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'HNK Rijeka' is a Croatian football club, from Rijeka on the Croatian coast.

Contents

History

Colours and badge

Stadium

Supporters

Current squad

Squad changes prior and during the 2007/2008 season

Noted players

Noted Managers

Honours

Records

Notable games

External links

History

The club was founded first in 1925 as 'Unione Sportiva Fiumana'. The club played in First Division (''Prima divisione'') that was second level of Italian Championship before 1929. The club reached the National Division (''Divisione Nazionale''), the first level of Italian football before 1929, in 1928. After 1929, it competed in Serie B in 1929-1930 and 1941-1942 seasons. The club was renamed Kvarner in 1946, due to Rijeka (''Fiume'' at the time) passing from Italy to Yugoslavia. During its early period in the Yugoslav, the club had moderate success in various Yugoslav and local club championships. It changed its name to "Rijeka" on June 3, 1954, and advanced to the Yugoslav First League in the 1957/58 season. It remained in the top tier until the 1969/70 season, when it was demoted to the Second League. It topped that league many times but it until 1973/74 to return to the First League, where it would remain all the way until the breakup of Yugoslavia.
Rijeka won the Yugoslav Cup in 1978 and 1979, was a runner-up in 1987, won the Croatian Cup in 2005 and in 2006, and participated several times in various UEFA championships. Although it has never advanced to final stages of the competition, Rijeka has topped and shocked some of the biggest clubs in the history of soccer on its home field during the 1980s, like Real Madrid and Juventus.
Rijeka has been playing in the Prva HNL since the independence of the country in 1991, generally finishing near the top. Notably it finished second in 1999 and 2006 and third in 2004. Due to many format changes of the league, Rijeka has played more games in the competition than any other team. In the 2004/2005 season, its player Tomislav Erceg was the top scorer of the Prva HNL with 17 goals.

Colours and badge

NK Rijeka colours are white and sky-blue.

Stadium

NK Rijeka plays their home matches on Kantrida Stadium, or just simply Kantrida, it can hold 11,000 spectators.

Supporters

The fans are known as Armada Rijeka.

Current squad

''As of 19 July 2007''

Squad changes prior and during the 2007/2008 season

'In:'

★ Filip Marčić - signed from ''Hajduk Split''

★ Igor Čagalj - signed from ''NK Šibenik''

★ Zedi Ramadani - signed from ''NK Pula''

★ Radomir Đalović - signed from ''Kayseri Erciyesspor''

★ Alen Škoro - signed from ''Grazer AK''

★ Ivan Božić - signed from ''K.S.K. Beveren''

★ Nikola Šafarić - signed from ''NK Varteks''

★ Dario Jertec - on loan from ''NK Dinamo Zagreb''
'Out:'

★ Ahmad Sharbini - signed for ''Al-Wahda FC (Abu Dhabi)''

★ Siniša Linić - signed for ''Hajduk Split''

★ Toñito - ''U.D. Leiria''

★ Krunoslav Rendulić - signed for ''Interblock Ljubljana''

★ Dušan Kerkez - signed for ''AEL Limassol''

★ Danijel Šarić - free player

★ Igor Novaković - loan ended, back to ''FC Tom Tomsk''

★ Dalibor Starčević - free player

Noted players

★ Mladen Mladenović

★ Dubravko Pavličić

★ Mauro Ravnić

★ Damir Desnica

★ Elvis Brajković

★ Nenad Gračan

★ Saša Peršon

★ Boško Balaban

★ Barnabas Stipanovics

★ Janko Janković

★ Matjaž Florjančič

★ Adrijan Fegic

★ Fredi Bobic

★ Elvir Bolić

Noted Managers

★ Nenad Gračan

★ Elvis Scoria

★ Zlatko Dalić

Honours

★

★

★

★ 3 times best club from Croatia in Yugoslav First Division (1965, 1984, 1987)

★ 7 times second best club from Croatia in Yugoslav First Division

Records

Notable games

In the 1984/85 season, Rijeka played 2nd stage of UEFA Cup against Real Madrid. In the first leg at Kantrida, Real had to admit the superiority of Rijeka with the result 3:1. On the second game in Madrid, the controversial decisions of Belgian referee Schoeters helped Real knock Rijeka out of the competition. Schoeters pointed to the spot in 67th minute after fictional penalty situation and even showed 3 strange red cards to Rijeka players, the result was 3:0 for Real. That helped the obviously weaker Real to continue competition.
In the 1998/99 season, Rijeka battled for first place in the league with Croatia Zagreb until the end of the last game. According to wide-spread opinion, Rijeka lost the title due to the unfair judging, which was a product of the fact that Croatia Zagreb was then viewed as a state-club and a must-be-champion.

External links

★ NK Rijeka official website

★ Armada Rijeka official website

★ HNK Rijeka fansite