NK Varaždin
Also written as Varazdin.
The club
The Varaždin name has been carried by more than one legal entity, and the sources read here are explicit that today's NK Varaždin is not a straightforward continuation of the old club, even though it plays at the same ground under the same name in the same city. The original club was founded on 3 June 1931 as NK Slavija, became NK Tekstilac after a post-war reorganisation in 1945, and took the name NK Varteks in 1958 in honour of its sponsor, the Varteks clothing factory. When that sponsorship ended in June 2010 the club reverted to the name NK Varaždin. Severe financial trouble followed: the Croatian Football Federation suspended the club before a scheduled match on 24 February 2012, it was relegated administratively to the seventh tier that year and to the third tier in 2013, and it finally folded in 2015. Wikipedia's account of the old club states plainly that the 2010 renaming from Varteks to Varaždin "led to angry fans forming their own club, the new NK Varteks, in 2011" — a separate entity, described elsewhere as "unassociated with the history and records of the original 'Varteks / Varaždin'", which still exists today playing in the Third Football League - North, the fourth tier.
Today's NK Varaždin is a different entity again. It was founded on 1 July 2012, initially under the name FC Varaždin Football School (Croatian: NK Varaždin Škola nogometa, Varaždin ŠN), explicitly as what the English Wikipedia article calls "a phoenix club of NK Varaždin (1931–2015) after the latter's suspension" — meaning it was formed to fill the gap the old club's suspension had left, before that old club had even folded outright (the original briefly returned to competition in 2013, overlapping for a period with the new club's existence). It only took the discarded Varaždin name once the original club dissolved in bankruptcy in 2015. On the question of continuity, the sources hedge in a specific and quotable way: the Croatian Football Federation keeps the two clubs' records formally apart — "the two clubs' track records and honours are kept separate by the Croatian Football Federation" — while the same article separately describes the 2012 club as "a continuation of the older club" in a looser, non-institutional sense (successor identity, shared stadium, shared city and support). In other words, this is best understood as a phoenix club: a new legal entity that inherited the name, the ground and the fanbase but not the honours roll, which the governing body treats as belonging to the defunct 1931–2015 organisation. Nothing in the sources read here supports treating the current club's honours list as including the pre-2015 club's Cup finals, and nothing supports treating the two as wholly unconnected either; the honest position, and the one taken in this dossier, is the split one the Federation itself uses.
The club plays its home matches at Stadion Varteks, capacity 8,818, the same ground used throughout the old club's history. The current head coach is Nikola Šafarić, and the president is Dražen Vitez. Colours for the current club were not established with confidence from the sources read here (the old Varteks/Varaždin club wore red-and-white striped home shirts).
Recent seasons
Since its 2012 formation the club has climbed the Croatian pyramid from county football to the top flight in successive promotions: third in the 2. ŽNL Varaždin County East in 2012–13 and 2013–14, champions of the 1. ŽNL Varaždin County in 2014–15 to reach the third tier, second in 3. HNL East in 2016–17 to reach the second tier, and champions of the 2. HNL in 2018–19 to reach the Croatian Football League (HNL) for the first time. That first top-flight season, 2019–20, ended in eighth place; the club finished bottom the following season, 2020–21, and was relegated. A second 2. HNL title in 2021–22 brought an immediate return to the top flight, where the club has since settled: sixth in 2022–23, sixth again in 2023–24, fourth in 2024–25 with a record of 11 wins, 16 draws and 9 losses from 36 matches (28 goals for, 24 against, 49 points), and third in 2025–26 with 15 wins, 9 draws and 12 losses from 36 matches (47 goals for, 46 against, 54 points) — the club's best HNL finish to date. That 2025–26 campaign included a 2–0 home win over champions Dinamo Zagreb.
Honours and landmarks
Under the Croatian Football Federation's separation of the two clubs' records, the current NK Varaždin's honours are confined to its own promotion-era titles: champions of the 1. ŽNL Varaždin County in 2014–15, and champions of the 2. HNL (second tier) in both 2018–19 and 2021–22. The pre-2015 club, playing as NK Varteks and later NK Varaždin, was Yugoslav Cup runner-up in 1960–61 (losing to Vardar Skopje) and Croatian Cup runner-up six times — 1995–96, 1997–98, 2001–02, 2003–04, 2005–06 and 2010–11 — but those honours are recorded by the Federation against the defunct 1931–2015 entity, not the present-day club. The present club's third-place finish in the Croatian Football League in 2025–26 was its highest league position to date and yielded its first European qualification.
Notable scorelines
The clearest notable domestic scoreline identified from the sources read here is the 2–0 home win over champions Dinamo Zagreb during the 2025–26 Croatian Football League season; exact date and scorers were not established from the sources read here. Details of any other heavy wins or heavy defeats for the current club were not established from the sources read here. For the pre-2015 club, Wikipedia records a 9–0 aggregate win over Dundalk in 2002–03 UEFA Cup qualifying, a 5–1 aggregate win over Union Luxembourg in the 1996–97 Cup Winners' Cup, and an away-goals elimination of Aston Villa from the 2001–02 UEFA Cup (3–3 on aggregate, having lost 0–1 at home and won 3–2 away) — all achievements of the separate, now-defunct entity rather than the current club.
European record
The current club's European history consists of two Conference League qualifying campaigns to date, both ending at the second qualifying round. In 2025–26 the club faced CD Santa Clara of Portugal, winning the home leg 2–1 but losing the away leg 0–2, going out 2–3 on aggregate. In 2026–27 the club faced FK Jablonec of the Czech Republic, winning the home leg 3–2 but again losing away 0–2, going out 3–4 on aggregate. Exact dates and goalscorers for both ties were not established from the sources read here. Across the two campaigns the club's overall European record stands at two wins and two losses from four matches, five goals for and seven against. The pre-2015 club's separate European history included a run to the quarter-finals of the 1998–99 Cup Winners' Cup, where it held Real Mallorca goalless at home before losing the away leg 1–3, and the UEFA Cup wins over Dundalk and away-goals elimination of Aston Villa noted above; none of that history is attributed to the current club by the Federation's separated records.
Head-to-head notes
No documented rivalries or derby relationships for the current NK Varaždin were established from the sources read here, in either the English or Croatian Wikipedia articles consulted. The clearest local sporting relationship on record is not a rivalry in the usual sense but the split lineage itself: NK Varteks (2011), founded by supporters angered by the 2010 Varteks-to-Varaždin renaming, continues to exist as a separate club in the same city, playing several tiers below in the Third Football League - North, and Wikipedia gives no indication that the two clubs have since merged or that any organised rivalry between them is documented.
Right now (2026/27)
The club enters the 2026/27 season off the back of its best-ever Croatian Football League finish, third place in 2025–26, and its second successive European qualifying campaign. That 2026–27 Conference League tie against FK Jablonec of the Czech Republic has already been played and lost, 3–4 on aggregate, after a 3–2 home win was undone by a 0–2 defeat away. Nikola Šafarić remains head coach and Dražen Vitez remains president. Domestic league results for the 2026–27 Croatian Football League season were not established from the sources read here.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NK_Varaždin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NK_Varteks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NK_Varaždin_(2012) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NK_Varteks_(2011) https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=NK_Varaždin_(2012)&action=raw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Croatian_Football_League https://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/NK_Varaždin
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.