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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.
[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
[edit] Seasons
- 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
[edit] References
[edit] External links
Samir Duro
Mario Grgurović
Saško Pandev
