From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dugopolje may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Bruno Zdunić 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Zoran Nižić 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Dugopolje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zoran Nižić 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 259% of everything Dugopolje earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giannis Gianniotas, and the manager let it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Nobody could get near Ivan Delić
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Dimitar Trajkov
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Dimitar Trajkov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Dugopolje have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces28 Sep 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 8 of the 32 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Bruno Zdunić 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Florian Brügmann 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maximiliano Carrasco, and the manager let it.
Match26 Sep 2026
Zadar left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Dugopolje
10 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Sep 2026
11 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tomislav Adolf Tomić 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Dugopolje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Florian Brügmann 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 terraces21 Sep 2026
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Federico Freire
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Imotski, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Bruno Zdunić 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bruno Zdunić, and the manager let it.
Market14 Sep 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tom Carroll knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tom Carroll trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.66 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match5 Sep 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Dimitar Trajkov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Dugopolje.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Dugopolje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Florian Brügmann 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 terraces7 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to Niko Garić
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Festim Shatri, and the manager let it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Niko Garić at his very best
Marked 8.41. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dugopolje.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tom Carroll dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces31 Aug 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 8 of the 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Market31 Aug 2026
Špiro Peričić hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dugopolje can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Florian Brügmann 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Mateo Smodlaka scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Sibenik, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Dugopolje
8 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
An afternoon Karlo Bungić will want back
Marked 5.53. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Thiago Salischiker Rucci did not need any: 8.29, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad24 Aug 2026
37 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Ivan Delić for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Dugopolje will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Market24 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done: Ivan Bjelivuk joins from Segesta in a deal worth $130.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Bruno Zdunić in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Fran Sánchez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Thiago Salischiker Rucci 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Dugopolje signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Federico Freire 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Zoran Nižić 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Ivan Delić
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Shots: 6, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Market17 Aug 2026
Antonio Repić is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Dugopolje has been clear about where Antonio Repić stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market17 Aug 2026
Experience through the door at Dugopolje
Federico Freire arrives at 36 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Market17 Aug 2026
Dugopolje bring in an old head
Maximiliano Carrasco is 38 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Bruno Zdunić 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 terraces10 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mate Antunović 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market10 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 7.63 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Dugopolje had the best player on the pitch.
Squad10 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Market10 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Dugopolje will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Match8 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Zoran Nižić and Dugopolje agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tomislav Adolf Tomić 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Zoran Nižić gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Josip Bartulić again, and this time the name on the line is Sibenik. Dugopolje are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.