Marked for Vanja Šare
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sesvete can pretend not to have heard.
Market3 Jan 2028
Riad Mašala has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sesvete they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 Jan 2028
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Sesvete have had the benefit of it.
Match1 Jan 2028
Whatever happens, Sesvete do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad3 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Sesvete
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tino Agić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Marked 8.14 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Teo Barišić 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 dugout3 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Vanja Šare
“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.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
A loan move for Máté Simon is in the works
Sesvete have made the call to FK Csíkszereda. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match20 Dec 2027
Sesvete up to position 3
33 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market20 Dec 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Sesvete, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match18 Dec 2027
Still nobody has beaten Sesvete
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad20 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Sesvete
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tino Agić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad20 Dec 2027
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words exchanged at Sesvete
Toni Gorupec 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Sesvete had all but put away. Croatia Zmijavci will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Marked 7.62. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Match18 Dec 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Croatia Zmijavci leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Vanja Šare beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Sesvete training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tino Agić 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.
The terraces29 Nov 2027
At 21 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
The decline has begun for Toni Gorupec
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Sesvete is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad29 Nov 2027
“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.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Sime Cop was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Sesvete dressing room was either.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“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 ratings29 Nov 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match27 Nov 2027
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Opatija came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match11 Oct 2027
Sesvete up to position 2
17 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Isaiah Ngbede breaks a bone — 48 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market11 Oct 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sesvete is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Sesvete training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tino Agić 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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Vanja Šare 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Sesvete will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Market11 Oct 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Robert Marijanović may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Market11 Oct 2027
The Vanja Šare story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vanja Šare signs something — a contract at Sesvete or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
Next up on the road: Bjelovar, position 8. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.04, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 6.54, and 3 involvements.
Match21 Aug 2027
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Sesvete and Opatija in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match21 Aug 2027
A 4‑2 win over Opatija, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Transfer targets23 Aug 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.
The terraces23 Aug 2027
The crowd has taken to Teo Barišić
At 23 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Vanja Šare 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.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
Sime Cop: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 4‑2, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Aug 2027
Riad Mašala has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sesvete they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Aug 2027
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.
Transfer targets16 Aug 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.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Ilan Pejić runs at them all day
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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Too much change too quickly at Sesvete
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
A loan move for Ernis Qestaj is in the works
Sesvete have made the call to Slaven Belupo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
Sesvete counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Sesvete now.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Franco Beljo
“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 dugout16 Aug 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sime Cop after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Aug 2027
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sesvete lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sesvete may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad2 Aug 2027
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.
Transfer targets2 Aug 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.
The terraces2 Aug 2027
He is 23 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.
Match31 Jul 2027
Hrvace made Sesvete work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Sesvete training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vanja Šare 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.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Petar Antolković did the work nobody counts — 7.44
10 combined actions and 7.44. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Franco Beljo and Sesvete agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Jul 2027
$440.0K. No player has ever cost Sesvete more, and expectation arrives with him.
Market12 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Varteks waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sesvete is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market12 Jul 2027
“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 Sesvete, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Ilan Pejić 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 Sesvete this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces12 Jul 2027
Sesvete spend $440.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $440.0K for Ivan Šiško, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Sesvete asked and HNK Rijeka said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Sesvete
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vanja Šare was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Segesta: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Hajduk Split 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jul 2027
“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 Sesvete, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Sesvete
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moses Zambrang Barnabas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
Vanja Šare 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.
Market5 Jul 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Sesvete will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
A promise honoured at Sesvete
Something was said to Moses Zambrang Barnabas and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Slaven Belupo: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Intake day at the Sesvete academy
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Robert Marijanović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Vanja Šare moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Sesvete than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Sesvete had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at HNK Gorica, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Sesvete asked and Segesta said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Jun 2027
The decline has begun for Toni Gorupec
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Sesvete is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Teo Barišić 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Vanja Šare 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.
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
Belts tighten at Sesvete
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
No hiding place for Borna Cik
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Borna Cik, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
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.
Market21 Jun 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Dragan Juranović may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 May 2027
Vilim Krušlin has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sesvete they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 May 2027
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 watch17 May 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sesvete, and 12 appearances in 40 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout17 May 2027
A promise honoured at Sesvete
Something was said to Antonio Kuš and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Vanja Šare
“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.
Market17 May 2027
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
Squad29 Mar 2027
Time is catching up with Toni Gorupec
Everybody at Sesvete saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 33 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Boardroom29 Mar 2027
Belts tighten at Sesvete
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 Mar 2027
Vilim Krušlin has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sesvete they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Ivan Bošnjak arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ivan Bošnjak has, at Sesvete, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Sesvete training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moses Zambrang Barnabas 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Antonio Čačić 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
The formation has left Ivan Bošnjak behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Sesvete will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market22 Mar 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Karlo Žiger’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Feb 2027
54 days out for Tin Kulenović after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sesvete will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market8 Feb 2027
The deal that would have taken Karlo Žiger to HNK Gorica has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Sesvete with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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 Sesvete, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
An order from above at Sesvete: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Sesvete asked and HNK Gorica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Petar Antolković 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
33 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Dragan Juranović
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Dragan Juranović has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sesvete have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Tin Kulenović out for 62 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sesvete will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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 Sesvete, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Sesvete until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at HNK Rijeka is saying, and nobody at Sesvete is enjoying the guessing.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Sesvete know it.
Market1 Feb 2027
HNK Gorica are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Sesvete will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Sesvete training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petar Antolković 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.
The dugout1 Feb 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
Steady
Match22 Aug 2026
Dugopolje will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Sesvete were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Match19 Aug 2026
Sesvete out of the cup
Grobnican ended it 0‑0. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Karlo Žiger decides it from twelve yards
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Tin Kulenović pops up at the right end — 7.98
7.98, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Vanja Šare runs at them all day
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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Olimpija Ljubljana, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Mateo Bačić 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Sesvete asked and ND Gorica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.