Osijek Begins Club Overhaul as President Sets Out Long-Term Plan

NK Osijek is rebuilding its foundations rather than chasing a quick improvement in results. President Alexandra Végh has presented a plan covering both the club’s sporting and business operations, with a focus on long-term stability and competitiveness.

Kenneth Zandvliet will lead the sporting department as sporting director, with Federico Bessone as coach. Carles Planchart, Francesc Cos and Albert Puig will contribute to analysis, scouting, methodology, performance, medical work and academy development. Olivier Jaubert has joined as chief executive, strengthening the business structure.

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We are not interested in big names who come for a big salary without the real motivation to fight for this club. Every player who joins NK Osijek must be hungry for success, ambitious and sincerely willing to contribute. We want results on the pitch as soon as possible, but we want them to come from the right players and the right environment.

The club still wants players who can help the first team immediately, but Végh said recruitment must support a sustainable organization. She rejected expensive signings motivated mainly by salary and said new arrivals must show ambition and a genuine desire to contribute.

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A few years ago, we saw what unrealistic and short-sighted spending in the sporting department can lead to. We must learn from that, not repeat it. Ambition is not an excuse to gamble with the club’s future for a short-term result.

Végh also pointed to earlier spending aimed at producing rapid results. She said Osijek had seen the consequences of unrealistic and short-sighted investment in the sporting department and should learn from that period rather than repeat it. The club’s new structure includes work on injury prevention, rehabilitation, nutrition, recovery, testing, sports science and mental preparation.

The academy is central to the model. Osijek wants to identify and develop talent from Slavonia and Baranja more systematically, while extending scouting into accessible parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hungary. The club says the involvement of specialists who have worked at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City does not mean it intends to copy those clubs’ systems. Instead, it aims to build a structure suited to its own needs.

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We do not want to wait for talent to appear at our door by chance. We want to build a system that knows how to find, recognize and develop it, on and off the pitch.