“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 deal that would have taken Noa Mikić to NK Varazdin 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.
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.
“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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Dinamo Zagreb will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
33 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Fran Topić 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.
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.
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Lukas Kačavenda had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Uskok waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $752.2K of what Dinamo Zagreb paid for Alfonso Barco is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
“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.
In brief
BoardroomDeadline passes with 26 signed and 40 gone
8 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.
Transfer targets27 Aug 2029
$4.5M settles it between the clubs for Simone Rabbi
Ravenna have accepted the money. What Dinamo Zagreb do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Raúl Torrente had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Segesta waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dani Olmo provided it, and the 8.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Dominik Simčić has, at Dinamo Zagreb, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Dani Olmo is a Dinamo Zagreb player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.
7 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The offer from Kisvárda for Luka Stojković 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Dinamo Zagreb know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Guglielmo Vicario now has 50 of them across 415 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
Olympiacos have accepted the money. What Dinamo Zagreb do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” NK Varazdin had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Dinamo Zagreb scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
A 2‑1 win over Lokomotiva Zagreb, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Marked 8.23 — 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Croatia Zmijavci waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
5 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.
The phone has started ringing about Noa Mikić again, and this time the name on the line is Orijent 1919. Dinamo Zagreb are listening politely and promising nothing.
Marked 8.16 — 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Mojmír Chytil at his very best
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Gabriel Vidović at his very best
SquadWords at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Orijent 1919 waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Segesta had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
4 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Dinamo Zagreb are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Ivanušec was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Squad21 new faces, and Dinamo Zagreb are still learning each other
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against HNK Gorica, and it could have been more.
Player ratings23 Jul 2029
A brace, and Mojmír Chytil takes the afternoon — 8.38
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mojmír Chytil provided it, and the 8.38 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
3 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.19, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Zagreb lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.
$9.0M was the most the club would pay and Exeter City were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
16 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Luka Ivanušec 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 level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Dinamo Zagreb know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Zagreb lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
$9.0M on the table at Exeter City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ángel Correa is living that version at Dinamo Zagreb, and it tends to show in the first month.
The offer from Primorje for Luka Ivanušec 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Osijek have kept their man, and Dinamo Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deal with HNK Rijeka is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
$35.0M was the most the club would pay and Ajax were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Dinamo Zagreb asked and Galatasaray said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Guglielmo Vicario has just signed for Dinamo Zagreb, and for once the answer mattered.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Djakovo Croatia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: HNK Rijeka keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The offer from Slovan Bratislava for Florian Kastenmeier 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.
“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.
Bournemouth did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $3.1M for Guglielmo Vicario, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
In brief
Transfer targetsAn offer of $1.8M for Ángel Correa
The words a physio says slowly. 46 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Dinamo Zagreb have gone to Ajax with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Santos is saying, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is enjoying the guessing.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Luka Ivanušec had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Dinamo Zagreb have gone to HNK Rijeka with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Bradley Barcola was one of the reasons people came, and $82.3M does not replace that by itself.
56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Zagreb lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer went to Watford this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $19.8M has been paid because Jorge Cuenca is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jorge Cuenca has, at Dinamo Zagreb, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Dinamo Zagreb have gone to Santos with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$4.8M was the most the club would pay and HNK Rijeka were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
$3.1M on the table at Bournemouth. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
65 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Zagreb lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
$19.8M on the table at Huddersfield Town. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Dinamo Zagreb have gone to HNK Rijeka with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The offer from Kecskeméti TE for Luka Ivanušec 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.
$2.7M was the most the club would pay and NK Osijek were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Dinamo Zagreb have gone to NK Osijek with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Zagreb lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Dinamo Zagreb have had the benefit of it.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ayoub Makhfaoui has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“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.
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Zagreb lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Vidović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not go to Karlovac 1919 to sit and watch. I want to come back to Dinamo Zagreb and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 89 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tai Žnuderl will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
“I did not go to NK Varazdin to sit and watch. I want to come back to Dinamo Zagreb and fight for my place.” 15 appearances in 48 matches say the rest.
Loan watch14 May 2029
Léo Jardim’s loan is measured in nothing happening
10 clean sheets from 18 appearances at NK Osijek. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
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.
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Zagreb lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
“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.
Squad7 May 2029
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Vidović 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.
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.
Tai Žnuderl 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 104 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Grischa Prömel 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.
22 appearances at Trnje and the goals keep coming. Dinamo Zagreb are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Vidović 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.
“I watch every Dinamo Zagreb game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cibalia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
10 goals in 21 games at Hrvatski Dragovoljac — 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Noa Mikić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 112 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Dinamo Zagreb know it.
