in the meantime šimić's former coach at dinamo, miroslav blažević, was appointed croatia manager in 1994. in 1996, impressed by his string of good performances, blažević called him up and, after playing 16 games for croatia's youth teams, šimić earned his first full international cap on 13 march 1996 in a friendly against south korea, coming on as a substitute for igor štimac. šimić quickly became a first team regular in the national team under blažević, and went on to play in six 1998 fifa world cup qualifiers, as well as six matches at the final tournament itself in france, where croatia eventually won third place.