Nogometni klub Zagreb (Zagreb Football Club), commonly known as NK Zagreb or simply Zagreb (), is a Croatian football club based in the capital city of Zagreb. It currently competes in the fifth tier league competition of Croatian football league system, Četvrta nogometna liga Središte Zagreb podskupina A in Croatian (Fourth football league Region Zagreb division A) since the 2021–22 season and the revision of league in preparation for structure reorganization in a men's league system of Croatian football league system starting from 2022–23 which also led to labeling changes for the league levels.
The club was founded in 1908 as HŠK Zagreb, meaning Hrvatski športski klub Zagreb (Croatian Athletic Club Zagreb). After World War II NK Zagreb had a considerable success in former Yugoslavia being enlisted as a notable club (at least 10 top-flight seasons or at least one title) in the Yugoslav First League. Zagreb played a total of 18 seasons in the top flight before league got disintegrated in 1991 with only Croatian big teams Hajduk, Dinamo and Rijeka achieving more competitive seasons. The biggest achievement in that period happened in 1964–65 season when Zagreb finished 6th under the management of coach Gustav Lechner
Another rarity that Zagreb achieved in the Croatian football happened in 2013–14 season when they promptly won Croatian Second Football League, thus becoming the only football club in Croatia to ever hold titles in both first and second division. Zagreb were also finalist of 1997 Croatian Football Cup and finalist of Croatian Football Super Cup in 2002.
In October 2018, after eviction from their historical home venue, Stadion u Kranjčevićevoj, NK Zagreb is using their training camp ZAGREBello with an approximate capacity of 1,000 as a home ground for its official fixtures, which is located in Veslačka street. The team's traditional home colours are white shirts, shorts and socks, which is the reason why they are referred to as Bijeli in Croatian, meaning "The Whites". Another popular nickname of the club is "The Poets", Pjesnici in Croatian, due to their former location of home ground at Kranjčevićeva street, which is named after Croatian poet Silvije Strahimir Kranjčević and became a well-known phrase "club from the street of poet", that was often used by the popular radio sports commentator Ivo Tomić for NK Zagreb when broadcasting football matches.
Although NK Zagreb is currently competing in the fifth tier of Croatian Football League, it competed in the top-level as a founding member of First Croatian Football League for 24 seasons until 2016 (with an exception of 2013–14 season), when the club was relegated from first division for its second and the last time. From 2009–10 season due to non-existence of club board, lack of income and sponsorship, poor management skills and unprofessional behavior of its president, by the end of next decade club faced three relegation drops in four seasons, loss of professional status, loss of its traditional home ground and loss of its supporters.
2017 relegation
During 13 years of his presidency, club president Dražen Medić has been criticised for the poor performance of the club. As the president, coach, director, and manager, he was seen as a gatekeeper under the protection of Mayor Milan Bandić, and replaced the opposing forces at the club with like-minded people. Opinion of Zagreb successful return to Second Croatian Football League was gone. After Jurendić incident, mediocre play in the end saw them finish at mid-table in 9th place despite having one of best players and goalscorers of division Filip Matijasević, as club officials were unaware of pitch replacement process at Kranjčević Street home ground and failed to make all necessary preparations needed for licensing their training camp ZAGREBello venue for its home matches. NK Zagreb continued with its defeat queue: NK Maksimir 3-1 (A), NK Dubrava 4-0 (H), NK Vrbovec 3-1 (H) and was strip away from any relegation battle as only relegation candidate throughout entire season.
Team lineup at the start of season was: Kurtović, Čilić, Vinski, Tarić, Zebić, Bektaši, Mihoković, Marinić, Jokić, Pavlic, Regović, Rajnović.
Stadium
thumb|Aerial view of Kranjčević Street Stadium
Stadion u Kranjčevićevoj ulici (), known as Stadion Concordije between 1921 and 1945, also known as Stadion NK Zagreba or Stadion Zagreba between 1946 and 2018 is a multi-purpose stadium located in the north-east part of Trešnjevka neighbourhood in city of Zagreb, Croatia. The stadium at what was then called Tratinska cesta (Tratinska road) began construction in 1911 and was soon halted due to outbreak of Great War in 1914. With the end of Great War in 1918 the construction resumed and was eventually completed in 1921. At the time of its completion it was the biggest stadium in Zagreb and was owned and operated by one of three Zagreb based sports powerhouses named HŠK Concordia. The peculiarity of this stadium is non-existence of the usual athletic track. Instead, a profiled circular cycling track was built, the so-called cyclodrome, unique in Croatia and is used for various cycle and track race formats. With the capacity of 8,850 people, Kranjčević Street Stadium is the second biggest stadium in Zagreb, behind Stadion Maksimir. Currently within the stadium, there are a small number of offices and one restaurant. Today, the stadium is in use and open to public only on the official match days.