Josip Mišić 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 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 13 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 120 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tai Žnuderl will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Vidović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Dinamo Zagreb game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at NK Osijek runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
127 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Zagreb lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
44 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
A brace, and Mojmír Chytil takes the afternoon — 8.95
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mojmír Chytil provided it, and the 8.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Bradley Barcola at his very best
Player ratingsGabriel Vidović was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Krešimir Radoš’s exile
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
“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 10 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Vidović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Dinamo Zagreb game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Karlovac 1919 runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Dinamo Zagreb that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tai Žnuderl will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Vidović 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.
“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 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Loan watch19 Mar 2029
Léo Jardim’s loan is measured in nothing happening
10 clean sheets from 18 appearances at NK Osijek. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
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 Bradley Barcola is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tai Žnuderl trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
44 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Marin Delić has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Grischa Prömel 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.
“I watch every Dinamo Zagreb game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at NK Osijek runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Mojmír Chytil is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from Tromso for Luka Ivanušec 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 19 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“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.
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.
“94 caps is more than I ever expected, and it is time somebody else had them.” At 34 he is finished with his country and nowhere near finished with Dinamo Zagreb.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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 did not go to Karlovac 1919 to sit and watch. I want to come back to Dinamo Zagreb and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tai Žnuderl will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Josip Mišić 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.
18 appearances at NK Osijek and the goals have stopped going in. Dinamo Zagreb lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Dinamo Zagreb are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Jarun Zagreb had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Primorje for Niko Galešić 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ondrej Duda is living that version at Dinamo Zagreb, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
“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.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
A 0‑0 win over Jadran Luka Ploce, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Jarun Zagreb had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Dinamo Zagreb ran out of time with Bournemouth. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The bid was some way short and Dinamo Zagreb did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Dinamo Zagreb close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 9 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer went to Bournemouth this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
The phone has started ringing about Robert Mudražija again, and this time the name on the line is Jarun Zagreb. Dinamo Zagreb are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Luka Ivanušec had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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.
$530.0K was the most the club would pay and NK Varazdin were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Yannick Touré has just signed for Dinamo Zagreb, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Vidović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Lokomotiva Zagreb pay $6.5M, 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.
The offer from NK Osijek for Robert Mudražija 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $700.0K — a club that wants Vid Novak enough to be asked twice.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Vid Novak has just signed for Dinamo Zagreb, and for once the answer mattered.
In brief
SquadGabriel Vidović falls out with a teammate over standards
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.
$3.8M was the most the club would pay and NK Osijek were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
$1.2M on the table at NK Osijek. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Dinamo Zagreb have gone to NK Osijek with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Nikolas Šimić has agreed terms with HNK Rijeka for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gabriel Vidović and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 5 years.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Dinamo Zagreb have had the benefit of it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Robert Mudražija has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Dinamo Zagreb told Matteo Pérez Vinlöf something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vuk Vlahović 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Dinamo Zagreb than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Alfonso Barco
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Vidović 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.
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.
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.
4 goals in 19 games at Fehervar — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dinamo Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
4 goals in 11 games at Hrvatski Dragovoljac — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dinamo Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Zagreb know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutVuk Vlahović asks for a word with the manager
Grischa Prömel 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.
“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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Dinamo Zagreb are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Bradley Barcola is on it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Dinamo Zagreb has been clear about where Tai Žnuderl stands, which is more than many ever get.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Mislav Oršić obliged against Dugo Selo. 4‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Dinamo Zagreb.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 44 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 1 with 44 on the board, and the queues outside the ticket office are the part of a promotion push that never shows up in a table. The town has decided this one is real.
“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. Alfonso Barco 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Anton Matković. 2‑1 against Cibalia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
1 for Grischa Prömel, marked 7.57, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“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.
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 first defeat in 7 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against NK Osijek; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Vidović 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.82, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
Nobody left the Dinamo Zagreb dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Dinamo Zagreb and Slaven Belupo in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Chances created: 15. 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.
At 22 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.
Marked 8.45 — 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.
In brief
Looking aheadThe big one: NK Osijek come into view
“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 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.
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 Matteo Pérez Vinlöf is on it.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Mojmír Chytil has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matteo Pérez Vinlöf signs something — a contract at Dinamo Zagreb or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Slaven Belupo next, and one man in the Dinamo Zagreb dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Matteo Pérez Vinlöf 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Vidović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
In brief
Squad6 Dinamo Zagreb players away with their countries
5 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.
“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.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
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.
