History
The club was founded in 1903 as PNIŠK (Prvi nogometni i športski klub, translated First Football and Sports Club), being one of the first to be formed in Croatia. First secretary was Dragutin Baki, the president was Vilhelm Witte, and the captain of the team and instructor was Czech Jan Todl.
Since there weren't any clubs to play with, the first official match was played between the club's players divided into two groups in 1904. Ticket income from the match was 3 krone and 3 filirs.
The first international match was played in 1905. against Magyar champions Ferencváros on Magyar Athleticai Club's pitch. Home team won with a high 11:1 score. The players who played for Zagreb were: Filipčić, Schwarz, Todl, Mutefelija, Slavnič, Ugrinić, Polivka, Uhrl, Višinger, Koruna, and Torbić.
However, after World War II, NK Zagreb has been overshadowed by several larger, more successful clubs, especially their local rival Dinamo Zagreb.
One of the most notable matches Zagreb played was on 19 July 1973 when "Great drama in Maksimir" took place - a match between N.K. Zagreb and N.K. Osijek on Maksimir stadium. It was a second of two qualifying matches for entering the first league; the first one in Osijek ended 0:0 with attendance of 25.000. The second match was played in Maksimir because of great demand for tickets - the attendance was 64.138 which broke the stadium record and stands to this day. Zagreb won the match after penalty kicks (4:3).
Lineup for this team was: Horvat, Gašparini, Tucak, Antolić, Ivanišević, Lipovac, Markulin, Čopor (Hušidić), Močibob, Rukljač, Smolek (Bakota).
Among NK Zagreb's more notable players was Ivica Olić who led the club to its first championship of the Prva HNL in 2002. Also worth mentioning here is Joško Popović, (who played in the 1990s, and was still active in 2005) 2nd top-goalscorer ever in Prva HNL.
In the championship of 2002., N.K. Zagreb broke the duopoly of N.K. Dinamo and N.K. Hajduk for the first (and until today the only) time - and it was well deserved. N.K. Zagreb had the best coach of the season, the best player, the best assistant, the best scorer. They've won most points, the least losses, the most wins, scored more goals and received the least continually being the top team and in one moment had 11 points more than second best team.
Standard lineup for the champion team was: Vasilj, Stavrevski, Pirić, Ješe, Bulat, Poldrugač, Duro, Hasančić, Franja, Lovrek, Olić.
There are two other football competitions being played in Croatia - cup and winter indoor championship. While N.K. Zagreb never won the cup, it is two time winner of winter indoor championship which was played only two times.
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