Solin

That business began in 1919, when the club was registered as Dioklecijan, a nod to the Roman emperor whose palace ruins sit nearby in Split. The name did not last: it became Jadro in 1924, then Solin in 1931, before the club was dissolved in 1937 and had to be rebuilt after the war under yet another name. It went through Cement, then Solin again, then a string of sponsor-tied variations through the 1990s, before settling back on NK Solin in 2004. A club that keeps changing its name is usually a club that keeps having to start over, and Solin did that more than once.

Its best years on the pitch came in short bursts rather than a sustained run. The Croatian Republic League title in 1981 and the 2. HNL South crown in 1992 both came at moments when a step up looked possible; a Yugoslav Cup run to the last sixteen in 1977/78 remains the kind of result the club still points to. More recently, a 3. HNL South title in 2016 marked a smaller but similar climb back up the pyramid.

Locally, Solin plays in the shadow of Hajduk Split, and the arrangement has become practical rather than adversarial: the club has a partnership with Hajduk for developing young players, some of whom have gone on to senior Croatia recognition without ever wearing Solin's blue and yellow in a first-team shirt. For now, the club's task is the familiar one for a side its size — holding a place in the lower reaches of Croatian football and finding the odd run that lifts it higher.