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.
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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Josip Brundić’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Dinamo Zagreb needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Dinamo Zagreb. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Dinamo Zagreb will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“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.
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.
“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.
Squad4 Oct 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 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.
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 Mohamed Abo Fani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
Position 1, 21 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Dinamo Zagreb and NK Osijek, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
“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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Gabriel Vidović 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.
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.
NK Osijek next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Paksi will make the call about Lukas Kačavenda this week. Dinamo Zagreb have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Uskok had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 42 gone
That is the business done at Dinamo Zagreb until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“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.
Add another name to the list: Jarun Zagreb have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Paul Bismarck Tabinas. The answer from Dinamo Zagreb has not changed — yet.
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.
Mislav Oršić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Dinamo Zagreb, another week without a signature from Florian Kastenmeier.
“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.
“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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Blau-Weiß Linz had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Dinamo Zagreb have paid $3.4M for Florian Kastenmeier, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Florian Kastenmeier has, at Dinamo Zagreb, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Mojmír Chytil from Bournemouth for $31.8M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
$31.8M settles it between the clubs for Mojmír Chytil
Bournemouth 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.
HNK Gorica 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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.08 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The offer from Paksi for Kirill Kravtsov 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.
Léo Jardim was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.
Squad23 Aug 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.
In brief
Player ratingsLuka Ivanušec was on a different afternoon to everybody else
The offer from IF Elfsborg for Moris Valinčić 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.
“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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $4.4M has been paid because Grischa Prömel is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Grischa Prömel has, at Dinamo Zagreb, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The offer went to Zurich 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.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Grischa Prömel and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The clubs have shaken hands with CSKA Moscow; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Opatija waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Nikola Čavlina had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Vasas 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.
“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 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luka Ivanušec and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 5 years.
A mark of 7.84 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.
The offer from Nyíregyháza for Stjepan Radeljić was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I 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 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.
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 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: Dion Beljo. 3‑1 against Slaven Belupo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Dinamo Zagreb offered $11.0M; Al Ain said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.22 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
1 for Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane, marked 7.63, 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.
Marked 7.99. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
6 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The offer went to Al Ain 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” NK Domzale had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Istra 1961 paid $420.0K and Dinamo Zagreb took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Mislav Oršić 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.
Karlo Zulfić has left for NK Osijek in a $140.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stjepan Radeljić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Dion Beljo is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
13 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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. Nikola Čavlina 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.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lukas Kačavenda and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 4 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.
“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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Varteks 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.
The offer from Slovacko for Nikola Čavlina 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.
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.
Léo Jardim 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nikola Čavlina and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 4 years.
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.
The offer from Cibalia 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.
“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.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Add another name to the list: ZTE have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Luka Stojković. The answer from Dinamo Zagreb has not changed — yet.
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 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.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Léo Jardim has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dubrava 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.
Dinamo Zagreb asked and NK Osijek said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer from Latina for Ivan Filipović 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Dinamo Zagreb can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Anton Matković is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
29 appearances at Kustosija and the goals have stopped going in. Dinamo Zagreb lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
In brief
The dugoutDion Beljo is still being punished for one mistake
Squad11 new faces, and Dinamo Zagreb are still learning each other
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Dinamo Zagreb have paid $9.4M for Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Hartberg 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. Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane has, at Dinamo Zagreb, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Dinamo Zagreb asked and Fiorentina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$3.1M 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.
Karlovac 1919 paid $3.3M and Dinamo Zagreb took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Karlovac 1919 waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
$2.9M 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 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. HNK Rijeka have kept their man, and Dinamo Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Altach 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.
“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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.3M — a club that wants Luka Vrbančić enough to be asked twice.
Istra 1961 paid $1.4M and Dinamo Zagreb took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Raúl Torrente and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Niko Galešić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
BoardroomThe Dinamo Zagreb board put their names to it
43Edition
The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette
24 May 2027
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Loan watch24 May 2027
Antonio Rajić’s loan is measured in nothing happening
13 clean sheets from 29 appearances at Kustosija. 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 dugout24 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Dion Beljo's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matteo Pérez Vinlöf trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 27 games at Salernitana — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dinamo Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Dinamo Zagreb have no good answer.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Dinamo Zagreb and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
36 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Krešimir Radoš will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 11 appearances in 37 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
3 goals in 14 games at Radomlje — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dinamo Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Dinamo Zagreb. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The language is coming and there is somebody to talk to in the dressing room. A footballer who feels at home plays like one, and it never shows up in a scouting report.
