Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. HNK Rijeka will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. HNK Rijeka have done the hard part with Istra 1961, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Ante Majstorović 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 Ante Matej Jurić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
HNK Rijeka asked and Empoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Aleksa Todorović is 22, 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.
Nobody at HNK Rijeka 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.
Marcus Ingvartsen 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.
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.
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 Marcus Ingvartsen 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.
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 HNK Rijeka have no good answer.
5‑1. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcus Ingvartsen provided it, and the 9.79 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for HNK Rijeka. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Marcus Ingvartsen 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about HNK Rijeka and FF Jaro in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Rijeka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ante Matej Jurić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.05 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Samuele Vignato provided it, and the 9.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
1 for Tiago Dantas, marked 7.86, 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.
Marcus Ingvartsen 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 Ante Matej Jurić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for HNK Rijeka. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Ante Majstorović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at HNK Rijeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ante Matej Jurić 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. HNK Rijeka will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
1‑0 against SV Ried, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
1‑5 against Club Brugge, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Dinamo Zagreb will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. HNK Rijeka were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Ante Majstorović 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 HNK Rijeka and Club Brugge, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
A season average of 7.38 with 9 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Samuele Vignato was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.76. 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.
In brief
Looking aheadTop-of-the-table clash for HNK Rijeka
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Marcus Ingvartsen scored in the 87th minute, Slaven Belupo had already begun thinking about the journey home, and HNK Rijeka took the lot.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at HNK Rijeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ante Matej Jurić 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marcus Ingvartsen. 2‑1 against Slaven Belupo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Samuele Vignato 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.
0‑0 against SV Ried, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Marcus Ingvartsen 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about HNK Rijeka and Club Brugge in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at HNK Rijeka can tell you which week it ends in.
Marcus Ingvartsen 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 goal that put HNK Gorica ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when HNK Rijeka equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
A 2‑2 draw with HNK Gorica leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at HNK Rijeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Branko Pavić 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.65 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Rijeka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ante Matej Jurić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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 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.” Marcelo Vukas kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marcus Ingvartsen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about HNK Rijeka and NK Varazdin in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Marked 9.82 — 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Rijeka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.13 — 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.
15 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Marcelo Vukas on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Istra 1961 kept coming because nothing stopped them, and HNK Rijeka will be asked about the last half hour all week.
1‑2 away to the standard of Willem II. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
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.
Marked 8.85 — 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.
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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Marcus Ingvartsen will call it something else in private.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The offer from Hrvatski Dragovoljac for Aleksa Todorović 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 HNK Rijeka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ante Matej Jurić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Marcelo Vukas left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at HNK Rijeka 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.
HNK Rijeka had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Young Boys, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Samuele Vignato 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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Ante Matej Jurić will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at HNK Rijeka escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Istra 1961 did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $2.0M for Franko Kolić, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Lokomotiva Zagreb have accepted the money. What HNK Rijeka 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 Cibalia for Noel Bodetić 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 were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Luzern is saying, and nobody at HNK Rijeka is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Rijeka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ante Matej Jurić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Aleksa Todorović has come up in conversations HNK Rijeka were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcus Ingvartsen provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
HNK Rijeka offered $5.2M; Dinamo Zagreb 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.
HNK Gorica paid $1.4M and HNK Rijeka took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Chances created: 15. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
Toni Fruk wins it after the whistle should have gone
93 minutes played. Toni Fruk found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and HNK Gorica went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The offer went to Dinamo Zagreb 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.
San Diego Football Club did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $2.2M for Marcus Ingvartsen, 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. HNK Rijeka have paid $1.8M for Tomislav Duvnjak, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Rijeka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
HNK Rijeka asked and Olympiacos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Tomislav Duvnjak 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.
NK Varazdin have accepted the money. What HNK Rijeka do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Daniel Adu-Adjei has gone, the accounts have $3.0M 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.
$2.2M on the table at San Diego Football Club. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Sunderland paid $3.0M and HNK Rijeka took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Prague have kept their man, and HNK Rijeka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Toni Fruk 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 Ante Matej Jurić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two goals and a mark of 9.13 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 Slask for Daniel Adu-Adjei 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 HNK Rijeka hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Samuele Vignato has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ante Oreč was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.