NK Međimurje

Full name	Nogometni klub Međimurje Čakovec
Founded	2003
Ground	Stadion SRC Mladost (Capacity: 8,000)
Chairman	Josip Posavec
Manager	Srećko Bogdan
League	Prva HNL
2008–09	Druga HNL, 5th (promoted)
Home colours Away colours

NK Međimurje is a Croatian football club based in Čakovec, in the northern part of the country. The club is named after Međimurje, a region in which Čakovec is located. They were promoted from the Croatian Second League to the Croatian First League at the end of the 2008–09 season.

The club play their home games at the Stadion SRC Mladost, which has a total capacity of approximately 8,000 and is also the home ground of local rivals NK Čakovec. The club's supporters group is called the Angels.

Contents 1 History 2 Current squad 3 Seasons 4 Notable players 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

The club was founded in June 2003 and started to compete in the Croatian Second League, where they replaced NK Omladinac, a club based in the Čakovec suburb of Novo Selo Rok. They finished top of the league at the end of the 2003–04 season, clinching promotion to the Croatian First League.

They started their first season in the top flight with three defeats in their opening three matches, before beating Zagreb 1–0 on the road on Day 4 to clinch their first win of the season. However, they continued to experience very little success after that, only grabbing two further wins in the following 18 matches and being bottom of the table as the league split in two groups in March 2005. Their performance improved in the bottom-6 group, the Relegation League, where they had a streak of seven games undefeated and finished 5th, overtaking Zadar on the final day of the season.

In their second top-flight season in 2005–06, they once again found themselves bottom of the table in March, although with 5 wins and only one point fewer than both Inter Zaprešić and Slaven Belupo. After three defeats in their opening three matches in the Relegation League, they managed a streak of seven games undefeated and overtook Inter Zaprešić after beating them on the penultimate day of the season.

In 2006–07, they experienced mixed fortunes in their opening seven games, but then managed four consecutive wins and even found themselves in 4th place after Day 11. They eventually finished the season in 9th place, their best result in the top flight, with 11 wins in 33 matches. The 2007–08 season, however, brought very little success and they found themselves bottom of the table for majority of the season. They eventually finished rock-bottom, with only 15 points and mere three wins from 33 matches, 18 points behind the 11th-place Inter Zaprešić, and were effectively relegated to the Croatian Second League.

In 2008–09, they finished fifth in the Croatian Second League, but were nevertheless directly promoted back to the Croatian First League for the 2009–10 season as the league was expanded to 16 teams and Slavonac CO, who finished above them, decided to withdraw from the top flight after failing to secure a proper stadium as their home ground.^[1]

[edit] Current squad

As of August 26, 2009

No. Position Player 1 GK Nikola Jurin 2 DF Daniel Georgievski 3 MF Franjo Pintarić 4 DF Hrvoje Bubalo 5 DF Jesús Amauri 6 MF Tomislav Levačić 7 MF Cícero 8 MF Joško Kovač 9 FW Marijan Vuka 10 FW Ivica Žuljević 11 MF Adnan Aganović 12 GK Ivan Banović 13 MF Mario Darmopil (captain)

No. Position Player 14 MF Ante Režić 15 DF Kruno Bratković 16 FW Petar Milatović 18 MF Hrvoje Marković 19 DF André Silva 20 FW Bojan Golubović 21 MF Mirko Plantić 22 GK Neven Vuljanko 24 MF Dejan Slunjski 25 DF Igor Lozo 26 MF Nikola Melnjak 27 FW Eliomar FW Saša Treska

[edit] Seasons

Season	League									Cup	European competitions		Top goalscorer
	Division	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts	Pos				Player	Goals
2003–04	2.HNL North	32	21	6	5	70	28	69	1st	DNQ
2004–05	1.HNL	32	9	6	17	29	52	33	11th	R2			Ivica Žuljević	12
2005–06	1.HNL	32	9	9	14	40	51	36	11th	R2			Igor Mostarlić	11
2006–07	1.HNL	33	11	4	18	40	60	37	9th	R1			Davor Piškor	10
2007–08	1.HNL	33	3	6	24	37	81	15	12th	R1			Edin Šaranović	7
2008–09	2.HNL	30	16	2	12	61	34	50	5th	R1			Marijan Vuka	19

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: DNQ = Did not qualify; PR = Preliminary round; R1 = First round; R2 = Second round; QF = Quarter-final; SF = Semi-final; RU = Runner-up; W = Competition won;

[edit] Notable players

• Samir Duro
• Mario Grgurović
• Dino Kresinger
• Igor Mostarlić
• Saško Pandev
• Kristijan Polovanec
• Edin Šaranović
• Danijel Štefulj

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website (Croatian)
• Međimurje at uefa.com

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