1904–1926 The club was founded on 21 April 1904 as
Club Sportivo Olimpia by Antonio Marchich, Aristodemo Susmel, Agesilao Satti, Carlo Colussi, the brothers Romeo and Alessandro Mitrovich during the time Rijeka was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as a Corpus Separatum of the Hungarian Crown. The club was originally founded as a tennis-lawn, football, swimming, cycling and athletics club. The first official activities of the football section recorded by contemporary chronicles happened on 25 November 1906, with historians still investigating the football activities in the previous 2,5 years. For lack of better data, this date is currently officially taken as the beginning of HNK Rijeka as a football club. The oldest line-up known from Rijeka's pioneer years was: Duimovic, Smoivar, Penka, Brosnich, R. Mittrovich, Lenardon, Satti, Novodnik, A. Mittrovich, Paulovatz, Cittovich (captain). Initially, the club played its matches on the main Scoglietto square, in front of the local
Honved HQ, but moved to Kantrida stadium during the following decade (and the stadium changed its name to Campo Sportivo Olympia). Initially, Olimpia played in black and white garments, but in the 1910s, the club also used a fully white kit. During the following years, Olimpia will be joined by several other local football clubs from the city of Rijeka and will continue the legacy of
Fiumei Atletikai Club as the main city club, when Atletico discontinued its football section in the course of the 1910s. Among the many clubs being founded in town during these years, a side, in particular, will soon rise as fierce arch-rival to Olimpia:
Doria (later renamed into
CS Gloria) arose from the proletarian classes and the humble old town dwellers of the industry-rich port town on the Adriatic. While
Olimpia was associated with the wealthier classes, mostly players from working-class families performed for
Gloria; therefore, the club found most of its sympathisers among the poorer part of the population. Olimpia was renamed to
Olympia on 9 January 1918 during a meeting of its board and the new president became the Fiuman writer Antonio de Schlemmer, possibly as an anti-irredentist move. During these years, it achieved its first major local and international successes: it became the champion of the
Free State of Fiume championship in 1921, and it won several Julian March and North-Eastern Italian championships in the following years, soon becoming the strongest side in the Alpe-Adria region.
1926–1943 On 2 September 1926, following Mussolini's reforms of the
FIGC and the 1924 Fiume putsch led by local Italians, which brought to the annexation of the independent
Free State of Fiume to Italy, Olympia was then merged with its arch-rival Gloria into the
Unione Sportiva Fiumana. Pietro Pasquali was picked as the new president of the club. Two years later, Fiumana won its first national trophy when it reached first place in the Italian Federal Cup. The following season saw the club playing in the Italian
Serie A, with some of the biggest Italian clubs such as Ambrosiana (today's
Inter, also forced into a brand image change by the new regime),
Juventus and
Napoli played at the Kantrida stadium (renamed to Stadio Borgomarina in those years). Despite a decent performance in Serie A, the city, now impoverished by the annexation and cut off from its natural economic hinterland, was not in the financial position to compete with the biggest cities in Italy and following these successes, the club had to see many of its stars signed by major Italian sides. During most of the 1930s and 1940s, the club competed in the second and third tier of the Italian competitions. At the reopening of a refurbished Kantrida (then renamed Stadio del Littorio) in 1935, Fiumana hosted
AS Roma. In June 1941, it became
champion of the newly created Italian Serie C. Serie C's last season before the fall of fascist Italy in 1943 saw Fiumana end in third place. Mostly from workers' families, the players leaned heavily toward the partisan movement, often joining it outright. They didn't participate in the
Italian Social Republic championships and the Adriatic Littoral championship set up by the German occupational force. Nonetheless, the players kept playing several matches with other local clubs and against sides organised or brought in by the German occupational authorities. Worth mentioning are the excessive celebrations for some victories against the German sides that brought several players to be imprisoned and sent to various concentration camps in Germany, and a last ceremonial game between the old legends of Olympia and Gloria that was held on 15 June 1944 while allied planes were bombing the city's surroundings. Despite Maras and most of his colleagues' partisan allegiance and the many hardships endured by several of its players in Nazi concentration camps for their partizan activities, the regime in Belgrade soon came to consider the name Fiumana too Italian and