Robert Prosinečki (Croatian pronunciation: [rǒbert prosinětʃkiː];[1][2] born 12 January 1969) is a professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder.

[7] Once in Croatia, just like in West Germany prior, his father Đuro signed up his adolescent son to the youth setup of Dinamo Zagreb and continued monitoring his progress closely.

[7] After moving up the youth ranks for years, Prosinečki started getting occasional first team appearances during the 1986–87 league season under head coach Miroslav Blažević.

Dragan Džajić, Red Star's then technical director, remembers how the transfer got initiated: [In late May 1987], during one of our away trips to Zagreb, we stayed at Hotel Esplanade where I got approached by a man who introduced himself as Robert Prosinečki's uncle.

[11]Despite evident quality and obvious technical ability, in order to further assess an unproven prospect who hadn't been on their radar, Red Star management reportedly also inquired about Prosinečki—as well as about the player-management relations and overall atmosphere within Dinamo—with their own defender Milivoj Bračun who had spent years at Dinamo before moving to Belgrade.

[12] Within weeks, in late June 1987, as the league season ended and the summer transfer window opened, Prosinečki and his father went back to Belgrade where he took part in a few more training sessions with the Red Star Belgrade squad that was temporarily missing some of its marquee players such as Dragan Stojković, Boro Cvetković and newly-signed Refik Šabanadžović, who were in Zagreb competing at 1987 Universiade with the Yugoslavia national team.

Several weeks later on 6 September 1987 at the Večiti derbi against cross-town rival FK Partizan in front of a packed house of 55,000 spectators at Stadion JNA, playing in the very first big match of his career, Prosinečki made a valuable contribution to his team's 2–3 win, memorably setting up teammate Bora Cvetković with a remarkably accurate long-distance through pass that the forward put away for a 1–3 lead early into the second half, putting the highly competitive contest out of Partizan's reach.

[15] After Prosinečki's return from Chile to rejoin Red Star, the club's executive board decided to provide him with a two-bedroom apartment where the player moved to from his initial hotel accommodation.

Still, the first season turned out to be a complete write-off: he appeared in only three league matches with a notable shining moment — scoring a free-kick goal versus Barcelona in El Clásico on 19 October 1991.

[21] Ramón Mendoza did not want his eternal rival to take the midfielder free, but the bad economic situation of Real Madrid precipitated his departure.

[24] During his first season, he won the double with the team and reached the UEFA Cup third round, where Prosinečki's performances where a key factor to victory against MTK Hungária and Grasshopper.

[35] In 1987, he was named the tournament's best player as Yugoslavia won the World Youth Championship in Chile along with fellow Croatians Zvonimir Boban, Robert Jarni, Davor Šuker and Igor Štimac.

Prosinečki, nicknamed Žuti (the Yellow One) throughout his career due to his blond hair, was considered one of the most creative and technically skilled footballers who emerged from Eastern Europe in the 1980s.

In December 2010, during the 2010–11 Serbian SuperLiga mid-season winter break, Prosinečki was announced as the new manager of Red Star Belgrade, replacing recently released Aleksandar Kristić.

Returning to the club of his biggest playing successes, the announcement made major headlines all over the Balkans[43][44] and also generated plenty of buzz in the rest of Europe.

Immediately, however, the issue of Prosinečki's pro coaching licence came up when it was discovered that he may not yet meet criteria for one, which according to Serbian SuperLiga rules would preclude him from being physically present on the sidelines during official matches.

The things were straightened out by the time league restarted and Prosinečki's bench debut, which was scheduled to take place versus Smederevo at Marakana on 26 February 2011.

[57] On 3 December 2014, Prosinečki was named the new manager of the Azerbaijan national football team, replacing Berti Vogts with a two-year contract until UEFA Euro 2016.

[63] With that draw, Prosinečki tied Safet Sušić's record with a 10-game unbeaten run in all official matches as Bosnia and Herzegovina national team manager.

Even though Bosnia and Herzegovina lost, throughout the whole match they were considered an equal opponent by some and some thought it showed what kind of change Prosinečki had made to the players and to their mentality and style of play.

[67] On 8 September 2019, three days after the victory over Lichtenstein, Prosinečki resigned from the position of Bosnia and Herzegovina national team head coach after a 2–4 away loss against Armenia, thus losing almost every direct chance of qualifying for the Euros.

Upon his first games following his decision to withdrawal the resignation as coach of the national team, Bosnia and Herzegovina managed to convincingly defeat Finland 4–1 at home soil to keep them on the race for the Euro spot.

[78] On 22 March 2022, Prosinečki signed a two-year contract with Slovenian PrvaLiga side Olimpija Ljubljana, replacing fellow countryman Dino Skender.

[81] After a year without a club, Prosinečki became the manager of newly promoted Croatian top division side Rudeš on 7 June 2023, replacing Davor Mladina.

[87][88] Named Prosikito, after the nickname Spanish press gave him during his time in La Liga, the restaurant is located in the Zagreb neighbourhood of Stara Peščenica and is run day-to-day by his younger brother Sven Daniel.

[89] In late February 2016, in partnership with another retired footballer, Janko Janković, Prosinečki opened an 8-court indoor padel commercial facility called Padel.hr at the Zagreb Fair.

[90] Prosinečki and Janković became aware of padel — a simplified version of tennis with elements of squash — during their respective professional footballing stints in Spain and decided to try to monetize it back home where it is largely unknown.

[93] Blažević and Prosinečki would reignite their simmering feud eleven years later during the 1998 World Cup where they were part of the Croatia national team that made it all the way to the semi-finals.

Now called "Croatia Zagreb", the club was turned into a state project bankrolled by the Croatian government's highest echelons and personally supported by the country's president Franjo Tuđman.

By 2000, Prosinečki left Croatia Zagreb, but in late 2001, decided to initiate a lawsuit against the club (whose name had been restored back to Dinamo in the meantime due to continuous fan protests) over DM1,550,000 (€750,000) in unpaid wages.