Marked for Tomislav Simunovic
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Feb 2027
“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.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
He is 20, he is averaging 7.12, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Emir Basabe 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Domagoj Rebic 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.
Loan watch8 Feb 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Zadar, and 0 appearances in 26 say he has earned the hearing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market11 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 The request is on a desk at Zadar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Jan 2027
He is 20, he is averaging 7.12, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Market11 Jan 2027
Dino Petkovic wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Zadar hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Zadar
Filip Colak 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market4 Jan 2027
Josip Mišić 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 Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Dion Beljo is named among the best
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Dinamo Zagreb will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market4 Jan 2027
Suduva come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Dinamo Zagreb did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market4 Jan 2027
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Mislav Oršić 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tomislav Simunovic is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Dec 2026
He is 20, he is averaging 7.12, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Dino Petkovic 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Dec 2026
Roko Ban keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dinamo Zagreb may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market7 Dec 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Mislav Oršić 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 39. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad16 Nov 2026
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.
Match14 Nov 2026
Filip Colak wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Filip Colak found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Cibalia went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Squad16 Nov 2026
He is 20, he is averaging 7.12, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Zadar
Filip Colak 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
14 goals and a season average of 7.21. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match14 Nov 2026
Cibalia made Zadar work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Marked 7.98 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Zadar had the best player on the pitch.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Dinamo Zagreb to sit and watch. I want to come back to Zadar and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 14 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Oct 2026
18 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Mislav Oršić 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 Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Scott McKenna 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 terraces19 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Gabriel Vidović 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Gabriel Vidović at his very best
Marked 8.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dinamo Zagreb.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Ismaël Bennacer has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb 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
Triumph
Match17 Oct 2026
Zadar make it 11 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Zadar have 11 straight wins of it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tin Bogdan is the real thing at 20
A season average of 7.08 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Zadar know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Match17 Oct 2026
Zadar are at home on the road
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Emir Basabe 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
14 goals and a season average of 7.21. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match17 Oct 2026
Three points for Zadar, 2‑1 the final word against Sibenik in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
Zadar supporters have found a favourite in Dino Petkovic
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Dino Petkovic 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Sep 2026
A derby is never about the football alone, but the football helped: 1‑0, and the away end emptied early. Bragging rights renewed for another season.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Dinamo Zagreb support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Mislav Oršić 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 Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tomislav Simunovic is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Raúl Torrente, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ismaël Bennacer has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb 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.
Market21 Sep 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Arbër Hoxha may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Market21 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Moreno Živković’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Sep 2026
No mercy from Zadar
Sesvete will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Zadar were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Match19 Sep 2026
Nobody wants to play Zadar right now
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.34, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Tin Bogdan, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.80
A mark of 7.80 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad21 Sep 2026
At 20, Tin Bogdan is already the best thing here
An average of 7.00 in a first team he is several years too young for. Zadar have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Zadar
Filip Colak 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Emir Basabe 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 terraces21 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to Niko Farkaš
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Domagoj Rebic at his very best
Marked 8.24. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zadar.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match15 Aug 2026
4‑0, and Filip Colak took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Zadar tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market17 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Tin Bogdan at 20 — 8.12
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tin Bogdan did not need any: 8.12, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Filip Colak 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Zadar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Domagoj Rebic 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 terraces17 Aug 2026
Zadar supporters have found a favourite in Niko Farkaš
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Niko Farkaš 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Ivica Ivanovic has come up in conversations Zadar were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.