In brief
SquadDominik Kotarski is training like a man with a point to make
“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.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Dinamo Zagreb. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The language is coming and there is somebody to talk to in the dressing room. A footballer who feels at home plays like one, and it never shows up in a scouting report.
“I watch every Dinamo Zagreb game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at NK Domzale runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
10 goals in 25 games at AE Kition — 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.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Lucko suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to Dinamo Zagreb, and the summer will force it.
5 goals in 26 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.
“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.
13 shut-outs in 29 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Antonio Rajić has been having a lot of them.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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 Mislav Oršić is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
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 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 11 appearances in 33 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Nevistić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Kévin Théophile-Catherine has written the date down.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Matteo Pérez Vinlöf’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Léo Jardim wants continental football; whether Dinamo Zagreb can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Dinamo Zagreb that is a harder question to answer.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gabriel Vidović and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Mislav Oršić is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
Antonio Rajić’s loan is measured in nothing happening
13 clean sheets from 29 appearances at Kustosija. 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 dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Dion Beljo's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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 24 games at Salernitana — 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Anton Matković trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Utsikten waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
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.
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.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Dinamo Zagreb that is a harder question to answer.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ivan Nevistić had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mislav Oršić and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 2 years.
The phone has started ringing about Smail Prevljak again, and this time the name on the line is Utsikten. Dinamo Zagreb are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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.
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.
Market8 Mar 2027
A year in the wrong dressing room for Petar Krišto
He went out to keep goal every week and came back with 0 games and 0 of them shut out. Somebody at Dinamo Zagreb argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ivan Nevistić has his answer from Dinamo Zagreb; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Mateo Lisica has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
“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.
“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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
13 shut-outs in 28 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Antonio Rajić has been having a lot of them.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Dion Beljo's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“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 11 appearances in 26 say he has earned the hearing.
A conversation is coming this week. Dinamo Zagreb will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market1 Mar 2027
A year in the wrong dressing room for Petar Krišto
He went out to keep goal every week and came back with 0 games and 0 of them shut out. Somebody at Dinamo Zagreb argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Krešimir Radoš will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Dinamo Zagreb can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Mislav Oršić 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 name of Stjepan Radeljić has come up in conversations Dinamo Zagreb were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
9 goals in 22 games at AE Kition — 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 Moris Valinčić is on it.
“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.
26 appearances at Kustosija and the goals have stopped going in. Dinamo Zagreb lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every 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 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.
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.
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.” Grobnican had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Dinamo Zagreb will try again when the window opens; Flamengo may not be selling by then.
“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.
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 Mislav Oršić 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Flamengo; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Stjepan Radeljić had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Dinamo Zagreb until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Dinamo Zagreb offered $1.4M; HNK Rijeka said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“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 Mohamed Abo Fani something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“I did not go to Mladost Zdralovi to sit and watch. I want to come back to Dinamo Zagreb and fight for my place.” 20 appearances in 24 matches say the rest.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Léo Jardim has moved up it.
Dinamo Zagreb offered $8.2M; Dynamo Kyiv said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The offer from Sunderland for Sergi Domínguez was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ivan Filipović had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $3.4M has been paid because Léo Jardim is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Loan watch25 Jan 2027
Antonio Rajić’s loan is measured in nothing happening
11 clean sheets from 23 appearances at Kustosija. 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.
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.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Fran Topić’s exile
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 offered $9.5M; Al-Shabab said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Dinamo Zagreb have gone to Vasco da Gama 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.
“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 SV Ried for Stjepan Radeljić was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Hazem have kept their man, and Dinamo Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
$9.5M on the table at Al-Shabab. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
At 20 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.
Dinamo Zagreb asked and NK Osijek said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 21 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.
Loan watch11 Jan 2027
Antonio Rajić’s loan is measured in nothing happening
9 clean sheets from 21 appearances at Kustosija. 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.
