Nogometni klub Zadar (), commonly referred to as NK Zadar or simply Zadar, was a Croatian football club based in Zadar, a city on the Adriatic coast, best known for playing in the top flight of Croatian football for almost twenty years.

History The first football club in Zadar was established in 1876 and was named AC Dalmazia. The club played mostly in Italian leagues until the city annexation to Yugoslavia in 1945. On 26 April 1945, a new club named Fiskulturno društvo Zadar was founded, with departments of football, basketball and athletics. On 9 February 1949, the football department was spun off as NK Zadar.

Zadar played in the Yugoslav Second League on a number of occasions, most recently in 1986.

In 1992, as Zadarkomerc the club was a founding member of the Croatian First League. Since 2001, the club has officially been called NK Zadar.

The club's greatest success in the Croatian Football Cup was achieved in season 1995–96, when they lost in the semi-final against Croatia Zagreb.RSSSF.com

NK Zadar played in the top tier from 1992 to 1999, from 2001 to 2005, and from 2007 to 2015. Most recently, the club has been experiencing financial difficulties, and after two seasons spent in the Croatian Third League – South (2016–17, 2017–18), the club was promoted to the Croatian Second League. After a mid-table finish in 2018–19, Zadar were administratively relegated to the Third League. As of June 2019, the club had hired an attorney to appeal against their relegation.

On 20 July 2020 it was announced that NK Zadar had dissolved because of bankruptcy. A new team, HNK Zadar, was announced as its formal successor.

Stadium NK Zadar's home stadium is the Stanovi with a capacity of 3,858 persons.

Supporters The club's supporters are known as the Tornado Zadar.

Honours Prva B HNL: Runners-up (1): 1995–96 Druga HNL: Runners-up (1): 2006–07 Treća HNL – Jug: Third place, promotion (1): 2017–18

Seasons

SeasonLeagueCupTop goalscorerDivisionPWDLFAPtsPosPlayerGoals19921. HNL22451320491310thMate Šestan61992–931. HNL30971430482512thSFĐovani Roso91993–941. HNL34817924363311thR2Josip Butić, Anđelko Kvesić51994–951. HNL307101333473113th ↓R2Hari Vukas61995–961. B HNL3016774630552nd ↑SFZoran Vujčić81996–971. A HNL301171239454010thR1Saša Bjelanović, Joško Španjić61997–981. HNL32105173650356thR2Jakov Surać81998–991. HNL32971640543411th ↓R2Jakša Krstulović101999–20002. HNL3219584725623rdR1Miroslav Vukić142000–012. HNL3418794030614th ↑R22001–021. HNL3099124347369thR2Zoran Zekić142002–031. HNL32961736713310thR2Dragan Blatnjak82003–041. HNL32711144671326thR2Mate Brajković122004–051. HNL321022036703212th ↓R1Leonardo Barnjak112005–062. HNL South32156115234517thR1Želimir Terkeš112006–072. HNL3020555525652nd ↑R1Goran Burčul102007–081. HNL33117154961409thR1Želimir Terkeš212008–091. HNL33781828492911thR2Želimir Terkeš72009–101. HNL30971427413412thAntonio Mršić, Ivan Santini62010–111. HNL301151431343810thIvan Santini102011–121. HNL301171229444010thR1Ivan Santini102012–131. HNL3398153759359thQFStipe Perica82013–141. HNL36105213567357thQFJosip Ivančić82014–151. HNL36882037753210th ↓QFIvan Krstanović62015–162. HNL33582030732312th ↓R2Vlatko Blažević102016–173. HNL South341310115040497thR1Vlatko Blažević252017–183. HNL South3016687437543rd ↑R2Karlo Torbarina162018–192. HNL2697103640348th ↓R2Antonio Repić122019–203. HNL South187652925276th ↓↓R2Josip Anić5

Key 1st2nd ↑ ↓ChampionsRunners-upPromotedRelegated

Top scorer shown in bold when he was also top scorer for the division.

P = Played W = Games won D = Games drawn L = Games lost F = Goals for A = Goals against Pts = Points Pos = Final position

1. HNL = Croatian First League 2. HNL = Croatian Second League

PR = Preliminary round R1 = Round 1 R2 = Round 2 QF = Quarter-finals SF = Semi-finals RU = Runners-up W = Winners

Notable players To appear in this section a player must have: Played at least 150 league games for the club; Scored at least 50 league goals for the club; or Played at least one international match for their national team while playing for NK Zadar. Years in brackets indicate their spells at the club.

Jakov Surać (1992–1998, 2001–2016) Fahrudin Šehić (1992–1999) Zvonimir Jurić (1994–2005) Dalibor Zebić (1996–1999, 2001–2005) Luka Modrić (1996–2001; youth team) Dragan Blatnjak (2001–2003) Danijel Subašić (youth team until 2003; senior team 2003–2009) Josip Bilaver (2003–2017) Želimir Terkeš (2004–2011, 2012–2013, 2014–2018) Dragan Župan (2005–2006, 2006–2009, 2012–2013, 2016–2020) Šime Vrsaljko (youth team until 2006)

Note: For a complete list of NK Zadar players, see :Category:NK Zadar players.

Managerial history

Ante Čačić (1989–1991) Goran Krešimir Vidov (1992) Petar Zrilić (1992) Ivica Matković (1992–1993) Jakov Pinčić (interim; 1993) Ivan Gudelj (1993) Jakov Pinčić (interim; 1993) Luka Bonačić (1994) Jakov Pinčić (interim; 1994) Tomislav Bašić (1994) Josip Bajlo (1994–1995) Stanko Mršić (1995–1996) Ante Čačić (1996–1997) Ivan Katalinić (1997–1998) Boris Tičić (1998) Josip Skoblar (1998) Josip Bajlo (1999) Nikica Cukrov (1999–2000) Jakov Pinčić (interim; 2000) Mladen Vranković (2000) Siniša Jalić (2000–2001) Miodrag Paunović (2001) Stanko Mršić (2001–2002) Vjeran Simunić (2002–2003) Stanko Mršić (2003–2005) Vjeran Simunić (2005) Jakov Pinčić (interim; 2005) Milo Nižetić (2005) Jakov Pinčić (interim; 2005) Predrag Jurić (2005–2006) Dalibor Zebić (2006–2008) Zvonimir Jurić (interim; 2008) Ivica Datković (2008) Dalibor Zebić (2008–2012) Ferdo Milin (2012–2014) Zvonimir Jurić (interim; 2014) Miroslav Blažević (2014–2015) Igor Štimac (2015) Zvonimir Jurić (interim; 2015) Josip Butić (2015–2017) Ivan Pudar (2017) Leopold Burčul (2017) Vjeran Simunić (2017–2018) Dragan Blatnjak (2018) Krešimir Sunara (2018–2019) Mislav Karoglan (2019) Marko Pinčić (2019–2020)

References

External links

NK Zadar profile at UEFA.com NK Zadar at Sportnet.hr (archived)