Marked for David Puclin
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
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.
Match7 Nov 2026
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 ratings9 Nov 2026
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 dugout9 Nov 2026
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 dugout9 Nov 2026
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 dugout9 Nov 2026
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 dugout9 Nov 2026
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 ratings9 Nov 2026
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
Match17 Oct 2026
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 terraces19 Oct 2026
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 ratings19 Oct 2026
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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 ratings19 Oct 2026
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 dugout19 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 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 NK Varazdin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
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.
Match19 Sep 2026
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.
Match19 Sep 2026
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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“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 ratings21 Sep 2026
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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“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 ahead21 Sep 2026
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 dugout21 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Stipe Jurić commits to NK Varazdin for another 4 years.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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 targets14 Sep 2026
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 dugout14 Sep 2026
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 ratings14 Sep 2026
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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 dugout14 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 ratings31 Aug 2026
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 targets31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
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 terraces31 Aug 2026
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 targets31 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
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.
Match22 Aug 2026
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Mario Mladenovski has left for Istra 1961 in a $800.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Robby McCrorie and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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 targets24 Aug 2026
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 targets24 Aug 2026
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 targets24 Aug 2026
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.