Marked for Darijo Horvat
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Sep 2026
8 unbeaten for Zadar
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Zadar did not have in the autumn.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Iván Bella 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 Zadar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.92 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I watch every Zadar game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Dinamo Zagreb runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pablo López, and the manager let it.
Match12 Sep 2026
It needed Ivan Simunovic to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Cibalia, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Luka Šimunović 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Shots: 9, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ivo Kralj has taken the shirt
At 27 he is in the side on merit and somebody else is watching from the bench. Places at Zadar are won quietly and lost loudly.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match7 Sep 2026
Zadar up to position 1
14 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market7 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
7 unbeaten for Zadar
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Zadar did not have in the autumn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Zadar
Iván Bella 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
42 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 9.05 — 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
209% of the income goes out in wages at Zadar
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Iván Bella, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The award goes to Renato Medici, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Aug 2026
Mate Tadic is the hero from the spot
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Mate Tadic: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match19 Aug 2026
Cup progress for Zadar
A 0‑0 win over Imotski, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market24 Aug 2026
Istra 1961 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.
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
Successful dribbles: 23. 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
Tempers go at Zadar
Iván Bella 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Renato Medici. 3‑2 against Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market24 Aug 2026
Business is business: Petar Orsic goes
Imotski paid $58.0K and Zadar took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.79, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market10 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Zadar have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mate Tadic and Zadar agree another 2 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Iván Bella 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 Zadar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
Tin Brekalo has left for Sibenik in a $140.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Match8 Aug 2026
Zadar get the job done against Segesta
A 3‑1 win over Segesta, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luka Šimunović, and the manager let it.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.53, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.08, and no argument anywhere in the ground.