Supporters
NK Zagreb has not had an active organized supporters’ group since 2014–2015, when the Bijeli Anđeli (White Angels) withdrew their support in protest against club mismanagement. The majority of the group’s members went on to found NK Zagreb 041, a fan-owned club. Since then, NK Zagreb has not had any significant or recognized ultras presence.
Honours
- Croatian First League
- Winners (1): 2001–02
- Runners-up (2): 1992, 1993–94
- Third place (3): 1992–93, 2004–05, 2006–07
- Croatian Second League
- Winners (1): 2013–14
- Fourth Football League Center
- Third place (1): 2020–21
- Croatian Cup
- Runners up (1): 1996–97
- Croatian Super Cup
- Runners-up (1): 2002
- Yugoslav Second League
- Winners (6): 1953–54, 1963–64, 1972–73, 1975–76, 1979–80, 1990–91
- Runners-up (1): 1974–75
- Third place (2): 1970–71, 1971–72
- Yugoslav Third League
- Winners (1): 1989–90
- Third place (1): 1988–89
- Croatian Republic League
- Winners (1): 1987–88
- Runners-up (3): 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87
Results by season
{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%; text-align: center"
|-
!rowspan=2|Season
!colspan=9|League
!rowspan=2 width="40"|Cup
!rowspan=2 colspan=2 width="200"|European competitions
!colspan=2 width="180"|Top goalscorer
|-
!Division
!width="30"|P
!width="30"|W
!width="30"|D
!width="30"|L
!width="30"|GF
!width="30"|GA
!width="30"|Pts
!width="40"|Pos
!Player
!Goals
|-
|1992
|1. HNL
|22
|14
|5
|3
|34
|9
|33
|bgcolor=Silver|2nd
|DNQ
|
|
|align="left"|Renato Jurčec
|8
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
|1992–93
|1. HNL
|30
|15
|10
|5
|50
|27
|40
|3rd
|R2
|
|
|align="left"|Joško Popović<br/>Robert Špehar
|9
|-
|1993–94
|1. HNL
|34
|20
|9
|5
|58
|30
|49
|bgcolor=Silver|2nd
|SF
|
|
|align="left"|Robert Špehar
|19
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
|1994–95
|1. HNL
|30
|14
|11
|5
|41
|26
|53
|4th
|QF
|
|
|align="left"|Joško Popović
|9
|-
|1995–96
|1. HNL
|32
|8
|9
|15
|31
|50
|33
|6th
|SF
|Intertoto Cup
|GS
|align="left"|Joško Popović
|10
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
|1996–97
|1. HNL
|30
|13
|6
|11
|43
|39
|45
|5th
|bgcolor=Silver|RU
|
|
|align="left"|Vjekoslav Škrinjar
|5
|-
|1997–98
|1. HNL
|32
|14
|8
|10
|51
|39
|50
|5th
|SF
|Cup Winners' Cup
|R1
|align="left"|Mate Baturina
|18
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
|1998–99
|1. HNL
|32
|9
|9
|14
|47
|53
|36
|10th
|R1
|
|
|align="left"|Nino Bule
|13
|-
|1999–00
|1. HNL
|33
|9
|12
|12
|42
|49
|39
|8th
|SF
|
|
|align="left"|Nino Bule
|9
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
|2000–01
|1. HNL
|32
|11
|5
|16
|51
|58
|38
|6th
|SF
|
|
|align="left"|Krunoslav Lovrek
|11
|-
|2001–02
|1. HNL
|30
|20
|7
|3
|71
|24
|67
|bgcolor=Gold|1st
|QF
|Intertoto Cup
|R1
|align="left"|Ivica Olić
|21
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
|2002–03
|1. HNL
|32
|9
|9
|14
|40
|52
|36
|6th
|QF
|Champions League
|QR2
|align="left"|Radomir Đalović
|8
|-
|2003–04
|1. HNL
|32
|8
|12
|12
|33
|41
|36
|10th
|R2
|Intertoto Cup
|R1
|align="left"|Radomir Đalović
|9
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
|2004–05
|1. HNL
|32
|15
|5
|12
|50
|42
|50
|3rd
|QF
|
|
|align="left"|Mladen Bartolović
|9
|-
|2005–06
|1. HNL
|32
|11
|4
|17
|26
|43
|37
|10th
|R1
|
|
|align="left"|Mladen Pelaić
|5
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
|2006–07
|1. HNL
|33
|18
|4
|11
|57
|40
|58
|3rd
|QF
|
|
|align="left"|Krunoslav Lovrek
|18
|-
|2007–08
|1. HNL
|33
|11
|11
|11
|51
|40
|44
|6th
|SF
|Intertoto Cup
