Marked for Andrej Kovac
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Marin Erceg 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.
The terraces16 Nov 2026
At 22 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
Zadar get the job done against Cibalia
A 1‑0 win over Cibalia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Zadar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrej Kovac 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match24 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Zadar
The unbeaten run reaches 14. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Tin Colak is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.26 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match24 Oct 2026
Nobody wins at Zadar
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Tin Colak at his very best
Marked 8.40. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zadar.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Damir Kovac at his very best
Marked 8.35. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zadar.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Andrej Kovac 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
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
Triumph
Match3 Oct 2026
Zadar make it 10 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Zadar have 10 straight wins of it.
Match5 Oct 2026
Zadar are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 28 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad5 Oct 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Tin Colak’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Zadar.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tin Colak is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.21 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Zadar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrej Kovac 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mislav Cop, and the manager let it.
Market5 Oct 2026
Tin Colak linked with a move away
The name of Tin Colak keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Zadar say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Sep 2026
Zadar cannot stop winning
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market14 Sep 2026
Tin Colak wants more than Zadar are offering
“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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Three points for Zadar, 1‑0 the final word against Cibalia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Andrej Kovac 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.02, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“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 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Every debut is a small story about the future: Milan Stanisic, 20 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match15 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Sibenik, and it could have been more.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Tin Colak takes the afternoon — 9.30
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tin Colak provided it, and the 9.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Both of them Mislav Cop's — 9.26
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.26, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $600.0K sale of Josip Vrsaljko
He is going to HNK Gorica, the club has $600.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market17 Aug 2026
Josip Vrsaljko has left for HNK Gorica in a $600.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Zadar
Daniel Lovren 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.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Zadar supporters have found a favourite in Marko Budimir
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Marko Budimir 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Sibenik blown away early
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 3 times before the twentieth minute. Sibenik tried to reorganise, Zadar did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.