NK Varaždin (1931–2015)

Varaždinski športski nogometni klub Varaždin (English: Varaždin Football Club), commonly referred to as VŠNK Varaždin or simply Varaždin, was a Croatian football club based in the city of Varaždin in the north of the country. During its 74 year existence, they played their home matches at the Stadion Varteks, which was renovated through the years and reached an all-seating capacity of 10,800 (further renovated to seat 8,800 by sometime before 2021).[1] For the majority of its life, the 52 years from 1958 to 2010, the club was known as NK Varteks, honouring the name of its principal sponsor during those years.

This article is about the dissolved association football club. For the unassociated active club, see NK Varaždin (2012).

VŠNK Varaždin
Full nameVaraždinski športski nogometni klub Varaždin
Nickname(s)Krojači (Tailors)
Bumbari (Bumblebees)
Founded3 June 1931 (3 June 1931) as NK Slavija
Dissolved2015 (2015)
GroundStadion Varteks
Capacity10,800

History

The club was founded on 3 June 1931 under the name of NK Slavija and existed under this name until 1941. During World War II, the club temporarily suspended operations and was then reorganised under the name of NK Tekstilac in 1945. The name NK Vartek was given to the club in 1958, to honour its main sponsor, the Varteks clothing factory. In June 2010, when the Varteks factory did not renew its sponsorship, the club changed its name to NK Varaždin.[2]

The club's first significant success came in 1938 when they qualified to participate in the premier league of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In SFR Yugoslavia, their biggest success was the advancement to the final of the Yugoslav Cup in 1961, but they lost the final game to Vardar Skopje from Macedonia.

In 1991, after years of Serbian nationalism had led to ethnic conflict, the breakup of Yugoslavia had started with the declaration of independence of Croatia and of Slovenia. Croatia withdrew from the Football Association of Yugoslavia, and Varaždin was one of the 12 founding members of the new Croatian First Football League (Prva Liga), which operated under the auspices of the also new Croatian Football Federation.

The club did not win any Croatian national titles, but regularly placed near the top of the Prva Liga table and were also the runners-up in the Croatian Football Cup five times. In the spring of 1999, they had a significant international success when they advanced to the quarterfinals of the now defunct UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, where they held opponent Real Mallorca to a scoreless draw at home before losing the second-leg away match 3–1, and were eliminated from competition. They also attracted some international attention in 2001, when they eliminated Aston Villa from the UEFA Cup on away goals.

Serious financial troubles forced NK Varaždin into a period of bankruptcy, which eventually led to the suspension of the club by Croatian Football Federation before a scheduled 24 February 2012 match of the 2011–12 Prva Liga season. The club returned for its next five matches, but was suspended again before its 31 March 2012 match. Per the rules of the Federation, missing two league games in a season, even those due to suspension, meant that the club was immediately relegated to the lowest football level possible of the Croatian football league system, being the seventh-tier Third League of Varaždin County. The suspension was lifted in August 2013 and the club re-entered in the third-tier Croatian Third Football League.

In May 2011, disgruntled with the club management as financial struggles – including missing salary payments to players who then left the team – started to impact the team's performance, a group of supporters of NK Varaždin founded a new club using its discarded colours and previous name,[3] as a new, unassociated, NK Varteks; up to the end of competition through to 2019–20 in Croatian football, this "new" club has regularly participated in the mid-level leagues (tiers 3–6) of Croatian football.

In 2015, the club went into bankruptcy again, and the management declared a new club VŠNK Varaždin, in an effort break all ties to its former self and to be free of all outstanding debts.[4] Another local football club, founded in 2012 under the name Varaždin ŠN, immediately picked up the discarded name and operates as a new, unassociated, NK Varaždin; this "new" club worked its way through the higher levels of Croatian football, entering the top Prva Liga for the 2019–20 season.

