Robbie Burton made his debut for the Dinamo Zagreb second team on Friday, featuring in a match against NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac.

Robbie Burton after signing for Dinamo Zagreb (Photo by Damir Krajac / Cropix Cropix)
Robbie Burton after signing for Dinamo Zagreb (Photo by Damir Krajac / Cropix Cropix)

Arsenal confirmed the transfer of Robbie Burton to Dinamo Zagreb earlier this month. The deal was reportedly worth up to £800,000, with the player deciding to leave after his promising pre-season didn’t lead to first-team chances in North London.

It seems Burton is going to start out with the Dinamo second team, as he made his debut for them on Friday. The 20-year-old started the game against Dragovoljac, but unfortunately, he couldn’t help them avoid a 1-0 defeat.

Valentino Majstorovic scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot, netting just before half time.

Not an ideal result, but Burton will be happy to get back out onto the pitch. The first step is to establish himself as a key member of their second team. Hopefully, the senior chances will follow.

If nothing else, at least he’s now getting an opportunity to play against senior players. Dinamo Zagreb II play in a senior league, the Croatian second division.

It’s an issue with the English footballing system that players like Burton play so few games against over-23 opponents with Arsenal. By my count, excluding friendlies, Burton played five matches against senior teams from the lower leagues.

So he’s already a fifth of the way to matching that in a couple of weeks in Zagreb. With any luck, that will aid his development in the coming months.