“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” NK Osijek have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Two goals and a mark of 8.05 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Marko Zubaj did not need any: 7.86, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. NK Osijek will try not to make too much of it.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the NK Osijek dressing room in a hurry
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ante Matej Jurić provided it, and the 9.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody 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 NK Osijek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 3‑1 win over Istra 1961, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at NK Osijek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tonio Teklić 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.
Something was said to David Mejía and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 14 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Ivan Barić scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Hajduk Split, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tonio Teklić 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
15 new faces, and NK Osijek 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Duje Sucic after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Istra 1961 next, and one man in the NK Osijek dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Two goals and a mark of 9.09 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Arbër Hoxha 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.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about NK Osijek and HNK Rijeka in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Hajduk Split 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.
Marked 8.03 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 3‑5 defeat, delivered by Duje Sucic to a room that had heard them before.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Anton Matković did not need any: 8.13, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Antonio Milić 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ante Matej Jurić 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. NK Osijek will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tonio Teklić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tonio Teklić 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Slaven Belupo next, and one man in the NK Osijek dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
David Čolina 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.
15 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout21 Sep 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.” Duje Sucic kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Téo Barišić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer from Lokomotiva Zagreb for Niko Farkaš 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 about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Osijek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 3‑1 win over Dinamo Zagreb, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Yannick Touré was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.20. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tonio Teklić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Duje Sucic on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
He laid on 3 and scored none, and would have been mildly offended to be asked why. The scorers get the headlines; the man who made them gets the respect of everybody who understood the match.
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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Arbër Hoxha 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 Tonio Teklić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Tonio Teklić has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The clubs have shaken hands with Dinamo Zagreb; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer from Dinamo Zagreb for Anton Matković 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.
Everything agreed with HNK Rijeka, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
David Čolina 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.
NK Osijek offered $270.0K; Slaven Belupo 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.
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.
Everything agreed with Dinamo Zagreb, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
$270.0K on the table at Slaven Belupo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
David Čolina 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 Tonio Teklić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Universitario have kept their man, and NK Osijek go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Dinamo Zagreb did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $3.2M for Arbër Hoxha, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. NK Osijek have paid $2.7M for Ante Matej Jurić, 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. Nikola Soldo has, at NK Osijek, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
NK Osijek have gone to HNK Gorica 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.
Antonio Milić 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 chase for Davyd Fesyuk ended with $100.0K changing hands and Hajduk Split out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
NK Osijek spend $3.2M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $3.2M for Arbër Hoxha, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at NK Osijek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tonio Teklić 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.
HNK Rijeka have accepted the money. What NK Osijek do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Dino Perić has just signed for NK Osijek, and for once the answer mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Zagreb have kept their man, and NK Osijek go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
NK Osijek had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at KAA Gent, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
A brace, and Luka Vrbančić takes the afternoon — 8.16
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luka Vrbančić provided it, and the 8.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
David Čolina and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tonio Teklić 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.
A 2‑1 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The name of Matej Grahovac has come up in conversations NK Osijek were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.