As such, they were formally disbanded and, in 1945, FD Dinamo was founded as a club to act as an unofficial successor to HŠK Građanski, getting around the ruling party's disapproval.

Dinamo are, to date, the only Croatian club to win a European trophy, having won the 1966–67 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup by defeating Leeds United in the final.

Građanski was therefore founded as a multi-sports club with a distinctly Croatian identity intended to cater to citizens of Zagreb, with sections dedicated to football, handball and cycling.

At first they used grounds in Zagreb's neighbourhoods of Tuškanac, Martinovka, Kanal and Maksimir, until they built their own stadium at Koturaška street, which was officially opened in 1924 by Stjepan Radić, a prominent Croatian politician.

[12] When the war ended in 1945, the club was disbanded by the new communist government (along with city rivals HAŠK and Concordia Zagreb) and its archives were destroyed in retribution for competing in the wartime football league.

In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Građanski was disbanded (along with city rivals HAŠK and Concordia Zagreb) by a decree issued by the communist authorities in June 1945.

Many Građanski's most notable players continued their career at Dinamo upon its formation (including Franjo Wölfl, August Lešnik, Zvonimir Cimermančić, Branko Pleše, Milan Antolković, Mirko Kokotović, Ivica Reiss, Emil Urch and later Ivan Jazbinšek) as well as their coach Márton Bukovi, physiotherapist Franjo Žlof and a significant number of juniors.

In the following 1947–48 season, Dinamo won their first trophy after winning the Yugoslav championship with five points ahead of Hajduk Split and Partizan.

During this period, many of Dinamo's star players were also integral part of the Yugoslavia national team, including Željko Čajkovski, Zlatko Škorić, Krasnodar Rora, Denijal Pirić, Dražan Jerković, Ivica Horvat, Slaven Zambata and Rudolf Belin.

In the first round, Dinamo played against Spartak Brno and after the aggregate score was level at 2–2, a coin was flipped in order to determine the winner.

Dinamo won 2–0 in front of the 33 thousand fans with Marijan Čerček and Krasnodar Rora scoring, which was enough to secure the title as the match at Elland Road finished 0–0.

[13] The final matches were attended by the then president of FIFA, Sir Stanley Rous, who handed the trophy to Dinamo's captain and top goalscorer Slaven Zambata.

Dinamo claimed that Edmond Tomić, who joined Rijeka that season from Lirija, didn't serve a one-match suspension following two yellow cards received while playing for his former club.

The name change was widely seen as a political move by the leadership of then newly independent Croatia, with the goal of distancing the club from its communist past.

Dinamo was able to qualify for the group stage of the initial 2009–10 Europa League season after beating Scottish side Hearts 4–2 on aggregate.

The club has also produced many footballing talents that have represented the Croatia national team on the international level in the 2000s, most notably Luka Modrić, Eduardo, Vedran Ćorluka, Niko Kranjčar and Tomislav Butina.

The following season, Dinamo once again managed to qualify for the Champions League group stage after defeating Ludogorets Razgrad, Sheriff Tiraspol and NK Maribor.

However, they failed to reach the next stage after recording just one point and a −13 goal difference, with their best result a 1–1 draw with Dynamo Kyiv at the Stadion Maksimir.

The club's league campaign was successful, going unbeaten for 21 games before losing to rivals Hajduk Split, but two abysmal performances against Rijeka and Lokomotiva caused Mario Cvitanović to resign from his position as manager.

[20] In the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League, Dinamo qualified for the knockout phase, making it the first time in 49 years that the club would play in European competitions in the winter.

[21] In the Round of 32, Dinamo drew Czech side Viktoria Plzeň, losing 2–1 in the first leg but roaring back to an aggregate win with a 3–0 home victory.

In the second leg, however, Mislav Oršić's hat-trick, of which the last goal came in extra time to complete the comeback, sent Dinamo to the quarter-finals after winning 3–2 on aggregate.

[35] They were runners-up in the league four times, and only on four occasions have they concluded a season of Prva HNL finishing out of the top two places in the final standings.

Furthermore, the team managed to achieve the double twelve times, being both the Prva HNL champions and the Croatian Cup winners from 1996 to 1998, again from 2007 to 2009, from 2011 to 2012, 2015 to 2018 and most recently in season 2020–21.

In the 1960s Dinamo experienced their most successful period in both domestic and European football which saw them win four Yugoslav Cups but failing to clinch a single championship title, finishing runners-up five times between 1960 and 1969.

The stadium is situated in the northeastern part of Zagreb, opposite the city's largest urban park, Maksimir, which also lends its name to the eponymous neighbourhood.

[51] The design of Stadion Maksimir initially included a single grandstand in a shape of a horseshoe that faced the other, much smaller stand to the north.

[50] As for the original grandstand, it is now replaced by three separate stands, although their present-day design came about after a long and toilsome process of numerous renovations, which have started almost immediately after the stadium was rebuilt in 1948.

[50] Although the club had a good deal of followers since it was founded, its first organized group of supporters emerged only in 1986 under the name of Bad Blue Boys (often abbreviated BBB).

[58] The BBB are often accused of hooliganism,[59][60][61][62] which has already resulted in both UEFA and the Croatian Football Federation disciplinary bodies issuing financial punishments to Dinamo Zagreb on several occasions for the group's flagrantly unlawful and violent conduct.