Questions & Answers about Zavolio je Zagreb preko nogometa.
Why use zavolio instead of volio here?
Zavolio comes from the perfective verb zavoljeti, which focuses on the beginning of a feeling or a change of state. While volio (from the imperfective voljeti) just means "he loved" as an ongoing state, zavolio specifically means "he grew to love" or "he fell in love with."
I thought preko meant "across" or "over". Why does it translate to "through" here?
You are right that preko literally means "across" or "over" (like walking across a street). However, it is also very commonly used figuratively to mean "via," "by means of," or "through." In this sentence, he fell in love with the city via or through the sport of football.
Why is the word for football nogometa rather than just nogomet?
The preposition preko always requires the noun that follows it to be in the genitive case. Because nogomet is a masculine noun ending in a consonant, it takes the standard -a ending in the genitive, making it nogometa.
Is Zagreb in the nominative case here? It doesn't look like it has an ending.
It is actually in the accusative case because it is the direct object of what he grew to love. However, for inanimate masculine nouns (like cities or objects), the accusative form is exactly the same as the nominative form. If he had grown to love a person instead, that animate masculine noun would have taken an -a ending.
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