“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” NK Domzale have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Gregor Oblak 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.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Gregor Oblak’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to NK Domzale.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Marko Maučec 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 young player of the month award goes to a 17-year-old at NK Domzale who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation NK Domzale are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
1‑3 against Shakhtar. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Domzale this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 17 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Stefano Marino’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to NK Domzale.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Stefano Marino was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.33. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonio Marin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Robert Zajc 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Timi Kurtovic after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Marko Maučec will call it something else in private.
Nobody at NK Domzale 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.
In brief
SquadA NK Domzale teenager takes the young player award
15 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Gregor Oblak, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 8.16
A mark of 8.16 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Jordi Govea 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonio Marin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout14 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.” Timi Kurtovic kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Crotone waiting with a shirt. Nobody at NK Domzale is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NK Domzale can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Koper for Robert Zajc was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.73, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Gregor Oblak, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 8.26
A mark of 8.26 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. NK Domzale have done the hard part with NK Krsko, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
NK Domzale offered $460.0K; NK Maribor said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 8.06 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
The offer from HNK Vukovar 1991 for Erik Lovric was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Domzale this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Antonio Marin has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means NK Domzale have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at NK Domzale training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zan Vipotnik 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Gregor Oblak 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.