Marked for Marko Dabro
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Leonard Žuta out for 61 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Slaven Belupo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“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.
Market22 Feb 2027
Lovre Lončar has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slaven Belupo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
The goals keep arriving from Lucas Fernandes’s exile
13 goals in 27 games at Mladost Zdralovi — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Slaven Belupo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lovro Banovec was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lovro Banovec, and the manager let it.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
“I did not go to Uskok to sit and watch. I want to come back to Slaven Belupo and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 26 matches say the rest.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Antonio Jakir 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 Antonio Jakir is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Leonard Žuta out for 68 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Slaven Belupo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Slaven Belupo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Antonio Jakir 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lovro Banovec was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Itsuki Urata 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.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
“I did not go to Cibalia to sit and watch. I want to come back to Slaven Belupo and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Lovro Banovec 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 Lovro Banovec is on it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Slaven Belupo would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
“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 Slaven Belupo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market11 Jan 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slaven Belupo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Slaven Belupo asked and Rostov 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 dugout11 Jan 2027
Marko Dabro 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.
Loan watch11 Jan 2027
21 appearances at Mladost Zdralovi and the goals keep coming. Slaven Belupo are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
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.
Market11 Jan 2027
The Marko Dabro talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slaven Belupo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
Ljuban Crepulja 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.
Loan watch21 Dec 2026
The goals keep arriving from Marko Žuljević’s exile
11 goals in 17 games at Karlovac 1919 — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Slaven Belupo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Loan watch21 Dec 2026
“I watch every Slaven Belupo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Uskok runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Ramiro Di Luciano has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Slaven Belupo 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Slaven Belupo man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Ilija Nestorovski was the best thing in any of them.
Market21 Dec 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slaven Belupo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Loan watch21 Dec 2026
18 appearances away from home and 6 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Slaven Belupo will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Adrian Sović out for 36 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Slaven Belupo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Igor Lepinjica and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Lovro Banovec will call it something else in private.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Lovro Banovec has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Slaven Belupo 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.
Looking ahead23 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hajduk Split in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Adrian Sović breaks a bone — 44 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market16 Nov 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 Slaven Belupo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“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.
Market16 Nov 2026
Enis Berisha has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slaven Belupo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Ilija Nestorovski 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.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Uskok to sit and watch. I want to come back to Slaven Belupo and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 12 matches say the rest.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout16 Nov 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Marko Dabro 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Oct 2026
Position 8, 9 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Loan watch12 Oct 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 Slaven Belupo, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Marko Dabro
“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 dugout12 Oct 2026
Karlo Sentić 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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against NK Osijek in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market12 Oct 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Josip Mitrović signs something — a contract at Slaven Belupo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Filip Mažar: “I am not a substitute”
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Slaven Belupo will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
9 appearances at Mladost Zdralovi and the goals keep coming. Slaven Belupo are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ilija Nestorovski 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ilija Nestorovski. 2‑1 against HNK Vukovar 1991, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
He is 23 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Itsuki Urata 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Slaven Belupo 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Robert Pjaca on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Slaven Belupo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market17 Aug 2026
HNK Gorica come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Slaven Belupo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Lucko had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Slaven Belupo asked and DAC Dunajska Streda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Ilija Nestorovski and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Karlo Sentić
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.