Marked for Ivan Zaverukha
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad18 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rudes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Ivan Đorić 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ivan Đorić, and the manager let it.
Loan watch18 Jan 2027
“I watch every Rudes game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Zadar runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad18 Jan 2027
When it matters, Karlo Kralj plays
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ivan Zaverukha is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zadar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Sime Simunovic 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 watch11 Jan 2027
“I did not go to Dinamo Zagreb to sit and watch. I want to come back to Zadar and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 22 matches say the rest.
Market11 Jan 2027
Experience through the door at Zadar
Nicolas Sibade arrives at 36 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match2 Nov 2026
Zadar are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 35 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match28 Oct 2026
Zadar bow out of the cup
NK Osijek go through and Zadar go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ivan Zaverukha 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Zadar do not lose
7 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Kristijan Bilic 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fran Knezevic. 2‑1 against Rudes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
At 19 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Kristijan Bilic
“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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Rudes blown away early
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Rudes tried to reorganise, Zadar did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match17 Oct 2026
No mercy from Zadar
Sibenik will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Zadar were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 10.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.85 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Ivan Zaverukha: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zadar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match17 Oct 2026
Zadar make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Zadar have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad19 Oct 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 Zadar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Oct 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Zadar and Sibenik in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match17 Oct 2026
Zadar keep winning on the road
4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 8.75 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Ivan Zaverukha decides it from twelve yards
2 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.
Match19 Aug 2026
Zadar march on in the cup
Imotski are out and Zadar go through, 1‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Market24 Aug 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A first appearance Petar Kramaric will want to forget — 5.31
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.31, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Market24 Aug 2026
Segesta come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zadar did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
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 Zadar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Josip Krznarić 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 terraces24 Aug 2026
At 19 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.