$6.8M on the table at Dynamo Kyiv. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
NK Osijek 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.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Dinamo Zagreb had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. HNK Rijeka have kept their man, and Dinamo Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Bruno Goda again, and this time the name on the line is Rudes. Dinamo Zagreb are listening politely and promising nothing.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Arbër Hoxha has his answer from Dinamo Zagreb; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Dinamo Zagreb who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Vélez paid $8.2M and Dinamo Zagreb took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Scott McKenna has gone, the accounts have $8.2M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Matteo Pérez Vinlöf is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
8 shut-outs in 19 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Antonio Rajić has been having a lot of them.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Vélez will make the call about Scott McKenna this week. Dinamo Zagreb have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
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.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Dinamo Zagreb would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Dinamo Zagreb that is a harder question to answer.
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 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mateo Lisica and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 5 years.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Iker Almena 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Mato Kramaric could afford to be generous.
“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.
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 dugout7 Dec 2026
Dion Beljo is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“I did not go to Mladost Zdralovi to sit and watch. I want to come back to Dinamo Zagreb and fight for my place.” 13 appearances in 16 matches say the rest.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Stjepan Radeljić is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Mato Kramaric was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Dinamo Zagreb dressing room was either.
32 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. HNK Rijeka had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Mato Kramaric chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.64 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Stjepan Radeljić.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Mato Kramaric kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 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 watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
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 Stjepan Radeljić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
NK Varazdin 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.
Josip Mišić has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
13 appearances at Kustosija and the goals have stopped going in. Dinamo Zagreb lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.05 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
A 2‑0 win over Slaven Belupo, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
With 6 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
“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.
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.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Mislav Oršić is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.74 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mateo Lisica 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.
A 2‑0 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 8.09. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dinamo Zagreb.
Squad26 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Dinamo Zagreb are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Mato Kramaric kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 9 games at Rudes — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dinamo Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Istra 1961 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.
Position 2, 19 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gabriel Vidović is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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.
Marked 8.42 — 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.
“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.
“I did not go to Karlovac 1919 to sit and watch. I want to come back to Dinamo Zagreb and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 6 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dion Beljo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Dinamo Zagreb needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Stjepan Radeljić has written the date down.
Position 3, 16 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
5 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.
Something was said to Arbër Hoxha and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It needed Dion Beljo to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against HNK Gorica, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Josip Mišić
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mato Kramaric after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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 Arbër Hoxha is on 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.
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.
Marked 7.27 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad28 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Dinamo Zagreb are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
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 Moris Valinčić is on it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Marked 8.19 — 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.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Hajduk Split on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
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.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
12 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Mohamed Abo Fani scored, was marked 7.86, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
$2.1M 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dion Beljo. 4‑3 against HNK Rijeka, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Dinamo Zagreb and HNK Rijeka in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
“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.
$2.4M 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Dinamo Zagreb close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 18 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.
HNK Rijeka paid $2.5M and Dinamo Zagreb took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.5M — a club that wants Domagoj Bukvić enough to be asked twice.
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Mislav Oršić
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mislav Oršić has come out of that comparison in the side, and Dinamo Zagreb have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Dinamo Zagreb have gone to Lokomotiva Zagreb 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $800.0K — a club that wants Tino Jukić enough to be asked twice.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.65, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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. Gabriel Vidović had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.34 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The fee is $1.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lokomotiva Zagreb drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mirko Sušak has just signed for Dinamo Zagreb, and for once the answer mattered.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Sergi Domínguez had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Dinamo Zagreb have paid $6.0M for Mohamed Abo Fani, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$1.6M settles it between the clubs for Mirko Sušak
Lokomotiva Zagreb 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.
The offer from SKA Khabarovsk for Kirill Kravtsov 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.
Dinamo Zagreb asked and Lokomotiva Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.7M — a club that wants Mirko Sušak enough to be asked twice.
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.
Crvena Zvezda 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.” Arminia Bielefeld had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Dinamo Zagreb asked and HNK Rijeka said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
A 1‑0 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.
The offer from Kristiansund for Mateo Lisica 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 phone has started ringing about Sergi Domínguez again, and this time the name on the line is St. Pölten. Dinamo Zagreb are listening politely and promising nothing.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Josip Mišić 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.
Luka Stojković 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.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
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.
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
In brief
Squad7 new faces, and Dinamo Zagreb are still learning each other