Marked for Željko Samčović
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Jan 2027
14 matches without a win for Novi Pazar
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Novi Pazar are no longer polite ones.
Match2 Jan 2027
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Driton Camaj in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novi Pazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
David Dunđerski falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Loan watch4 Jan 2027
“I did not go to Spartak Subotica to sit and watch. I want to come back to Novi Pazar and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
Match2 Jan 2027
0‑2 to Partizan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Željko Samčović
“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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Milan Lazarević 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
David Dunđerski falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Novi Pazar told Željko Samčović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad12 Oct 2026
9 new faces, and Novi Pazar are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Spartak Subotica to sit and watch. I want to come back to Novi Pazar and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Novi Pazar
0‑1 against Radnicki Nis, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Dunđerski, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Aug 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 Novi Pazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
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.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with TSC leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Željko Samčović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
Javor-Matis come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Novi Pazar did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.27, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Driton Camaj in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novi Pazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
David Dunđerski falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match15 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Driton Camaj. 2‑1 against Napredak, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Novi Pazar are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Market17 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Novi Pazar will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad17 Aug 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 Novi Pazar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
Driton Camaj in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novi Pazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Novi Pazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Bijelović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Cukaricki have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Anes Rušević. The answer from Novi Pazar has not changed — yet.
Squad10 Aug 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.06 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match8 Aug 2026
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Driton Camaj had Novi Pazar level again within 4 minutes, and Spartak Subotica never got to play with a lead at all.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Match8 Aug 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Spartak Subotica leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.