Derby days make names, and Mojmír Chytil made his against Hajduk Split. 2‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
4 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.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Dinamo Zagreb support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Vidović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Dinamo Zagreb told Grischa Prömel something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
HNK Rijeka will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Dinamo Zagreb were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gabriel Vidović provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.37, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Marko Zebić, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.27
A mark of 8.27 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.53, and nobody on the pitch better.
The terraces23 Oct 2028
Dinamo Zagreb are 1 in the table and the town has noticed
29 points, a place near the top and a ground that has begun to enjoy itself. Nobody will say the word out loud, which is the surest indication that everybody is thinking it.
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.
Grischa Prömel 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Dinamo Zagreb are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Dinamo Zagreb told Noa Mikić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against HNK Rijeka in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Lokomotiva Zagreb will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Dinamo Zagreb were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
A brace, and Mojmír Chytil takes the afternoon — 9.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mojmír Chytil provided it, and the 9.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Mojmír Chytil in the middle of it, and Lokomotiva Zagreb unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Marked 8.36 — 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 training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 6 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
“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.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Dinamo Zagreb will try not to make too much of it.
Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Dinamo Zagreb had all but put away. Orijent 1919 will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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 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.
5 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.
At 22 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 3 times before the twentieth minute. Cibalia tried to reorganise, Dinamo Zagreb did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.41, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Anton Matković was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
4 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.
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.
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.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Bradley Barcola was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.53. 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
“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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Dinamo Zagreb will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
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.
In brief
The dugoutBradley Barcola has become a man the manager trusts
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bradley Barcola provided it, and the 8.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Nyíregyháza had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.08 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The offer from Kifisia for Lukas Kačavenda 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.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Dinamo Zagreb close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 40 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“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.
Position 2, 13 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Debrecen had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Aluminij for Niko Galešić 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.
Grischa Prömel 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.
Add another name to the list: Kifisia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lukas Kačavenda. The answer from Dinamo Zagreb has not changed — yet.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bradley Barcola. 2‑1 against Istra 1961, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Istra 1961 spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
HNK Gorica will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Dinamo Zagreb were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and HNK Rijeka waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer from NK Celje for Noa Mikić 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.
He is 22 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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.
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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Dinamo Zagreb know it.
Level with 86 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Dinamo Zagreb had all but put away. Hajduk Split will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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.
The offer from HNK Gorica for Mohamed Abo Fani 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.
Hajduk Split next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane decided nobody was going anywhere. Lokomotiva Zagreb had no time left to answer.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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 7.67 for the rest of 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.
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.
14 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Lukas Kačavenda had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Grischa Prömel 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
At 22 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Jarun Zagreb waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samy Mmaee will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Noa Mikić 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.
37 caps, a month of football, and a medal that will never leave a drawer. He is due back at Dinamo Zagreb in a fortnight and nobody will mention it, which is its own way of mentioning it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Juan José Córdoba had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noa Mikić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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
The dugoutTai Žnuderl knocks on the manager’s door
46 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
Slaven Belupo pay $15.1M, 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Florian Kastenmeier and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 3 years.
Samy Mmaee 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.
20 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.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Slaven Belupo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Hrvace had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Dinamo Zagreb asked and Estudiantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Vidović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane is on it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Dinamo Zagreb would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Juan José Córdoba had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cruzeiro have kept their man, and Dinamo Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Dinamo Zagreb know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Vidović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Mojmír Chytil is on it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Dinamo Zagreb would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Dinamo Zagreb have paid $64.9M for Bradley Barcola, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Puskas Akademia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Bradley Barcola has, at Dinamo Zagreb, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The terraces12 Jun 2028
Dinamo Zagreb spend $64.9M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $64.9M for Bradley Barcola, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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 offer went to Manchester City this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
46 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The phone has started ringing about Léo Jardim again, and this time the name on the line is Istra 1961. Dinamo Zagreb are listening politely and promising nothing.
Grischa Prömel 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 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Mojmír Chytil is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
In brief
SquadDinamo Zagreb are still strangers to each other
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
18 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Dinamo Zagreb have had the benefit of it.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.99, and 2 involvements.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Josip Mišić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 did not go to NK Varazdin to sit and watch. I want to come back to Dinamo Zagreb and fight for my place.” 15 appearances in 46 matches say the rest.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Zagreb know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samy Mmaee will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Abo Fani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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 17 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Dion Beljo is on it.
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 Dinamo Zagreb would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
6 clean sheets from 19 appearances at Debrecen. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ivan Paunović is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I watch every Dinamo Zagreb game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cibalia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Florian Kastenmeier trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Dinamo Zagreb would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Zagreb know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Sven Šunta’s exile
“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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Abo Fani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Samy Mmaee 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.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Abo Fani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Alfonso Barco 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 watch every Dinamo Zagreb game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at NK Varazdin runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Mohamed Abo Fani is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Zagreb know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
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.
