NK Pazinka is a

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in the town of

Pazin Pazin (, ) is a town in western Croatia, the administrative seat of Istria County. It is known for the medieval Pazin Castle, the former residence of the Istrian margraves. Geography The town had a population of 8,638 in 2011, of which 4,386 li ...

Istria Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; ; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian: ; ; ) is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea. Located at th ...

. Founded in 1948, their greatest success was competing in the Croatian top flight 1. HNL for two seasons between 1992 and 1994. They are currently competing in the

Croatian Third Football League The Treća nogometna liga (), commonly Treća NL or 3. NL, is the fourth tier of the Croatian football league system. The league was reestablished in 2022 following the reconstruction of league system in Croatia. It is operated by the Croatian F ...

History

The club was established in 1948 as part of the SD Pazin

sports society A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

. They spent the next few decades in relative obscurity contesting

n regional league competitions within the Yugoslav league system. In 1970 the club was renamed NK Pazinka, after the local textile factory which began sponsoring the club. In 1985 they won promotion to Croatian League West, one of several regional fourth-level divisions in

SR Croatia The Socialist Republic of Croatia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Hrvatska, Социјалистичка Република Хрватска), commonly abbreviated as SR Croatia and referred to as simply Croatia, was a ...

. In spite of winning the division in the 1989–90 season, Pazinka failed to progress further up the football pyramid and remained at fourth level until the

breakup of Yugoslavia After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, the constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia split apart in the early 1990s. Unresolved issues from the breakup caused a series of inter-ethnic Yugoslav ...

in 1991. Following Croatia's independence, Pazinka entered one of the three regional divisions of the newly formed 2. HNL second-level competition in the shortened 1992 season and finished first, gaining promotion to the national top level for the first time in their history for the 1992–93 season. They finished 11th out of 16 clubs, level on points with five other clubs. There was no relegation that season due to the ongoing war. The following year the league was expanded to 18 clubs, with Pazinka finishing 15th in the 1993–94 season, inside the relegation zone. Notable players who appeared for Pazinka during this spell included

Dado Pršo Miladin "Dado" Pršo (born 5 November 1974) is a Croatian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Pršo played for seven different teams and made over 300 league appearances as a professional. He was included in the Monaco tea ...

(later with

AS Monaco Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club, commonly referred to as AS Monaco (), is a professional football club based in Fontvieille, Monaco. Although not in France, they are a member of the French Football Federation (FFF) and currently ...

and Rangers),

Tonči Gabrić Tonči Gabrić (11 November 1961 – 28 October 2024) was a Croatian professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career Gabrić started his career in RNK Split. He played for Čelik Zenica before moving to HNK Rijeka where he was ...

(later with

Hajduk Split Hrvatski Nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979, the club's home ...

), Zoran Škerjanc (formerly of

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb (), commonly referred to as simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Cr ...

and Recreativo Huelva) and

Damir Desnica Damir Desnica (born 20 December 1956) is a Croatian and Yugoslav retired footballer who played as a forward. Born deaf, Desnica spent the majority of his career in the 1970s and 1980s with Rijeka, winning two Yugoslav Cup titles (1978, 1979) a ...

(one of the very few

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

professional footballers, formerly with

Rijeka Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...

and

Kortrijk Kortrijk ( , ; or ''Kortrik''; ), sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray ( ), is a Belgian City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region, Flemish Provinces of Belgium, province of We ...

). The club then spent several seasons playing second-level football before slipping further down to third level in the 1997–98 season, which also coincided with the bankruptcy of the Pazinka textile factory. After spending a few years struggling to stay in third level they slipped down to fourth level in 2003 and then again to fifth level in 2004. However, Pazinka won the fifth level Istria Group and earned promotion back to 4. HNL in 2007–08.

References

External links

* (archived)
NK Pazinka
at ''Nogometni leksikon'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Pazinka Football clubs in Croatia Football clubs in Istria County Association football clubs established in 1948 1948 establishments in Croatia