David Puclin

Defensive Midfielder - NK Varazdin
18 Jul 2027
Sunday
Process

Marked for David Puclin

49 Edition

The NK Varazdin Chronicle

5 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Christian Ilić hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NK Varazdin can pretend not to have heard.

The terraces

Supporters turn on the $1.2M sale of Josip Silić

He is going to NK Osijek, the club has $1.2M 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.

Squad

NK Varazdin lose Lovro Mikulčić

55 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Transfer targets

Belajdi Pusi due for a NK Varazdin medical

Everything agreed with Krylya Sovetov, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Market

Josip Silić moves on

NK Osijek pay $1.2M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.

Squad

A falling-out at NK Varazdin

David Puclin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

The step up is real for Paizinho

At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

Squad

Late improvement for Iuri Tavares

At 26 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

Transfer targets

NK Varazdin rebuffed over Facundo Krüger

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Club have kept their man, and NK Varazdin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

In brief

Back issues
35 Edition

The NK Varazdin Chronicle

29 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

The dugout

David Puclin gets it from the manager

“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.

The dugout

Mario Marina asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

Market

Iuri Tavares linked with a move away

The name of Iuri Tavares keeps appearing in other people's back pages. NK Varazdin say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

Luka Škaričić has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at NK Varazdin 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.

The dugout

A door opens for Christian Ilić

He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.

Market

NK Varazdin put Josip Silić up for sale

The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Josip Silić may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.

In brief

28 Edition

The NK Varazdin Chronicle

8 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A row about effort at NK Varazdin

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iuri Tavares was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Sadibou Sané

NK Varazdin asked and Monaco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

Dorian Fraeyman signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dorian Fraeyman and NK Varazdin agree another 4 years.

The dugout

No hiding place for Mateo Barać

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mateo Barać, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Mario Marina knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mario Marina trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

The dugout

Bryan Eyenga Lokilo has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at NK Varazdin 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.

Squad

A season on the outside for Kerim Alajbegović

He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at NK Varazdin has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.

Market

Tomislav Duvnjak linked with a move away

The name of Tomislav Duvnjak keeps appearing in other people's back pages. NK Varazdin say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

Christian Ilić has been promised minutes

A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Christian Ilić has written the date down.

In brief

26 Edition

The NK Varazdin Chronicle

25 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Tomislav Duvnjak hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NK Varazdin can pretend not to have heard.

The dugout

Domagoj Begonja: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” NK Varazdin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

A falling-out at NK Varazdin

Iuri Tavares and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Eyes on Silvio Ilinković again

The phone has started ringing about Silvio Ilinković again, and this time the name on the line is Segesta. NK Varazdin are listening politely and promising nothing.

Transfer targets

NK Varazdin rebuffed over Lucas Varaldo

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Central Córdoba SdE have kept their man, and NK Varazdin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

The dugout

No hiding place for David Puclin

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Puclin, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Petar Bočkaj knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Petar Bočkaj trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

The dugout

Silvio Ilinković has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at NK Varazdin 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.

Market

Roberto Punčec placed on the list

NK Varazdin have made Roberto Punčec available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.

In brief

22 Edition

The NK Varazdin Chronicle

28 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Words exchanged at NK Varazdin

Tomislav Duvnjak and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Words at NK Varazdin training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iuri Tavares 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 dugout

No hiding place for David Puclin

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Puclin, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Mario Marina 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 NK Varazdin, and both men came out saying it was fine.

The dugout

Silvio Ilinković gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Silvio Ilinković is on it.

Market

The Aleksa Latković talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. NK Varazdin know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

In brief

21 Edition

The NK Varazdin Chronicle

21 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

The dugout

David Puclin: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” NK Varazdin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Iuri Tavares 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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Bryan Eyenga Lokilo

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

The dugout

Mario Marina 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 NK Varazdin, and both men came out saying it was fine.

The dugout

The manager has not finished forgetting Ivan Canjuga's mistake

Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.

Market

The Tomislav Duvnjak story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tomislav Duvnjak signs something — a contract at NK Varazdin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

15 Edition

The NK Varazdin Chronicle

9 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Kerim Alajbegović runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Tempers go at NK Varazdin

Tomislav Duvnjak 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.

