Central Midfielder - Zadar U20
18 Jan 2027
Monday
Process

Marked for

8 Edition

The Zadar Gazette

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules Mario Kovacevic out for 24 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zadar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Player ratings

Dino Livaja scores twice — 8.22

Two goals and a mark of 8.22 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Player ratings

Marin Leovac, 38, rolls back the years — 7.92

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.92 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Player ratings

Petar Bočkaj pops up at the right end — 7.84

7.84, 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Zadar

Robert Ćosić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Dino Livaja the difference as Zadar beat Sesvete

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dino Livaja. 3‑2 against Sesvete, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Squad

Words at Zadar training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petar Bočkaj 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 dugout

Stipe Petkov 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.

Squad

Zadar count the cost of losing a squad player

15 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

In brief

  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • Player ratings Josip Juranovic could have had three
  • The dugout Matej Lovren has become a man the manager trusts