Seasons
Logo as NK Varteks
Season League Cup European competitions Top league scorer
Division P W D L F A Pts Pos Player Goals
1992 1. HNL 22 7 6 9 32 25 20 8th DNQ Igor Cvitanović 9
1992–93 1. HNL 30 10 9 11 38 47 29 7th QF Mirza Golubica 8
1993–94 1. HNL 34 16 9 9 51 31 41 5th QF Davor Vugrinec 17
1994–95 1. HNL 30 11 10 9 35 27 43 6th SF Davor Vugrinec 8
1995–96 1. HNL 32 18 7 7 44 26 61 3rd RU Davor Vugrinec 17
1996–97 1. HNL 30 12 6 12 34 35 42 6th QF Cup Winners' Cup R1 Davor Vugrinec 13
1997–98 1. HNL 32 10 8 14 34 44 38 10th RU Marko Topić 7
1998–99 1. HNL 32 12 4 16 55 57 40 5th QF Cup Winners' Cup QF Miljenko Mumlek 13
1999–2000 1. HNL 33 10 10 13 32 44 40 7th QF Intertoto Cup R3 Damir Mužek, Vioresin Sinani 5
2000–01 1. HNL 32 12 9 11 56 56 45 4th QF Saša Bjelanović, Veldin Karić 12
2001–02 1. HNL 30 17 6 7 58 40 57 4th RU UEFA Cup R2 Saša Bjelanović 17
2002–03 1. HNL 32 18 3 11 52 38 57 3rd SF UEFA Cup R1 Veldin Karić 10
2003–04 1. HNL 32 9 11 12 33 42 38 5th RU UEFA Cup R1 Nikola Šafarić 7
2004–05 1. HNL 32 14 3 15 53 50 45 5th SF Nedim Halilović 9
2005–06 1. HNL 32 15 2 15 51 48 47 3rd RU Intertoto Cup R3 Leon Benko 14
2006–07 1. HNL 33 12 6 15 49 62 42 8th R1 UEFA Cup QR1 Enes Novinić 15
2007–08 1. HNL 33 11 7 15 46 53 40 7th SF Miljenko Mumlek 9
2008–09 1. HNL 33 10 5 18 41 55 35 10th R2 Goran Mujanović 11
2009–10 1. HNL 30 9 9 12 36 43 36 10th SF Miljenko Mumlek 11
2010–11 1. HNL 30 9 9 12 32 38 36 11th RU Filip Škvorc 7
2011–12 1. HNL 24 2 3 19 16 52 8 16th R2 UEFA Europa League QR3 Dominik Glavina 5
2012–13 Club was suspended by Croatian Football Federation
2013–14 3. HNL North 30 15 5 10 66 32 49 7th PR Marko Rog 17
2014–15 3. HNL East 30 10 9 11 42 39 39 11th R2 Luka Ivanović 11
Key
League: P = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; Pts = Points won; Pos = Final position;
Cup / Europe: PR = Preliminary round; QR = Qualifying round; R1 = First round; R2 = Second round; Group = Group stage; QF = Quarter-final; SF = Semi-final; RU = Runner-up; W = Competition won;

European record

Summary
Competition Pld W D L GF GA Last season played
UEFA Cup
UEFA Europa League		22105748342011–12
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup1061315101998–99
UEFA Intertoto Cup125342221 2005
Total44219148565

Source: uefa.com, Last updated on 4 August 2011
Pld = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against. Defunct competitions indicated in italics.

