Branko Zebec became Dinamo's new coach. This was one of the key moments in the history of the Maksimir club, a move that opened the door for the Blues to achieve their greatest success in history: winning the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1967, a competition that later became the UEFA Cup, now known as the Europa League.

Zebec was once a Građanski youth player and later a renowned footballer, a charismatic player and subsequently a coach. His engagement at Dinamo was actually his first coaching position in his career. He stepped in at the end of the 1965/66 season, succeeding Ivan Oskar Jazbinšek. Shortly before that, in spring 1966, Zebec graduated from the Advanced Coaching School in Cologne. He came very close to ending up at Olimpija Ljubljana instead of Zagreb. Contacts had already been established, but then came an "adventure" orchestrated by Dinamo's then-chairman of the technical committee, Jure Naglić, who managed to "steal" Zebec at the last moment and redirect him to Zagreb.