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.
6 goals in 22 games at Sesvete — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dinamo Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
19 appearances at Debrecen and the goals have stopped going in. Dinamo Zagreb lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
46 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
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.
Tai Žnuderl 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 given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Dinamo Zagreb know it.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Abo Fani 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.
“I watch every Dinamo Zagreb game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cibalia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Dion Beljo obliged against HNK Gorica. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Dinamo Zagreb.
17 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Grischa Prömel 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.
“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.
A season average of 7.37 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match29 Mar 2028
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Dinamo Zagreb. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Dion Beljo
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 Mateo Lisica is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Zagreb know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
5 goals in 22 games at ZTE — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dinamo Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samy Mmaee will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 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.
“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 9 say he has earned the hearing.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
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.
6 shut-outs in 19 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Ivan Filipović has been having a lot of them.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Paul Bismarck Tabinas 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.
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.
Samy Mmaee 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 watch every Dinamo Zagreb game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bukhara runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Dinamo Zagreb will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“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.
“I watch every Dinamo Zagreb game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kustosija runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
10 goals in 29 games at Lucko — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dinamo Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 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 watch every Dinamo Zagreb game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at NK Varazdin runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Zagreb know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
6 goals in 23 games at Uljanik Pula — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dinamo Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
5 goals in 22 games at ZTE — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dinamo Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samy Mmaee will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Abo Fani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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 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.
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 Mohamed Abo Fani is on it.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mate Vukas is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bruno Modric has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dario Tadic has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
10 goals in 21 games at Hartberg — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dinamo Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Dion Beljo is on it.
11 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.
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and BSK Bijelo Brdo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Two goals and a mark of 8.54 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 1 with 46 on the board, and the queues outside the ticket office are the part of a promotion push that never shows up in a table. The town has decided this one is real.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kaloyan Bozhkov did not need any: 7.86, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 14 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Lukas Kačavenda had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gabriel Vidović and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Abo Fani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Mateo Lisica is on it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Dinamo Zagreb asked and Bahia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samy Mmaee will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
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.
19 appearances at Debrecen and the goals have stopped going in. Dinamo Zagreb lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: CSKA Moscow keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Abo Fani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 5 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
10 goals in 21 games at Hartberg — 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and BSK Bijelo Brdo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Fehervar had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $82.3M — a club that wants Alexey Miranchuk enough to be asked twice.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Gabriel Proleta has agreed terms with Hrvace for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Grischa Prömel 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Abo Fani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
$19.7M on the table at CSKA Moscow. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Dinamo Zagreb will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“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.
The name of Lukas Kačavenda has come up in conversations Dinamo Zagreb were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sergi Domínguez has his answer from Dinamo Zagreb; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Florian Kastenmeier has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane has come out of that comparison in the side, and Dinamo Zagreb have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
In brief
The dugoutMateo Lisica has become a man the manager trusts
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 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mohamed Abo Fani signs something — a contract at Dinamo Zagreb or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
16 appearances at Debrecen and the goals have stopped going in. Dinamo Zagreb lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
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 Florian Kastenmeier has written the date down.
3 goals in 19 games at ZTE — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dinamo Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
46 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“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.
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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Abo Fani 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.
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.
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.
7 goals in 17 games at Hartberg — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dinamo Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
10 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.
Position 1 on 46 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Tin Miljak, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.45
A mark of 8.45 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane. 2‑0 against Cibalia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
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.
“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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Dinamo Zagreb are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Abo Fani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 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.
At 19 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Dinamo Zagreb and NK Varazdin in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Sergi Domínguez 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.
6 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Gabriel Vidović will call it something else in private.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Mato Kramaric could afford to be generous.
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Abo Fani 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.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Dinamo Zagreb will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dion Beljo signs something — a contract at Dinamo Zagreb or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Lokomotiva Zagreb next, and one man in the Dinamo Zagreb dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
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 Florian Kastenmeier has written the date down.
5 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matteo Pérez Vinlöf did not need any: 7.64, 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.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
3‑1 against Hajduk Split, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
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.
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.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Dinamo Zagreb and a story that will outlast his contract.
“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.
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.
200 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.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. HNK Rijeka will replay every second of the added time for a week.
28 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
A brace, and Mojmír Chytil takes the afternoon — 8.92
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mojmír Chytil provided it, and the 8.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
3 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Abo Fani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mojmír Chytil. 2‑1 against HNK Rijeka, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Dinamo Zagreb will be judged on one thing only.
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Tin Miljak, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.36
A mark of 8.36 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Dinamo Zagreb and Djakovo Croatia, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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. Mirko Sušak 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.