locally patriotic sounding for a city that the Yugoslav occupational authorities were trying to annex by force creating a fait-accompli before the official peace treaty could be signed, and a population that was very adverse to their efforts. In mid 1946 all football clubs of Yugoslavia were disbanded by a new sport law passed by the communist authorities, also establishing new clubs. Rijeka being still legally part of Italy until September 1947, the authorities could not disband the club to force a new brand, so they had the union leadership that was leading the club establish a new identity for the city's most representative club in order for it to take part in the upcoming Yugoslav championship The new name followed geographical and neutral naming conventions Belgrade imposed on all local comunal councils by the central authorities, in order to let the local sport clubs activities go on and to participate in the new competitions. The same fate as all other football clubs in the Venezia-Giulia region, who can claim they where never formally disbanded. In Rijeka the initiative was lead by Ettore Mazzieri, the city's sports commissioner within the Yugoslav military administration and a previous US Fiumana manager, that distinghuished himself in the yugoslav liberation movement. The first match under the new Quarnero brand was played on the 7th of August 1946, bringing revenge against
Hajduk Split for the loss suffered at their hand the previous year. The club began the new course with a resounding 2–0 against the best Yugoslav club at the time. Quarnero initially continued to play in the Fiumana
amaranto colours, but soon the authorities had it start switching colours after the first few championships games, while trying to establish a new identity for the club. The club continued appearing with new kits every few matches until season 1957–58. All former Fiumana players and staff carried on playing in the renamed club for the next few years before the Italian
exodus slowly forced many of them to leave their city, with most leaving after the end of season 1947–48. between 1945 and 1948 all clubs in Yugoslavia were required to change their organizational model to a general physical culture clubs that were following the Stalinist model at the time followed by Belgrade, The club, now with ever less of its best players who were leaving the city disappointed both by the new dictatorship as much as the unsporty relegation, continued to play with mixed results in Yugoslavia's second and third divisions. The club achieved quite mediocre results over the next decade, concurrently with the
autochthonous population slowly leaving their hometown over these years. By the end of the '40s, the club already basically all its best players, who moved overseas. In 1954, following rising tensions between Yugoslavia and Italy sorrounding the Trieste Crisis, Belgrade authorities informally destroyed all forms of visual bilingualism in the city. This, paired with a desire by its leadership to have a brand more associated with the city proper, the club rebranded once again into the monolingual
NK Rijeka.
1954–1991 Given the political interferences in the club's life and the continuous mistreatment of ethnic Italians, many of Quarnero's best players were forced to join the Fiuman
exodus, and the club lingered between the second and third tier of the Yugoslav competition for the next several years. Following new Italian-Yugoslav tensions that arose during the Trieste Crisis, and the subsequent
de facto abolition of the city's full bilingual rights by the communist authorities in Belgrade, the club changed its name once again, into the now completely monolingual
NK Rijeka (Rijeka Football Club) on 2 July 1954, giving up onto the Italian language in its brand image for the first time in the club's history. Rijeka started to use a white kit for the second time in its history in a match in
Šibenik in the 1957–58 second league season. During the previous seasons, the kit colours were constantly changing, depending on what was available to the management at any given time and what the sponsors could offer. The main kit remained white since. Rijeka returned to the First League in 1958 and remained in the top tier for 11 consecutive seasons until 1969, when it got relegated once again to the
Yugoslav Second League. Despite finishing at the top in four (out of five) seasons of the second league, due to three failed promotion play-off attempts, the club only gained promotion back to the top tier in 1974. Rijeka remained in the top tier until the
breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, with varying but improving results. The club never managed to finish the season higher than fourth place in the
Yugoslav First League. In
1984, the club came closest to a Yugoslav championship title, finishing only two points behind
Red Star Belgrade. Rijeka were also the best placed Croatian club in the
Yugoslav First League in
1965,
1984 and
1987.
