butina became a member of dinamo zagreb senior squad in the inaugural season of the prva hnl. he marked his debut for the club on 23 may 1993. due to dražen ladić being an irreplaceable as the club's first-choice goalkeeper, butina was sent on loans to smaller prva hnl clubs. he then had season-long loan spells with karlovac, samobor and slaven belupo. he returned to dinamo in 1997, made six league appearances in both the 1997–98 and the 1999–2000 title-winning campaigns and became the club's first-choice goalkeeper after ladić's retirement in 2000. the next three seasons, he featured regularly in the dinamo zagreb first team, making a total of 90 league appearances and winning two croatian cups with the club. during the 2002–03 season, butina appeared in all 32 of dinamo zagreb's league matches and conceded only 27 goals, which helped the club secure its first title since 2000. on 26 february 2002, butina was stripped of his capitancy after breaking media silence about the existing financial problems in the club. on 13 june 2003, he was transferred to the belgian first division side club brugge.