As many as 11 players from the club's own academy took part in senior preseason training, including four 17-year-olds and two 16-year-olds who are already signing professional contracts.
At HNK Gorica, the fruits of years of work with youth categories are slowly but surely beginning to show. An unwritten rule states that it takes two Olympic cycles to develop players from your own academy, and that's exactly how long it's been since the club entered the top flight and took its youth categories even more seriously. The result is visible at the current senior preseason training, where as many as 11 players who have come through the HNK Gorica Football School have taken part.
Coach Carević has added four 17-year-olds to the squad: Juraj Frigan, Mihael Kelava, Francis Echue, and Elisandro Aranha Kozina. All of them are part of the 2009 generation that once won the Croatian championship for U-15s. They've been given the chance to experience senior football and test themselves against the "big boys" during preseason.
Carević, however, is realistic in his assessment of their current capabilities. "All these young players are very talented, but at times you can see they lack experience and that some of them are physically not yet ready for senior football. When the situation allows, we'll give some of them a chance. Of course, not everyone can compete; youth football is not the same as the top tier of senior football. It meant a lot to them to go through preseason and play against strong opponents; every senior training session is a stimulus and progress for them, but it's not realistic to rely on them and have them carry responsibility and quality," the Gorica coach told City Portal VG.
In addition to the aforementioned quartet, there are also slightly older players from the club's own system. Luka Vrzić (19) is already an established top-flight player, while 18-year-old Stjepan Kučiš is increasingly making a name for himself. His best friend Zvonimir Josić has gone on loan to Slovenian second-division side Brežice to get minutes. Medin Gashi has returned from a loan at Kustošija, while Lovro Dukić (again to Kustošija) and Fran Stunja (to Slovenian side Krško) have gone out on new loans. Young striker Dominik Šimić is also expected to go out on loan soon.
A special story is Juraj Frigan, a 17-year-old international whom the club sees as a "club project." A modern player, powerful in both running and technique, he is expected to be one of the pillars of what is being called "Gorica 2.0", the team of the future. If Gorica can hold on to and develop these young players, the best signings could come from within their own ranks.
The youngest are not lagging behind either. Lovro Lojen, an exceptionally talented goalkeeper born in 2010, signed a professional contract just a few days after his 16th birthday. At the youth tournament "Trofej Turopolja," he was named the best goalkeeper and didn't concede a single goal, despite being two years younger than the competition. At the same tournament, centre-back Fran Džepin-Bajić, also born in 2010, shone and took home the title of best player.
Both have been invited to Croatian Football Federation camps, Džepin-Bajić to Prelog and Lojen to the goalkeeping camp in Osijek. They will be joined in Prelog by Ivano Mišković from the U-17 generation, while a year younger Karlo Horvat will hone his talent at a camp in Suhopolje.
