Marked for Benjamin Budimir
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Sesvete
Ilan Pejić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“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 Feb 2027
Riad Mašala 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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Benjamin Budimir has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sesvete will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market15 Feb 2027
The name of Dragan Juranović keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sesvete say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Sesvete would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maro Vrdoljak
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sesvete lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market18 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Segesta waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sesvete is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Maro Vrdoljak 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
HNK Gorica pay $450.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market18 Jan 2027
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A loan move for Haris Mujanić is in the works
Sesvete have made the call to Koper. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
HNK Rijeka have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Dec 2026
Karlo Išasegi 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
6 unbeaten for Sesvete
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Sesvete did not have in the autumn.
The terraces21 Dec 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match19 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Maro Vrdoljak. 1‑0 against BSK Bijelo Brdo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Marked 7.67 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Sesvete had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Filip Majer: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Market21 Dec 2026
Vanja Šare told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Vanja Šare has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Sesvete.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sesvete, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Nov 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sesvete may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Ilan Pejić 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Karlo Žiger'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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sesvete, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Benjamin Budimir has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sesvete will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market16 Nov 2026
Karlo Žiger linked with a move away
The name of Karlo Žiger keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sesvete say nothing, which says plenty.
Match16 Nov 2026
Continental football is in reach for Sesvete
18 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Sesvete
Maro Vrdoljak and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Uskok to sit and watch. I want to come back to Sesvete and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Squad12 Oct 2026
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mateo Bačić, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Viktor Kanižaj 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Rudes in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market12 Oct 2026
The Karlo Žiger talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sesvete know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Sesvete are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Sesvete
Ilan Pejić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Antonio Kuš
“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 dugout28 Sep 2026
A promise honoured at Sesvete
Something was said to Viktor Kanižaj and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Match26 Sep 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Filip Majer after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Sesvete man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Robert Marijanović was the best thing in any of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Sesvete close the window on a squad of their own making
10 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sesvete this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Sesvete are still strangers to each other
12 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Mateo Bačić slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Mateo Bačić is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
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 Benjamin Budimir is on it.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Antonio Kuš 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 Sesvete, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market7 Sep 2026
The market said no: Karlo Žiger stays put
Sesvete opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Karlo Žiger stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.