“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Zagreb have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from HNK Rijeka for Stipe Ivanovic 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.
The deal that would have taken Robert Mudražija to Istra 1961 has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Dinamo Zagreb with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Sergi Domínguez 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.
“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.
In brief
SquadWords at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
6 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 ratings8 Jan 2029
Stipe Ivanovic, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.98
A mark of 7.98 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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.
Dion Beljo 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Stipe Ivanovic 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Dinamo Zagreb, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mateo Lisica will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Stipe Ivanovic did not need any: 9.18, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Sergi Domínguez 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.
At 17 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.
“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 Dinamo Zagreb, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mateo Lisica will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Dion Beljo 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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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.
Sergi Domínguez 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dion Beljo 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sergi Domínguez. 3‑2 against Istra 1961, 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Sergi Domínguez had Dinamo Zagreb level again within 3 minutes, and Istra 1961 never got to play with a lead at all.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Fran Knezevic 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dion Beljo 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.
Position 3, 10 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 ratings28 Aug 2028
Stipe Ivanovic, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 8.09
A mark of 8.09 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Stipe Ivanovic is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Fran Knezevic 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.
“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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dion Beljo 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.
“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 Dinamo Zagreb, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mateo Lisica will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
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.
Dion Beljo 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Fran Knezevic has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Lokomotiva Zagreb left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Scott McKenna 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.
Stipe Ivanovic, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 8.10
A mark of 8.10 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marin Delić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer from Rudes for Marko Zebić 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 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
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.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Dinamo Zagreb will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Dion Beljo 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Stipe Ivanovic, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 7.75
A mark of 7.75 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The deal that would have taken Marko Soldo to Sesvete has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Dinamo Zagreb with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Casemiro 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.
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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dion Beljo 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Stipe Ivanovic did not need any: 8.13, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
3 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.
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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
At 31 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The phone has started ringing about Ivan Nevistić again, and this time the name on the line is Zadar. Dinamo Zagreb are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 Dinamo Zagreb, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Zagreb have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fran Knezevic 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dion Beljo 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.
“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 Dinamo Zagreb, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
Casemiro 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Zagreb have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Monsef Bakrar will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Stipe Ivanovic is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Fran Knezevic 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dion Beljo 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.
Position 3, 26 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Zagreb have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
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 Feb 2028
Dion Beljo 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 Dinamo Zagreb, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The offer from Slaven Belupo for Stipe Ivanovic 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 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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Fran Knezevic 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Dinamo Zagreb have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dion Beljo 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.
11 goals in 15 games at Koper — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dinamo Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
Fran Knezevic has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
“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 Dinamo Zagreb, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Stipe Ivanovic again, and this time the name on the line is Slaven Belupo. Dinamo Zagreb are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miha Zajc 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 chase for Josip Mitrović ended with $1.8M changing hands and Slaven Belupo out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The fee is $1.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. HNK Rijeka drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
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.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Dinamo Zagreb have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Miha Zajc 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.
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.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Karlo Zulfić’s exile
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Josip Mitrović
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Robert Mudražija obliged against Segesta. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Dinamo Zagreb.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 8.81 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Position 2, 24 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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Zadar spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
A brace, and Marko Zubaj takes the afternoon — 8.42
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marko Zubaj provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
4 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.
“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.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luka Stojković and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 4 years.
“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.
The terraces16 Aug 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 8 of the 31 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.50 for the rest of it.
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.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Mody Boune 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.
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.
“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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dion Beljo has his answer from Dinamo Zagreb; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.16, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Renzo Saravia 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
9 new faces, and Dinamo Zagreb are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mislav Oršić has his answer from Dinamo Zagreb; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Roko Ban 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stipe Ivanovic and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 4 years.
In brief
SquadWords at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work