By season
Season Competition Round Opponent Home Away Agg.
1996–97 Cup Winners' Cup QR Union Luxembourg 2–1 3–0 5–1
R1 Lokomotiv Moscow 2–1 0–1 2–2 (a)
1998–99 Cup Winners' Cup R1 Rudar Velenje 1–0 1–0 2–0
R2 Heerenveen 4–2 (aet) 1–2 5–4
QF Mallorca 0–0 1–3 1–3
1999–2000 Intertoto Cup R1 Lokomotiv-96 Vitebsk 2–2 2–1 4–3
R2 Brann 3–0 0–3 3–3 (5–4 p)
R3 Rostselmash 1–2 1–0 2–2 (a)
2001–02 UEFA Cup QR Vaduz 6–1 3–3 9–4
R1 Aston Villa 0–1 3–2 3–3 (a)
R2 Brondby 3–1 0–5 3–6
2002–03 UEFA Cup QR Dundalk 5–0 4–0 9–0
R1 Midtjylland 1–1 0–1 1–2
2003–04 UEFA Cup QR Levadia Tallinn 3–2 3–1 6–3
R1 Debrecen 1–3 2–3 3–6
2005–06 Intertoto Cup R1 Dinamo Tirana 4–1 1–2 5–3
R2 Inter Turku 4–3 2–2 6–5
R3 Lens 1–1 1–4 2–5
2006–07 UEFA Cup QR1 KF Tirana 1–1 0–2 1–3
2011–12 Europa League QR1 Lusitanos 5–1 1–0 6–1
QR2 Iskra-Stal 3–1 1–1 4–2
QR3 Dinamo Bucureşti 1–2 2–2 3–4

Honours

Croatian Football Cup:

Yugoslav Cup:

Player records

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 Varaždin.

Years in brackets indicate their spells at the club.

 

Managerial history
 
  • Zlatko Dalić (May 2005 – May 2007)
  • Josip Kuže (June 2007 – August 2007)
  • Dražen Besek (August 2007 – December 2009)
  • Damir Jagačić (January 2010 – March 2010)
  • Samir Toplak (March 2010 – August 2011)
  • Tomica Kocijan (August 2011 – October 2011)
  • Branko Janžek (October 2011 – July 2012)
  • Ivica Solomun (July 2012 – January 2015)

References
  1. "KLUBOVI: VARAŽDIN" (in Croatian). Retrieved 1 January 2021. Stadion: Varteks (8.818)
  2. Lukavečki, Lovro (2019). "Politički i društveni aspekti promjene imena NK Varteks" [Political and Social Aspects of Changing the Name of NK Varteks] (PDF). Mali Levijatan (in Croatian). Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb. 6 (1): 48–73. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  3. "Pokrenuto osnivanje NK Varteksa".
  4. "Promjenom imena do kluba neopterećenog s dugovima". Regionalni tjednik. 19 July 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  5. "Varaždin profile". UEFA.com. Retrieved 10 September 2010.
  6. "Zlatko Dalić CFS Profile". Croatian Football Statistics. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  7. "Davor Vugrinec CFS Profile". Croatian Football Statistics. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  8. "Samir Toplak CFS Profile". Croatian Football Statistics. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  9. "Marijan Mrmić CFS Profile". Croatian Football Statistics. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  10. "Miljenko Mumlek CFS Profile". Croatian Football Statistics. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  11. "Andrija Balajić CFS Profile". Croatian Football Statistics. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  12. "Krunoslav Gregorić CFS Profile". Croatian Football Statistics. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  13. "Dražen Madunović Profile". Croatian Football Statistics. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  14. "Silvester Sabolčki CFS Profile". Croatian Football Statistics. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  15. "Mladen Posavec CFS Profile". Croatian Football Statistics. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  16. "Robert Težački CFS Profile". Croatian Football Statistics. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  17. "Danijel Hrman CFS Profile". Croatian Football Statistics. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  18. "Veldin Karić CFS Profile". Croatian Football Statistics. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  19. "Nikola Šafarić CFS Profile". Croatian Football Statistics. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  20. "Zoran Kastel CFS Profile". Croatian Football Statistics. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  21. "Leon Benko CFS Profile". Croatian Football Statistics. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  22. "Ivan Režić CFS Profile". Croatian Football Statistics. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  23. "Vladimir Vasilj CFS Profile". Croatian Football Statistics. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
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