OLMO Dani

General
LEAVING BARCELONA
At age 16 he left Spanish club FC Barcelona's youth academy, La Masia, in search of senior playing time. He joined Croatian First Football League club Dinamo Zagreb before the 2014/15 season, and played there until January 2020, when he joined German Bundesliga club RB Leipzig. "It sounds strange and at first people said I was crazy. Barcelona is the biggest club in the world and gives a chance to its kids. Nevertheless, there is no other club where, at that age, I would get so many chances as at Dinamo. My former teammates at Barcelona were at first shocked, but they understood my decision to move to Dinamo was the right one." (goal.com, 15 Nov 2018; sport.es, 17 Nov 2019; croatiaweek.com, 08 Dec 2017)

NATIONALITY DECISION
After playing with Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia for several seasons he was eligible for Croatian citizenship. He says he considered representing Croatia internationally and that the Croatian Football Federation had shown interest in him doing so, but he eventually made his senior international debut for Spain in November 2019. "It's an honour that the [2018] World Cup runners-up want you to play for them. And who wouldn't want to play alongside [Luka] Modric and [Ivan] Rakitic? The interest reached me, but I always said that I wanted to play for Spain and I am fulfilling a dream being here. I am really happy." (en.as.com, 11 Sep 2018)