecutive crown six weeks before the end of the season.

Dinamo got off to a flying start and maintained this form throughout. After eight games they were on maximum points and boasted a goal difference of +24 (scored 29, conceded five). Two other teams managed to keep up with this electrifying pace for a while, with Hajduk Split and NK Rijeka remaining unbeaten for seven and eight matches respectively. Dinamo then reeled off another seven victories in a row and the title race was all but over.

By the end of the season, the team from the capital had blitzed their opposition, suffering only three defeats in 33 matches and posting 26 wins, 82 points and an incredible 26-point gap over their nearest rivals. Ironically, two of those defeats came at the hands of relegation-threatened Varteks Varazdin, but despite those blips, Dinamo were crowned champions six matches before the end of the 2008 season.

While the title was never in doubt, there was a battle royal for the UEFA Cup slots. Going into the final matchday, only two points separated second-placed HNK Rijeka and NK Osijek in fifth. When the dust had settled, Slaven Belupo had sneaked ahead of Rijeka and ended up as runners-up.

For Hajduk Split, it was a difficult season. The traditional Croatian powerhouses ended up down in fifth, 30 points adrift of Zagreb. Apart from the 2005/06 season, when they also finished fifth, this was the worst finish for the Bili (The Whites) in almost 20 years.

NK Medjimurje finished rock-bottom of the league with only three wins and 15 points from 33 games - a record which sent them down into the second division.

German accent
The main man for the Modri, and also for the Croatia team, was Dinamo captain Luka Modric, though the 22-year-old midfield maestro is moving to Tottenham Hotspur in the summer. His club coach this year was Zvonimir Soldo, who played 301 Bundesliga matches for Stuttgart between 1996 and 2006 before becoming Zagreb trainer in January of this year. Goalkeeper Georg Koch (Arminia Bielefeld and Kaiserslautern) and striker Josip Tadic (Bayer Leverkusen) are two other former German league stars who played for the champions this season.

While Dinamo Zagreb have swept all before them domestically, international success has eluded Croatia's clubs for over a decade now. In fact, the last extended European run came when Hajduk Split reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League in the 1994/95 season before falling to Ajax.

Despite the strong German influence at the club, Dinamo Zagreb were certainly left rueing the Bundesliga opponents who put them out of both European competitions this season. The Croatian champions lost home and away to Werder Bremen in qualifying for the Champions League, while a 2-0 defeat by Hamburg ended their hopes at the group stage of the UEFA Cup.