Marked for Mislav Cop
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
Vojvodina 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Filip Knezevic is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A move Sammy Henia-Kamau would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sammy Henia-Kamau is living that version at Zadar, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Zadar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrej Kramaric 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Sammy Henia-Kamau is 20, and Zadar have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match2 Nov 2026
Zadar are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 35 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match28 Oct 2026
The small margins put Zadar out
Out, 1‑2 to NK Osijek, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market2 Nov 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Zadar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrej Kramaric 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Zadar against Rudes
0‑2 to Rudes, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
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
Match7 Sep 2026
Zadar refuse to drop out of the race
Position 1, 16 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market7 Sep 2026
The Zurich deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Tin Colak reports back to Zadar with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Match5 Sep 2026
Zadar make it 6 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Zadar have 6 straight wins of it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Zadar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrej Kramaric 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Imotski made Zadar work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tin Colak named player of the month
The award goes to Tin Colak, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.94 on the card, and the Zadar support went home talking about one name.
In brief
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Squad
A place in the month's best eleven for Niko Šepić
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The terraces
Supporters make their feelings known about Tin Colak
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Market
The window shut and Daniel Lovren is still in the building
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.