Marked for Antonio Kuš
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad30 Nov 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 253% of the Sesvete income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Marked 7.78. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Petar Antolković will call it something else in private.
Match28 Nov 2026
Honours even between Sesvete and Rudes
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 dugout30 Nov 2026
Duje Reić 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Dario Srna after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Nov 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 The request is on a desk at Sesvete, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Toni Gorupec, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sesvete told Moses Zambrang Barnabas something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Hrvatski Dragovoljac next, and one man in the Sesvete dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market16 Nov 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Tin Kulenović may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Antonio Kuš knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Antonio Kuš trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Matija Ruškovački 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Oct 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 Sesvete, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Dario Srna chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The form table has caught Toni Gorupec
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Match17 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Dugopolje will be the happier side with the point.
Looking ahead19 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Lucko in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market21 Sep 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 ratings21 Sep 2026
Mateo Bačić, 21, steals the show — 7.60
Marked 7.60 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Sesvete
Moses Zambrang Barnabas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zadar have kept their man, and Sesvete go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Dragan Juranović’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sesvete.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
Sesvete supporters have found a favourite in Mateo Bačić
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Mateo Bačić has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Dario Srna kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.