From our football correspondent
Steady
Match10 Oct 2026
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Bernardo Matić decided nobody was going anywhere. Imotski had no time left to answer.
Market12 Oct 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Sibenik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tobías Donsanti 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 ratings12 Oct 2026
Marked 9.03 — 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.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Josip Baturina 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.
Match10 Oct 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 19, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Celsinho 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Oct 2026
Tobias Asenzo 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 Sibenik can pretend not to have heard.
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 Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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 Sibenik know it.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 126% of everything Sibenik 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
Celsinho 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
No hiding place for Celsinho
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Celsinho, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 26 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tobías Donsanti 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
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toni Španja 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Toni Španja 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Hrvatski Dragovoljac, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.20 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad28 Sep 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 ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 5.78. 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
Market21 Sep 2026
“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 Sibenik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Toni Španja 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 Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
3 matches without a goal for Sibenik
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Celsinho 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.
Squad21 Sep 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Celsinho 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Point won or two lost for Sibenik?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Cibalia? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Ante Ćorić
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A mark of 5.51 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Sep 2026
Sibenik sink to position 9
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 8 of the 27 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad14 Sep 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 Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Celsinho 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ante Ćorić runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Shots: 8, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 Sibenik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Toni Španja 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Jurica Jurčec 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.
Squad7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Sibenik
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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Shots: 6. 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Lucko will be the happier side with the point.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Shots: 4. 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
Leonardo Štrbac damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market31 Aug 2026
Diego Sekulić 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 Sibenik can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tobías Donsanti 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Three points for Sibenik, 2‑1 the final word against Dugopolje in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Toni Španja, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Celsinho 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Experience through the door at Sibenik
Celsinho arrives at 38 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 5.63, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Leonardo Štrbac
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sibenik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sibenik can pretend not to have heard.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Sibenik's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sibenik has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 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 Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for Sibenik against Sesvete
1‑3 to Sesvete, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Franko Knez 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Alen Zoričić 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
5.53. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
5.56 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
Leonardo Štrbac damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tobías Donsanti 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Zadar left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Bernardo Matić
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Sibenik will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
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
At 35, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Market17 Aug 2026
The Toni Španja talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sibenik know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
An afternoon Diego Sekulić will want back
Marked 5.55. 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
Crisis
Squad10 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Leonardo Štrbac
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sibenik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces10 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.” 11 of the 25 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tobías Donsanti 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.
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.
Match8 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for Sibenik against Imotski
0‑1 to Imotski, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franko Knez 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.
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
He is 18, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Toni Španja yet — 8.11
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.11 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Toni Španja commits to Sibenik for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Toni Španja 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 Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 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.
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
The clock runs on Josip Baturina's contract
49 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Sibenik
5 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Sibenik and Rudes take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
In brief
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Ivan Buva
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Market
Experience through the door at Sibenik