Varteks Varaždin

In 2011, while the old football club of Varaždin was already sliding toward the end under the name NK Varaždin, a group of supporters calling themselves White Stones registered a new club: Varteks. For a few years the city had two teams built from the same shirt, the same colours, the same memory of a sponsor that no longer existed, one heading for bankruptcy, the other starting from nothing.

The name traces back further than either club's paperwork. Founded on 3 June 1931 as NK Slavija, the club became NK Tekstilac in 1945 and then, in 1958, NK Varteks, after the local textile factory that backed it — Varaždin plus Textile. That history is still audible in one of the nicknames still used for the club today, Krojači, the tailors, alongside the more familiar Bumbari, the bumblebees.

Under the Varteks name, the old club never won the Croatian title but came close often enough to leave a mark: third place three times, in 1995/96, 2002/03 and 2005/06, and six defeats in Croatian Cup finals across the same span. It had reached a Yugoslav Cup final too, back in 1961.

The rebuilt club carries none of that record on paper — it is, legally, a separate entity, formed to keep the name and the following alive rather than to inherit trophies. What it has built since 2011 is smaller but its own: two Second League titles, in 2018/19 and 2021/22. Home matches are played at Stadion Varteks, officially the Gradski stadion Anđelko Herjavec, which holds 8,818. The city derby against the modern NK Varaždin, born directly out of that 2011 split, remains the fixture that matters most locally. Varteks currently plays in Croatia's second tier, working toward a return to the top flight.