1991–present win Following the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992, Rijeka joined the
Croatian First Football League in its
inaugural season. In 1995, the club changed its name to
HNK Rijeka, adding the prefix "Croatian" to its name, following the example of many other clubs during the
Croatian War for Independence. Today, Rijeka remains one of only four founding member clubs of the HNL to have never been relegated and is regarded as one of the country's top three clubs. Since the Croatian independence, the club won its first-ever league title in
2017, ending
Dinamo Zagreb's run of 11 consecutive titles, and was a runner-up eight times. Rijeka has also won seven
Croatian Cups, including back-to-back titles in
2005 and
2006 and most recently in
2019 and
2020. The club also won the cup in
2014 and in
2017, which helped them secure a historic
Double in that year. Rijeka repeated this remarkable feat in the 2024–25 season, once again winning both the league and the cup to complete a second historic Double. A refereeing error denied Rijeka their first championship title in the final round of the
1998–99 season. With one match to play, Rijeka was one point ahead of Croatia Zagreb, needing a home win against
Osijek to secure the title. With the match tied at 1–1, in the 89th minute, Rijeka forward
Admir Hasančić converted a cross by
Barnabás Sztipánovics. However, moments later, assistant referee Krečak raised his flag, and referee Šupraha disallowed Rijeka's winning goal for an alleged offside. Following an investigation,
3D analysis revealed Hasančić was not, in fact, in an offside position, and that Rijeka was wrongfully denied their first championship title. An investigation by
Nacional revealed
Franjo Tuđman, the president of the Republic of Croatia and an ardent Croatia Zagreb supporter, earlier in 1999 ordered the country's intelligence agencies to spy on football referees, officials and journalists, to ensure the Zagreb club wins the league title. The most memorable result in Europe was the home win (3–1) against eventual winners
Real Madrid in the
1984–85 UEFA Cup. Controversially, in the return leg at
Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, which Rijeka lost 3–0, three of their players were sent off. Madrid scored their first goal from a dubious penalty in the 67th minute with Rijeka already down to ten men. Over the next ten minutes, two additional Rijeka players were sent off, most notably
Damir Desnica. While Desnica received the first yellow card because he did not stop play after Schoeters blew his whistle, the second yellow was issued because he allegedly insulted the referee. However, unbeknownst to the referee, Desnica had been a
deaf-mute since birth. Rijeka also participated in the
2014–15 UEFA Europa League group stage, where they defeated
Feyenoord and
Standard Liège and drew with title-holders and eventual winners
Sevilla. In 2017, Rijeka reached the
2017–18 UEFA Champions League play-off, where they lost 3–1 on aggregate to Greek champions
Olympiacos, and automatically qualified for the
2017–18 UEFA Europa League group stage. In the group stage, they recorded a famous home win (2–0) against
AC Milan. In
2020–21 Rijeka reached the group stages of the Europa League for the fourth time in eight years but once again failed to progress to the knockout stages. In
2021–22,
2023–24 and
2024–25, Rijeka was eliminated in the play-off round of
UEFA Conference League.
Private ownership In February 2012,
Gabriele Volpi – an Italian businessman and the founder of Orlean Invest, as well as the owner of football club
Spezia and water polo club
Pro Recco – injected much-needed capital into the club. With the privatization process complete by September 2013, Volpi, through Dutch-based Stichting Social Sport Foundation, owned 70% of the club, with the City of Rijeka in control of the remaining 30%. On 29 December 2017, it was announced that chairman
Damir Mišković, through London-based Teanna Limited, acquired the majority stake in the club from Stichting Social Sport Foundation.
Record transfers In January 2015, Rijeka sold their star striker
Andrej Kramarić to
Leicester City for a club-record transfer fee of £9.7 million. == Historical names ==