|R1
|align="left"|Krunoslav Lovrek
|14
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
|2008–09
|1. HNL
|33
|13
|8
|12
|38
|39
|47
|5th
|SF
|
|
|align="left"|Davor Vugrinec
|11
|-
|2009–10
|1. HNL
|30
|9
|6
|15
|43
|49
|33
|14th
|QF
|
|
|align="left"|Davor Vugrinec
|18
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
|2010–11
|1. HNL
|30
|9
|8
|13
|32
|39
|35
|13th
|QF
|
|
|align="left"|Ivan Krstanović
|19
|-
|2011–12
|1. HNL
|30
|13
|6
|11
|36
|42
|45
|6th
|SF
|
|
|align="left"|Damir Šovšić
|5
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
|2012–13
|1. HNL
|33
|7
|6
|20
|28
|60
|27
|bgcolor="#ffcccc"|12th ↓
|R2
|
|
|align="left"|Besart Abdurahimi
|12
|-
|2013–14
|2. HNL
|33
|20
|7
|6
|59
|26
|67
|bgcolor=Gold|1st ↑
|R2
|
|
|align="left"|Gabrijel Boban
|18
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
|2014–15
|1. HNL
|36
|13
|7
|16
|45
|54
|46
|5th
|R1
|
|
|align="left"|Gabrijel Boban
|13
|-
|2015–16
|1. HNL
|36
|3
|8
|25
|27
|64
|17
|bgcolor="#ffcccc"|10th ↓
|QF
|
|
|align="left"|Gabrijel Boban
|10
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
|2016–17
|2. HNL
|33
|6
|11
|16
|34
|50
|29
|bgcolor="#ffcccc"|12th ↓
|R1
|
|
|align="left"|Edin Šehić
|10
|-
|2017–18
|3. HNL West
|34
|13
|5
|16
|46
|51
|44
|9th
|R2
|
|
|align="left"|Filip Matijasević
|17
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
|2018–19
|3. HNL West
|34
|4
|3
|27
|26
|96
|15
|bgcolor="#ffcccc"|18th ↓
|R1
|
|
|align="left"|Marko Bubnjić
|10
|-
|2019–20
|4. NL Center
|16
|7
|6
|3
|25
|20
|27
|6th
|R1
|
|
|align="left"|Antonio Regović <br/> Lovro Medić
|7
|--bgcolor=#EEEEEE
|2020–21
|4. NL Center
|34
|20
|8
|6
|71
|36
|68
|3rd
|R2
|
|
|align="left"|Lovro Medić
|17
|-
|2021–22
|4. NL Center
|30
|12
|7
|11
|47
|35
|43
|bgcolor="#ffcccc"|7th ↓
|R1
|
|
|align="left"|
|
|-
|2022–23
|4. NL Center-A
|6
|3
|1
|2
|6
|5
|10
|7th
|n/a
|
|
|align="left"|
|
|}
Key
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
|bgcolor=gold|1st
|bgcolor=silver|2nd/RU
|bgcolor="#DDFFDD"| ↑
|bgcolor="#FFCCCC"| ↓
|-
|Champions
|Runners-up
|Promoted
|Relegated
|}
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 = Prva HNL
- 2. HNL = Druga HNL
- 3. HNL = Treća HNL
- 4. NL = Četvrta NL Centar
- GS = Group stage
- PR = Preliminary round
- R1 = Round 1
- R2 = Round 2
- QF = Quarter-finals
- SF = Semi-finals
- RU = Runners-up
- W = Winners
European record
Summary
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! width="160"|Competition
! width="30"|Pld
! width="30"|W
! width="30"|D
! width="30"|L
! width="30"|GF
! width="30"|GA
! width="150"|Last season played
|-
| UEFA Champions League
| 2
| 1
| 0
| 1
| 2
| 2
| 2002–03
|-
| UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
| 4
| 3
| 0
| 1
| 9
| 7
| 1997–98
|-
| UEFA Intertoto Cup
| 10
| 2
| 4
| 4
| 8
| 10
| 2007
|-
| Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
| 10
| 3
| 2
| 5
| 16
| 13
| 1969–70
|-
|Total
|26
|9
|6
|11
|35
|32
|}
<small>Source: uefa.com, Last updated on 9 January 2010<br>Pld = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against. Defunct competitions indicated in italics.<br>Note: This summary includes matches played in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, which was not endorsed by UEFA and is not counted in UEFA's official European statistics.</small>
Record by season
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%; text-align: center;"
! width="60"|Season
! width="150"|Competition
! width="30"|Round
! width="160"|Opponent
! width="30"|Home
! width="30"|Away
! width="60"|Agg.
