Hajduk has officially announced the appointment of Gonzalo Garcia as the club’s new first-team head coach.
Garcia has signed a contract that will keep him at the club through the summer of 2028. He will be formally introduced to the media next week, just ahead of the start of preseason training for the upcoming campaign.
Garcia, born on October 13, 1983, in Montevideo, Uruguay, spent the majority of his life and professional career in Spain. He began playing football in his hometown before moving to Spain at the age of 13, where he joined the youth ranks of Santiago de Compostela. Shortly after, he signed with Real Madrid B and also represented Spain at the youth international level.
Throughout his senior career, Garcia played for a number of clubs in Spain, including Mérida, Alcorcón, and Palencia. His career then took him to the Netherlands, where he featured for AGOVV, Heerenveen, Heracles, Groningen, and Venlo. He later played in Cyprus for AEK Larnaca and Anorthosis, followed by a stint with Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel. Garcia eventually returned to Compostela, where he concluded his playing career at the age of 34.
Following his retirement as a player, Garcia quickly transitioned into coaching. He began as an assistant coach with Danish club Esbjerg before moving to Dutch side Twente, where he was promoted to head coach in May 2019.
In the summer of 2021, Garcia took over at Croatian side Istra 1961. In his debut season in the SuperSport HNL, he successfully kept the club in the top flight. The following year, he guided Istra 1961 to a fifth-place finish — the best in the club’s history at the time. In the summer of 2024, Garcia moved to Portugal to take over Arouca, where he remained until October of that year.
Garcia returned to Istra 1961 in early 2025, taking charge as the club sat in eighth place. Under his leadership, Istra 1961 went on an impressive run in the second half of the season, earning praise from pundits and fans alike for playing some of the league’s most attractive football. His side finished as the third-best team in the league in terms of points earned during that stretch.
