Marked for Jon Mersinaj
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout16 Oct 2028
This is not rotation. Stanislav Shopov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at NK Osijek is pretending otherwise.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jon Mersinaj, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Osijek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
Ivan Filipović knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Filipović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Paul Bismarck Tabinas is on it.
Market16 Oct 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mohammad Mohebi signs something — a contract at NK Osijek or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Looking ahead16 Oct 2028
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mohammad Mohebi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and NK Osijek needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market16 Oct 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Emin Hasić may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Niko Farkaš wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and NK Osijek have no good answer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match5 Aug 2028
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad7 Aug 2028
24 days out for Filip Colak after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. NK Osijek will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market7 Aug 2028
So close: David Kalem’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Opatija moved on, David Kalem reports back to NK Osijek, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Match5 Aug 2028
NK Osijek settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. HNK Rijeka spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Squad7 Aug 2028
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
Jon Mersinaj gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market7 Aug 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. NK Osijek told Roko Jurišić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Jan 2028
Luka Jelenić hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NK Osijek can pretend not to have heard.
Market10 Jan 2028
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Opatija had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market10 Jan 2028
The phone has started ringing about Anton Matković again, and this time the name on the line is Slaven Belupo. NK Osijek are listening politely and promising nothing.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” NK Osijek may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
NK Osijek asked and Bjelovar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Market10 Jan 2028
A conversation is coming this week. NK Osijek will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
Renan Guedes asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Nov 2027
Anton Matković is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Loan watch15 Nov 2027
“I did not go to HNK Rijeka to sit and watch. I want to come back to NK Osijek and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 22 matches say the rest.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Anton Matković asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yannick Touré, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Oleksandr Petrusenko is on it.
Market15 Nov 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. NK Osijek know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jon Mersinaj’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and NK Osijek needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Squad15 Nov 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at NK Osijek would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Anton Matković has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at NK Osijek that is a harder question to answer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Mar 2027
NK Osijek refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 34 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Anton Matković is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Anton Matković was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
The goals keep arriving from Marino Žeravica’s exile
9 goals in 30 games at Szentlőrinc — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at NK Osijek updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Anton Matković is on it.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Ante Kuliš knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ante Kuliš trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market29 Mar 2027
The Emin Hasić talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. NK Osijek know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager makes Tonio Teklić a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at NK Osijek. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
23 starts now, an average of 6.78, and the team sheet at Uljanik Pula has stopped being a question. Exactly what everybody signed up for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ivan Barić commits to NK Osijek for another 5 years.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Bruno Petković was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at NK Osijek can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Matej Gagulić
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Nail Omerović is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Ivan Barić knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NK Osijek, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Dec 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at NK Osijek, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Anton Matković is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
David Čolina left out for the big one
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; David Čolina will call it something else in private.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Nail Omerović's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match18 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Martin Rebic after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad21 Dec 2026
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. NK Osijek lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Dec 2026
Nowhere to hide for NK Osijek
0‑3 against Dinamo Zagreb, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match7 Dec 2026
NK Osijek are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 33 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Bruno Petković and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Roko Jurišić
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match5 Dec 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vito Čaić commits to NK Osijek for another 5 years.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
Nobody left the NK Osijek dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The award goes to Bruno Petković, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.