NK Osijek

The precursor to NK Osijek was founded on 27 February 1947, after a merger between two physical training associations: Slavonija and Bratstvo. The new entity was named Proleter. The first match that was played under that name dates back to 16 March that same year, when Proleter beat city-rivals Mladost by five goals to nil. The first competition in which the club participated in was the Osječko Okružno Prvenstvo, along with four other teams. The club got into the second national league soon after. Proleter achieved placement into the Yugoslav First League in 1953, having won the so-called Croato-Slovenian League. The best players from that side were Andrija Vekić, Franjo Rupnik, Dionizije Dvornić, and Franjo Majer. Proleter played in the First League for three seasons, but were then relegated to the second division. .

Proleter moved to current stadium Stadion Gradski vrt in autumn 1958 and changed its name to Slavonija as part of the unifying process of the boxing, athletics and Olympic lifting club in a newly founded sports association in 1962, while still being in the second league. Five years later the association disbanded and the club took on the name NK Osijek. The then-colours red and blue were switched to current colours blue and white.

In 1970, Osijek wins the 2nd North League championship, however, FK Borac Banja Luka beat them in the promotion play-offs. A year later, Bijelo-plavi try for promotion again, winning in a penalty shoot-out against HNK Rijeka, but end up being stopped by FK Vardar.

The next time Osijek reached the promotion play-offs was in 1973. NK Osijek made it to the final round, beating FC Prishtina. Following their victory, NK Osijek was set to meet NK Zagreb at Stadion Maksimir in Zagreb. A record-breaking 64,129 tickets were sold with approximately 20,000 of them going to Osijek supporters. NK Zagreb proved victorious on the day, winning via a penalty shoot-out following a 2–2 draw after 90 minutes, Osijek denied promotion for a third time in four years.

In 1977, NK Osijek finally secured its return to the top flight by taking out the league championship.

NK Osijek managed to stay competitive in the Yugoslav League up until the Croatian War for Independence, except for the season of 1979/80, when Osijek fought back into the premier league after failing to stay in it. The club was present in the second part of the First League ladder in the 80's, except for 1984, when the team placed 6th, headed by Davidović, Lulić, Džeko, Lepinjica, Rakela, Karačić and the team captain Kalinić. In 1989, the team placed 8th with Davor Šuker leading the line for the side scoring 18 goals, taking out the league's best goalscorer award. Šuker is the only player in NK Osijek history to take out the award. During the last season of the YFL, NK Osijek finished ninth.

After the dissolution of SFR Yugoslavia, the Croatian First Football League was formed and the first season was played in 1992. Due to the war, it was a shortened season played from February to June. NK Osijek was unable to play in Osijek due to the war, so they had to play in the cities of Đakovo, Donji Miholjac and Kutjevo. Osijek finished the 1992 Croatian First Football League season in 3rd placed, six points behind NK Zagreb and nine behind league champions HNK Hajduk Split. Osijek's top goalscorer was Robert Špehar, who finished the season with nine goals.

NK Osijek quickly became one of the top 4 Croatian Football teams. One of Osijek's best ever seasons came in the 1994–95 Croatian First Football League. The Bijelo plavi finished in third place, only six points behind first-placed Hajduk. Špehar scored 23 goals to become the league's top goalscorer. The greats of NK Osijek during that time were Robert Spehar, Zitnjak, Lulic, Beljan, Ivo Ergović, Rupnik, Besirevic, Bicanic, and Labak.

As a result of the third-placed finish, NK Osijek qualified for the 1995–96 UEFA Cup. Osijek faced ŠK Slovan Bratislava in the preliminary round, going down 6–0.

Osijek finished third in the 1997–98 Croatian First Football League, qualifying for the 1998–99 UEFA Cup. NK Osijek came up against R.S.C. Anderlecht. After a famous 3–1 victory at home in front of 15,000 supporters, Osijek lost 2–0 in Belgium and were knocked-out on away goals. In 1998–99, Osijek attained its first trophy, the Croatian Football Cup, following a victory over HNK Cibalia 2–0. A year later, West Ham United was playing away in Gradski Vrt, headed by Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Trevor Sinclair, Paolo Di Canio, Paulo Wanchope and Igor Štimac.

In the 2000–01 UEFA Cup, NK Osijek beat Brøndby 2–1 (2–1, 0–0) and Rapid Wien 4–1 (2–1, 2–0). In the 3rd round, Osijek beat Slavia Prague 2–0 at home, but lost 5–1 in Prague. Osijek finished third in the league once more. In the 2001–02 UEFA Cup, Osijek progressed past Dinaburg on away goals, beat Gorica in the first round, but then lost 3–5 to AEK Athens. In the 2003–04 HNL, Osijek had the first and second highest goalscorers in the division with Špehar scoring 18 and Goran Ljubojević scoring 16. The club then went through a long phase of mid-table finishes and mediocre results.