|-
| rowspan=2|1964–65
| rowspan=2|Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
| R1
| align="left" | GAK
| bgcolor="#ddffdd"|3–2
| bgcolor="#ddffdd"|6–0
| 9–2
|-
| R2
| align="left" | Roma
| bgcolor="#ffffdd"|1–1
| bgcolor="#ffdddd"|0–1
| 1–2
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
| rowspan=2|1965–66
| rowspan=2|Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
| R1
| align="left" | RFC Liège
| bgcolor="#ddffdd"|2–0
| bgcolor="#ffdddd"|0–1
| 2–1
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
| R2
| align="left" | Steagul Roșu Brașov
| bgcolor="#ffffdd"|2–2
| bgcolor="#ffdddd"|0–1
| 2–3
|-
| 1969–70
| Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
| R1
| align="left" | Charleroi
| bgcolor="#ffdddd"|1–3
| bgcolor="#ffdddd"|1–2
| 2–5
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
| rowspan=4|1995–96
| rowspan=4|Intertoto Cup
| rowspan=4|Group<br>6
| align="left" | LASK Linz
| bgcolor="#ffffdd"|0–0
| –
| –
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
| align="left" | Keflavík
| –
| bgcolor="#ffffdd"|0–0
| –
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
| align="left" | Metz
| bgcolor="#ffdddd"|0–1
| –
| –
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
| align="left" | Partick Thistle
| –
| bgcolor="#ddffdd"|2–1
| –
|-
| rowspan=2|1997–98
| rowspan=2|Cup Winners' Cup
| QR
| align="left" | Sloga Jugomagnat
| bgcolor="#ddffdd"|2–0
| bgcolor="#ddffdd"|2–1
| 4–1
|-
| R1
| align="left" | Tromsø
| bgcolor="#ddffdd"|3–2
| bgcolor="#ffdddd"|2–4
| 5–6
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
| 2001–02
| Intertoto Cup
| R1
| align="left" | Pobeda
| bgcolor="#ffdddd"|1–2
| bgcolor="#ffffdd"|1–1
| 2–3
|-
| 2002–03
| Champions League
| QR2
| align="left" | Zalaegerszeg
| bgcolor="#ddffdd"|2–1
| bgcolor="#ffdddd"|0–1
| 2–2 (a)
|-bgcolor=#EEEEEE
| 2003–04
| Intertoto Cup
| R1
| align="left" | Koper
| bgcolor="#ffffdd"|2–2
| bgcolor="#ffdddd"|0–1
| 2–3
|-
| 2007–08
| Intertoto Cup
| R1
| align="left" | Vllaznia
| bgcolor="#ddffdd"|2–1
| bgcolor="#ffdddd"|0–1
| 2–2 (a)
|-
|}
Record by country of opposition
- Correct as of 14 June 2011
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
!Country!!Pld!!W!!D!!L!!GF!!GA!!GD!!Win%
|-
|align=left| Albania
|-
|align=left| Austria
|-
|align=left| Belgium
|-
|align=left| France
|-
|align=left| Iceland
|-
|align=left| Italy
|-
|align=left| Hungary
|-
|align=left| Macedonia
|-
|align=left| Norway
|-
|align=left| Romania
|-
|align=left| Scotland
|-
|align=left| Slovenia
|-
|-class="sortbottom"
! Totals !! 26 !! 9 !! 6 !! 11 !! 35 !! 32 !! +3 !! 36.84
|}
Pld – Matches played; W – Matches won; D – Matches drawn; L – Matches lost; GF – Goals for; GA – Goals against
Player records
- Most appearances in UEFA club competitions: 8 appearances
- Jasenko Sabitović
- Željko Sopić
- Top scorers in UEFA club competitions: 3 goals