Match

NK Varazdin get the job done against NK Osijek

A 3‑1 win over NK Osijek, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Iuri Tavares

Marked 8.03 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Luka Mamić

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

The dugout

The team sheet said everything about Matej Vuk

Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Matej Vuk.

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Lovro Majkić

The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Petar Kramaric kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.

Player ratings

Stipe Jurić ran the game

Chances created: 9. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.

In brief

12 Edition

The NK Varazdin Chronicle

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Kerim Alajbegović at 19 — 7.99

The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kerim Alajbegović did not need any: 7.99, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Squad

Tempers go at NK Varazdin

Iuri Tavares 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.

Squad

Lovro Majkić has improved at 27, 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.

Match

Kerim Alajbegović sends NK Varazdin past Istra 1961

It finished 2‑1, and it was Kerim Alajbegović’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to NK Varazdin.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Ivan Canjuga

At 20 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.

Player ratings

Matej Vuk was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.41. 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.

Squad

Novak Tepšić reaches 100 appearances

100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.

Player ratings

Petar Bočkaj was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

The dugout

The form table has caught Lovro Majkić

Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.

In brief

8 Edition

The NK Varazdin Chronicle

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Tomislav Duvnjak 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 NK Varazdin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Kerim Alajbegović was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Match

6 unbeaten for NK Varazdin

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation NK Varazdin did not have in the autumn.

Match

Aleksa Latković the difference as NK Varazdin beat Lokomotiva Zagreb

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aleksa Latković. 2‑0 against Lokomotiva Zagreb, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

The dugout

No hiding place for Christian Ilić

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Christian Ilić, and the manager let it.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Matej Vuk at his very best

Marked 8.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at NK Varazdin.

The dugout

Petar Kramaric: “That is the standard”

“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.

Looking ahead

David Puclin goes back to face Slaven Belupo

Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is David Puclin’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and NK Varazdin needing him to play as if none of it matters.

The dugout

Roberto Punčec does not fit this one

Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.

In brief

7 Edition

The NK Varazdin Chronicle

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Luka Mamić asks to leave NK Varazdin

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Player ratings

Kerim Alajbegović beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Stipe Jurić signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Stipe Jurić commits to NK Varazdin for another 4 years.

Squad

Iuri Tavares 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Thomas Kastanaras

NK Varazdin asked and FC Augsburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of David Puclin

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Player ratings

Nobody on the pitch touched Gregor Sikošek

7.40, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. NK Varazdin had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.

Squad

NK Varazdin are still strangers to each other

6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Petar Kramaric was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the NK Varazdin dressing room was either.

In brief

5 Edition

The NK Varazdin Chronicle

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

David Puclin asks to leave NK Varazdin

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Player ratings

A brace, and Iuri Tavares takes the afternoon — 8.77

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Iuri Tavares provided it, and the 8.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Transfer targets

Filip Krovinović turns down NK Varazdin

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Grêmio keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Squad

Words exchanged at NK Varazdin

Iuri Tavares and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Kerim Alajbegović

Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Transfer targets

NK Varazdin rebuffed over Chinonso Offor

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Baltika have kept their man, and NK Varazdin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Match

Iuri Tavares sends NK Varazdin past Dinamo Zagreb

It finished 2‑1, and it was Iuri Tavares’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to NK Varazdin.

The terraces

One of their own: Kerim Alajbegović

He is 18 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.

Transfer targets

NK Varazdin ask about Lovro Majkić

A loan enquiry to PAOK: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

In brief

4 Edition

The NK Varazdin Chronicle

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Kerim Alajbegović runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

NK Varazdin say no — this time

The offer from Istra 1961 for Domagoj Begonja 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.

Match

No end in sight to NK Varazdin's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at NK Varazdin has to find a result from somewhere.

Market

NK Varazdin sell Mario Mladenovski for $800.0K

Mario Mladenovski has left for Istra 1961 in a $800.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

Squad

A falling-out at NK Varazdin

Robby McCrorie and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Iuri Tavares 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Vladislav Torop

NK Varazdin asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Filip Krovinović is in the works

NK Varazdin have made the call to Grêmio. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Chinonso Offor is in the works

NK Varazdin have made the call to Baltika. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

In brief