A disappointing season in Belgium, largely due to the nation’s ongoing financial challenges on Football Manager 2024, saw Trebor Mahtal resign from his role at Royal Antwerp. That saw unemployed for the first time in eight years and back looking for a new opportunity across Europe.
Several jobs became available early in the summer and Mahtal applied to vacancies in Gibraltar, Israel, Poland, Romania and Slovenia. He quickly received three offers and delayed them all to give himself time to make a decision. His first choice was Romanian side Sepsi, who played hardball on wages and negotiations were cut short. That left him with option two, which took Mahtal to his sixth country and club.
Who Are NK Domzale?
Nogometni klub Domžale is a professional club based in the town of Domzale, on the outskirts of the Slovenian capital Ljubljana. The club was founded in 1920, but lingered in the lower reaches of Slovenian football until it was promoted to the top tier in 2002. Five years later, it became champions of Slovania for the first time and backed up the achievement by defending the title. But it’s not won the title again since, with the next high being a 3rd place finish in 2018 and 2019. During this save, it’s been very much a mid-table side, bar relegation in 2025, and finished 7th in Prva Liga Telemach last season.
Domzale has a decent financial situation with £2m in the bank, a £900k transfer budget and £35k wage budget, of which it’s spending £32k. It plays at the 2,813-capacity Stadion Domzale and has decent facilities led by 19 youth recruitment plus 14 youth facilities and junior coaching and 13 training facilities.
Mahtal’s time in Slovenia began with best player Dejan Humar requesting to leave and joining his former club Antwerp for £925k, before selling 13 more players for an additional £600k. That left the key player as winger Mark Serbec along with promising midfielder Nik Lenart, winger Gregor Debenjak, midfielder and club captain Maj Blazic, left back Luca Ferrara and striker Luis Hartwig. The club had plenty of potential with eight first-teamers having 4.5-star potential or better plus six more in the under 19s led by midfielders Tomaz Babic, Aleksandar Lukac and Matej Kosir and winger Timotej Kolar.
Having assessed the players available, Mahtal opted for a 4-2-3-1 approach that used two playmakers in midfielder in behind an Enganche in creative Israeli forward Gamliel Yerushalmi.
Bright Start To Life In Slovenia
Domzale remain fourth favourites for the 10-team Prva Liga Telemach, in which teams play each other four times. Their 20/1 odds were only bettered by Maribor (13/8), who’ve won the last three titles, Olimpija (9/4), and Mura (3/1).
Mahtal’s first game at Domzale came around very quickly as their season began at home to Celje on 19 July. But they started well as a Hartwig brace led a 4-1 victory. They also won the first away game as striker Nejc Udovic’s late strike nicked a 3-2 at Rogaska. Two tough tests followed as they drew 1-1 at home to Mura before tasting defeat for the first time in a 3-1 loss at Maribor. They bounced back with Debenjak bagging a brace in a 3-1 win at home to Aluminij before Serbec followed suit in a 4-2 victory at Bistrica, but remained clearly short of the top three with a 2-0 loss at Olimpija.
Domzale had too much for the other teams, including Blazic’s assist hat trick in a 3-2 win at Bravo and Hartwig bagging a new league record four-goal haul in a 4-0 thumping of struggling Rogaska. They took that into dominating Maribor but waste their chances, only for the visitors to score a 30-yard screamer. That sparked a poor run of form that saw them also lose to Olimpija and Bistrica and draw with Mura and Bravo, swiftly dropping them from 2nd to 5th. But they got back on track as Hartwig’s double earned a 3-1 win at Rogaska, which left them 3rd behind Maribor and Mura heading into the winter break.
Fighting For 2nd Behind Maribor
January saw Mahtal forced to sell star man Hartwig, who’d scored 17 in 19 but refused to sign a new contract, to Maribor for £2m. In his place, he retrained two young midfielders Mirko Ivanovic and Lukas as strikers. They started well without him as Ivanovic got his first senior goal in a 4-2 victory over Mura. A week later, they faced Maribor and again dominated the first half only to miss chances and gift the opener. Debenjak got himself sent off for a wild tackle but opposite winger Andraz Borovnik swiftly equalised, and they held out until a 92nd-minute free kick was headed in.
That result set the scene as they couldn’t compete with Maribor. But behind them, a tasty battle was heating up for the European places as Olimpia, Mura and Domzale were separated by five points with six games remaining. Domzale began the run-in with their best performance under Mahtal as Debenjak, Kolar and Yerushalmi finally earned a victory over Maribor. That gave them confidence to win 3-1 at Aluminij and 4-0 at home to Bistrica led by a Serbec brace before a 0-0 at Radomije sealed 3rd place.
But Olimpija, who they faced in their final way, put together a 10-game winning streak to climb above Maribor with two games remaining. Their title charge continued with a 3-1 win at Domzale and sealed their first title since 2023 with a 1-1 at Maribor on the final day. Domzale finished 3rd on 69 points, only 5 points back from Maribor, to secure Europa Conference League qualification after 21 wins, 6 draws and 9 defeats, scoring 73 and conceding 44.
A Promising Start In Slovenia
Mahtal led Domzale to their first top-three finish of this save and their highest league position for 13 years since finishing 3rd in 2019. That was achieved with a young squad with plenty of potential that Mahtal was keen to nurture further next season.
The departed Hartwig remained Domzale’s top scorer, but of those remaining Serbec led the way with 14 goals followed by Debenjak and Yerushalmi (12) and Borovnik (10). Blazic led the assists with 14 followed by Borovnik (10), Debenjak (9), Yerushalmi (8) and Serbec and Brkic (7).
Mahtal had plenty to be excited about at Domzale, boosted by a youth intake that delivered two 5-star potential talents. However, the lack of a natural striker may need to be addressed in the summer.
Could Mahtal’s young charges push for the Slovenian title in 2032/33? Join us on Friday to find out!
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