Opatija

Football arrived there through the Croatian Sokol movement, whose section in Opatija-Volosko took up the game on 14 May 1911. It returned to NK Opatija only in 1945.

The club's own ground, Igralište Opatije, holds barely 2,000, which has forced NK Opatija to play its higher-division fixtures along the coast at Stadion Kantrida in Rijeka. A new stadium is going up in Opatija itself, built for the coming season rather than for size — its capacity is set at 802.

The one campaign the town still talks about is 2023–24, when NK Opatija won the Croatian Second Football League and reached the First League for the first time in its history. Before that, the honours board was regional: the Third League West in 2001–02 and again in 2019–20, the Fourth League West in 2009–10. The club's best-known name belongs to someone who barely stayed — Stojan Osojnak played one season at Opatija before moving on to score the goal that won GNK Dinamo Zagreb the 1953–54 title.