NK Osijek was almost relegated during the 2013–14 season. On the final match day, Josip Barišić managed to score and keep NK Osijek afloat against NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac. Osijek changed coaches on four occasions throughout the season. The following season, Osijek once again finished one position above the relegation play-off spot, finishing one point ahead of Istra 1961.

In September 2015, Zoran Zekić was appointed as the first team head coach.

With the club facing bankruptcy, Osijek went into private ownership for the first time in its history in February 2016 with Hungarian oligarch Lőrinc Mészáros and Croatian entrepreneur Ivan Meštrović buying a majority of shares in the club. The duo went about stabilizing the club, improving the squad and bringing back ambition to the city and supporters. Much of the debt was restructured and paid off, securing the short-term and long-term future of Osijek.[1]

On 27 February 2017, the club celebrated its 70th anniversary in the Osijek theater.[2] In the 2016–17 season, Osijek finished 4th, which was their highest league finish in nearly 10 years.[3] The 4th place finish led to Osijek participating in the qualifying phase of the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League; with the club staging an extremely successful run to the play-off round, beating Santa Coloma, Luzern and PSV, the former champions of Europe, who won the 1987–1988 edition.[4][5][6][7][8][9] The club's run was ended following a 1–2 home loss to Austria Wien, and despite the club winning the second leg 1–0, Osijek were eliminated on the away goals rule. Despite being eliminated, Osijek were praised and congratulated by Croatian press, fans and media for their historic run.[10][11]

In the 2017–18 season, Osijek finished 4th again, securing a place in the UEFA competition. Osijek beat Petrocub Hîncești 2–1 at home after drawing the first leg in Moldova 1–1, and faced Rangers in the second qualifying round of the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League. Osijek lost the home leg 1–0.[12]

Source: [14], Last updated on 1 August 2019.
Pld = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against. Defunct competitions indicated in italics.

Season	Competition	Round	Opponent	Home	Away	Agg.
1995–96	UEFA Cup	QR	Slovan Bratislava	0–2	0–4	0–6
1998–99	UEFA Cup	QR2	Anderlecht	3–1	0–2	3–3 (a)
1999–00	UEFA Cup	R1	West Ham United	1–3	0–3	1–6
2000–01	UEFA Cup	R1	Brøndby	0–0	2–1	2–1
		R2	Rapid Wien	2–1	2–0	4–1
		R3	Slavia Prague	2–0	1–5	3–5
2001–02	UEFA Cup	QR	Dinaburg	1–0	1–2	2–2 (a)
		R1	Gorica	1–0	2–1	3–1
		R2	AEK Athens	1–2	2–3	3–5
2006–07	UEFA Intertoto Cup	R2	Ethnikos Achna	2–2	0–0	2–2 (a)
2012–13	UEFA Europa League	QR1	FC Santa Coloma	3–1	1–0	4–1
		QR2	Kalmar FF	1–3	0–3	1–6
2017–18	UEFA Europa League	QR1	UE Santa Coloma	4–0	2–0	6–0
		QR2	Luzern	2–0	1–2	3–2
		QR3	PSV Eindhoven	1–0	1–0	2–0
PO	Austria Wien	1–2	1–0	2–2 (a)
2018–19	UEFA Europa League	QR1	Petrocub Hîncești	2–1	1–1	3–2
		QR2	Rangers	0–1	1–1	1–2
2019–20	UEFA Europa League	QR2	CSKA Sofia	1–0	0–1	1–1 (3–4 p)

Last updated on 1 August 2019.

• Most appearances in UEFA club competitions: 17 appearances[15]
  • Bakir Beširević
• Top scorers in UEFA club competitions: 4 goals[15]
  • Muzafer Ejupi

As of 30 May 2020[16]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Ivica Ivušić 2 DF Igor Silva (on loan from Olympiacos) 4 DF Gutieri Tomelin 5 MF László Kleinheisler 6 DF Ante Majstorović 7 MF Vedran Jugović 8 MF Karlo Kamenar 9 FW Antonio Mance 10 MF Dmytro Lopa 11 MF Eros Grezda 12 MF Petar Bočkaj 13 GK Marko Malenica 14 FW Josip Špoljarić

No. Position Player 15 GK Marko Barešić 17 DF Tomislav Šorša 18 DF Talys Oliveira 19 MF Mihael Žaper 21 DF Mile Škorić (captain) 22 DF Danijel Lončar 23 DF Alen Grgić 24 FW Mirko Marić 25 MF Marin Pilj 27 FW Jerry Mbakogu 30 DF Todor Todoroski 33 FW Merveil Ndockyt (on loan from Getafe) — FW Stjepan Radeljić

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player — FW Mirlind Daku (at Ballkani until 30 June 2020)