Marked for Lovre Lončar
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
Ljuban Crepulja 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.
Loan watch21 Dec 2026
The goals keep arriving from Marko Žuljević’s exile
11 goals in 17 games at Karlovac 1919 — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Slaven Belupo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Loan watch21 Dec 2026
“I watch every Slaven Belupo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Uskok runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Ramiro Di Luciano has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Slaven Belupo 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Slaven Belupo man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Ilija Nestorovski was the best thing in any of them.
Market21 Dec 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slaven Belupo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Loan watch21 Dec 2026
18 appearances away from home and 6 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout21 Dec 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Slaven Belupo will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Dec 2026
A 1‑0 win over Kustosija, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Adrian Sović breaks a bone — 15 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market14 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 Slaven Belupo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
No sign of nerves from Lovre Lončar at 20 — 7.78
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lovre Lončar did not need any: 7.78, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market14 Dec 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slaven Belupo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A muscle injury and 15 days out for Lovro Banovec
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Slaven Belupo will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Match12 Dec 2026
A 3‑2 win over HNK Vukovar 1991, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Dec 2026
0‑3 to Istra 1961, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match7 Dec 2026
Every point is an argument now for Slaven Belupo
Position 8 and 17 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Adrian Sović out for 22 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Slaven Belupo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 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 Slaven Belupo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Slaven Belupo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Jurica Poldrugač has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Slaven Belupo have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I watch every Slaven Belupo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Jarun Zagreb runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lovro Banovec 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.
Looking ahead7 Dec 2026
HNK Vukovar 1991 next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Aug 2026
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 0‑5 beating by Dinamo Zagreb was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market24 Aug 2026
Antonio Jakir 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 Slaven Belupo can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Slaven Belupo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Slaven Belupo spend $2.5M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $2.5M for Silvio Goričan, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Market24 Aug 2026
Kustosija paid $190.0K and Slaven Belupo took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Filip Jović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.