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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Iván Pomba 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.
“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 27 say he has earned the hearing.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Patryk Nowakowski has just signed for Zadar, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Iván Pomba 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.
“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 23 say he has earned the hearing.
The offer from Dinamo Zagreb for Mario Tićinović 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what HNK Vukovar 1991 can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Vukovar 1991 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadMarko Benko is a better footballer than he was
SquadWords at HNK Vukovar 1991 training over how hard people work
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” HNK Vukovar 1991 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Vukovar 1991 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadIvo Kralj falls out with a teammate over standards
Stipe Majer had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Sesvete were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
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.
13 goals and a season average of 7.27 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Iván Pomba 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Iván Pomba 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 ratings23 Nov 2026
Iván Pomba was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Stipe Petkov 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Zadar and Sibenik in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Iván Pomba. 4‑2 against Sibenik, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 23 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.
Stipe Petkov 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 had been thinking. Iván Pomba 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.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Zadar deserved better, and so did he.
Nobody at Zadar 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
Player ratingsOff the bench and decisive: Robert Ćosić