Marked for Daniel Barisic
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
Tempers go at Zadar
Marin Benko 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Zadar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vedran Orsic 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 May 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zadar, another week without a signature from Jack Armer.
Squad10 May 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 Zadar know it.
Boardroom10 May 2027
Wages eat 86% of everything Zadar earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout10 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matija Jesenović, and the manager let it.
The dugout10 May 2027
Daniel Barisic has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zadar 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.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager makes Robert Ćosić a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Zadar. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout10 May 2027
Vedran Orsic keeps his manager's vote
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Vedran Orsic plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Apr 2027
36 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Zadar
Marin Benko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Vedran Orsic 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.
Squad19 Apr 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; Zadar are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Marko Tadic
“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 dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager makes Robert Ćosić a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Zadar. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Zadar
Marin Benko 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Zadar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vedran Orsic 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 dugout12 Apr 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Daniel Barisic is on it.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Marko Tadic asks for a word with the manager
“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 dugout12 Apr 2027
Daniel Tadic has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Daniel Tadic has written the date down.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Vedran Orsic keeps his manager's vote
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Vedran Orsic plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Zadar
Marin Benko 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Zadar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vedran Orsic 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Joan Chávez commits to Zadar for another 3 years.
Squad15 Mar 2027
No place for Joan Chávez in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Zadar are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Josip Stanisic 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 Zadar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout15 Mar 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
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Zadar
Marin Benko 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Zadar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vedran Orsic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Daniel Barisic has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zadar 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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Robert Ćosić has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Robert Ćosić has written the date down.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Niko Farkaš arrived with a record at a bigger club than this one, and the room has treated him accordingly. The young ones watch him train; the senior ones watch to see whether it lasts.
Market15 Feb 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Josip Stanisic’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Jan 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Zadar people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market18 Jan 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 Zadar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Zadar have done the hard part with Dinamo Zagreb, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Zadar
Marin Benko 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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Zagreb have kept their man, and Zadar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Zadar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vedran Orsic 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
Cibalia pay $38.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market18 Jan 2027
Filip Ivanovic has left for Istra 1961 in a $22.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A loan move for Jerónimo Buosi is in the works
Zadar have made the call to Colón. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Tin Stanisic: 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.
Squad21 Dec 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Zadar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vedran Orsic 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Davyd Fesyuk
“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.
Market21 Dec 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marin Pasalic signs something — a contract at Zadar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Daniel Barisic is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
Marin Benko is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.34 with 25 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Zadar
Marin Benko 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Sesvete left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Zadar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vedran Orsic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Josip Stanisic, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luka Ivanovic after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Market23 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marin Pasalic signs something — a contract at Zadar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
$140.0K — a new record at Zadar
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.
Match19 Aug 2026
Zadar bow out of the cup
Imotski go through and Zadar go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match22 Aug 2026
3‑0, and Marin Benko took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Zadar tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Daniel Barisic could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.38
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.38, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Marin Benko takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Jack Armer 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. Jack Armer has, at Zadar, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Zadar had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at HNK Vukovar 1991, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market24 Aug 2026
Matej Rebic 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 Zadar can pretend not to have heard.
In brief
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Transfer targets
Niko Farkaš is a medical away from Zadar
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Squad
Tempers go at Zadar
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The terraces
The town asked, and Zadar paid $140.0K