[5] Kranjčar made his debut for Yugoslavia in a January 1977 friendly match away against Colombia, coming on as a 60th-minute substitute for Vladimir Petrović, and earned a total of 11 caps, scoring 3 goals.

[8] In 1998 he came back to Croatia Zagreb and led the club to another win in both the Croatian Championship and Cup as well as to an appearance in the UEFA Champions League.

[9] After Croatia failed to advance through the group stage at the UEFA Euro 2004, Kranjčar was chosen to replace Otto Barić as the national team's coach for the next two years.

At the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals, however, they failed to reach the knock-out stages after losing once and drawing twice in their three group matches.

Due to this, the Croatian Football Federation decided not to renew Kranjčar's expiring contract on 14 July 2006.

[7][10] In June 2007, Kranjčar took over a coaching position with the United Arab Emirates team Al-Shaab,[11] but was sacked in December after a dispute with the board about player selection.

[12] On 1 July 2009, he was appointed head coach of Iran Pro League side Persepolis after he signed a two-year contract.

[13][12] Despite having good players such as Karim Bagheri, Misagh Memarzadeh, Sepehr Heidari, Shpejtim Arifi and Sheys Rezaei, Persepolis was unsuccessful in the first weeks of the season.

[17] Kranjčar signed a two-year contract with Iran Pro League three-time champion, Sepahan on 28 October 2011 replacing his compatriot Luka Bonačić.

[19] On 11 May 2012, Sepahan clinched the title for the fourth time (three in a row) and first under Kranjčar with a draw against Mes Sarcheshmeh.

In final, his side won against Persepolis 4–2 on penalties to crown their 4th domestic cup title in last ten years.

However, on 20 January 2018 after a series of bad results, Kranjčar parted ways with them by mutual consent to leave Isfahan.