HNK Hajduk Split

Hajduk Split, officially Hrvatski Nogometni Klub Hajduk Split, is a Croatian professional football club based in Split. They compete in the Croatian Football League (HNL), the top flight of Croatian football, and are one of the country's most storied clubs. Since 1979, they have played their home matches at Stadion Poljud, a 33,987-seat venue known for its distinctive architecture, designed by Boris Magaš. Locals affectionately call it Poljudska ljepotica (Poljud Beauty). The team's traditional colors are white shirts with blue shorts and blue socks.

The club was founded on February 13, 1911, by a group of Split students studying in Prague, Fabijan Kaliterna, Josip Barač, Lucijan Stella, Vladimir Šore, Vjekoslav Ivanišević, and Ivan Šakić, after they watched a match between Sparta Prague and Slavia Prague. The name Hajduk was proposed by gymnasium teacher Barač, comparing the students to romanticized Balkan outlaws who resisted Ottoman rule. Hajduk is one of the most successful clubs in Croatia, with six Croatian league championships, eight Croatian Cup titles, and five Croatian Super Cups. Along with Dinamo Zagreb, Rijeka, and Osijek, they are part of the Big Four clubs that have never been relegated from the top tier. Their biggest European achievements include three European Cup quarter-final appearances, a UEFA Cup semi-final, and a Cup Winners' Cup semi-final.

Hajduk's main rival is Dinamo Zagreb, with matches between them known as the Eternal Derby. The club's supporters, Torcida Split, founded in 1950, are the oldest organized fan group in Europe. An early club motto, still popular today, reads Kontra mraku, kontra sili (Against the Darkness, Against the Force). [edit]

The club was born in a Prague pub, the U Fleků, on February 13, 1911. Six Split students, inspired by a football match they had just seen, decided to create a club for their hometown. Josip Barač proposed the name Hajduk, evoking the outlaw heroes of Balkan folklore. They returned to Split and quickly built a following. By 1912, Hajduk played its first official match, a 9-0 win over Calcio Spalato. The early years were marked by rapid growth, and by 1927 the club won its first Yugoslav championship.

Hajduk dominated Yugoslav football in the 1950s and 1970s, winning nine league titles and eight cups before Croatia's independence. The 1970s were especially golden: under coach Tomislav Ivić, they won three consecutive Yugoslav Cups (1972-1974) and two league titles (1974, 1975). In 1979, they moved into the newly built Stadion Poljud, which had a capacity of 62,000 after completion. That same year, they reached the European Cup semi-finals, losing to Malmö FF on away goals after a dramatic 2-1 win at Poljud.

During the Croatian War of Independence in the early 1990s, Hajduk became a symbol of national pride. Many Torcida members joined the homeland defense. The club won the first Croatian league title in 1992, then repeated as champions in 1994 and 1995. In 1995, they reached the Champions League quarter-finals, drawing 0-0 at home against Ajax Amsterdam, who went on to win the European title that season. That remains the best Champions League run by any Croatian club since independence. The 2000s brought two more league titles (2001, 2004) and a double in 2005, but since then, Dinamo Zagreb has dominated the domestic scene.

Hajduk's unique ownership structure, the City of Split holds 65.92%, while the fan association Naš Hajduk controls 30.60%, reflects the club's deep roots in the community. The current president is Ivan Bilić. In the 2025-26 season, Hajduk finished 2nd in the HNL under coach Gonzalo García García, who took over in 2025. [edit]