Marked for Dejan Sutalo
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Zadar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 3‑2, and it was Nikola Simunovic’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Zadar.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Nikola Simunovic at his very best
Marked 9.10. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zadar.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Zadar
Nikola Babic 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Dejan Sutalo 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
41 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market31 Aug 2026
The name of Nikola Simunovic keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Zadar say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Ivan Zaverukha: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match19 Aug 2026
The small margins put Zadar out
Out, 0‑0 to Imotski, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Zadar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Zadar's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zadar has to find a result from somewhere.
Match22 Aug 2026
1‑2 to Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Nikola Babic 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 terraces24 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Zadar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Đira 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Dejan Sutalo 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
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market17 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 22 days on the sidelines for Ante Babic, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Loan watch17 Aug 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 0 appearances in 1 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 45. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Mateo Vrsaljko could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.70
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.70, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Zadar
Dejan Sutalo 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 terraces3 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Mateo Vrsaljko 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Three points for Zadar, 2‑0 the final word against Lucko in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Andrej Vrsaljko 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Bojan Kovac is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Zadar has been clear about where Bojan Kovac stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Marin Brekalo knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zadar, and both men came out saying it was fine.