Stjepan Bobek

Stjepan Bobek (stjêpaːn bǒbek; 3 December 1923 – 22 August 2010) was a Yugoslav and Croatian professional football striker and later football manager.^[1]

Usually a forward or attacking midfielder, Bobek was renowned for his technique, vision and goalscoring ability and is commonly regarded as one of Yugoslavia's greatest players. He is remembered for his time at Belgrade's Partizan, where he moved to following the end of World War II. He played for Partizan between 1945 and 1959 helping them win two Yugoslav First League titles and four Yugoslav Cups, and was named the club's greatest player in history in 1995. Internationally, he is the second all-time top scorer for the Yugoslavia national team, scoring 38 goals in 63 appearances between 1946 and 1956, and was member of Yugoslav squads which won two Olympic silver medals (in 1948 and 1952) and played in two FIFA World Cups (in 1950 and 1954).

After retiring from active football in 1959, he was a successful manager, winning Yugoslav and Greek national titles with Partizan and Panathinaikos.

Club career

Bobek was born in Zagreb and started playing at the age of 13 for Viktorija, a lower league club, using his brother's registration papers. When he was 20 he became the center-forward of Građanski Zagreb.

He was the top scorer of the Yugoslav First League twice, in 1945 (25 goals) and 1954 (21 goals).

Partizan

He came to FK Partizan in 1946 and played for them until 1959. During his time in Partizan, he played 468 games and scored 403 goals, still holding the club record. Bobek won two Yugoslav League titles and the Yugoslav Cup four times.

He scored his first goals in official matches, on 1 September 1946, in the 2nd leg of the Yugoslav First League. He scored twice in a 6–1 home victory over Budućnost. On 5 January 1947, Bobek scored his first goal, in his first Eternal derby against Red Star Belgrade, in a 3–4 home defeat. That was also the first goal in the Derby scored by Partizan player, because the previous two were own goals. On 8 June 1947 in a league match played in Niš between 14. Oktobar and Partizan (1–10), Bobek scored eight goals – an absolute record that has never been broken until the end of Yugoslav First League or its successor leagues. He scored 25 goals in 22 matches in his first season of First League of SFR Yugoslavia and also won his first title.

In May 1951, Partizan played three friendly matches in England. The first match was played on 9 May, against Hull City and Partizan beat them 3–2. Bobek scored two goals in that victory. Three days later he again played brilliantly and scored a goal in Partizan's second victory over English teams. The result was the same three days later against Middlesbrough. One month later, he scored twice in one of the biggest victories in Eternal Derby, in a 6–1 home victory over Red Star. In November of that year, Bobek scored a six goals against Sloboda Titovo Užice, in a qualifying round of Yugoslav Cup, in a 11–1 away victory. A week later, he also set a record in the Yugoslav Cup. He scored eight goals in 15–0 home victory over Sloga Petrovac.

On 29 November 1952, Bobek scored a goal in a 6–0 victory over a arch rival Red Star Belgrade in the final of the Yugoslav Cup. A three weeks before, he scored a hat-trick in a 4–0 home victory over one of the best German teams at that time – 1. FC Köln.

Bobek continued with great performances in following seasons. He scored a goal in biggest victory ever in Eternal Derby. After four minutes, he scored first goal on the match, in a 7–1 home victory over Red Star, on 6 December 1953. On 11 April 1954, he scored four goals in 8–0 home league victory over Rabotnički.

Two years later after winning second Yugoslav Cup, he won a third. Again Partizan beat Red Star, but this time 4–1 and Bobek again scored one goal.

On 4 September 1955, Bobek scored a goal in first ever match of European Cup. Partizan draw (3–3) with Sporting CP, in Lisbon. He played all four matches in the 1955–56 European Cup including a legendary victory 3–0 over Real Madrid in the quarter-finals.

International career

Bobek played for Croatia U21 in its only match against Slovakia U21 in September 1942.^[2] He made his debut for the Yugoslavia national team on 9 May 1946, in a 2–0 win over Czechoslovakia at the Letná Stadium, which was the nation's inaugural match as SFR Yugoslavia. He scored his first international goal against the same opponents on 29 September 1946, in a 4–2 win at the JNA Stadium.^[3]

Bobek won two Olympic silver medals for Yugoslavia, scoring four goals in London 1948 and three in Helsinki 1952.^[4] He also appeared at the 1950 and 1954 FIFA World Cups, scoring once in a 1950 4–1 win over Mexico.^[3]

On 17 October 1954, Bobek scored a hat-trick in a 5–1 win over Turkey, which were also his last goals on international duty. He reached 38 goals for Yugoslavia on that day and became the national side's top scorer, surpassing Blagoje Marjanović's 37-goal tally.^[3] Bobek's record stood for over 66 years, until it was beaten by Serbia's Aleksandar Mitrović on 27 March 2021.^[5]

Managerial career

After retiring from active playing Bobek went into management. In 1959 he became the coach of Legia Warsaw in Poland, moving back to Yugoslavia the next season to manage Partizan. He won three successive Yugoslav league championships with Partizan (1961, 1962, 1963) before being replaced by Kiril Simonovski in 1963.

In 1963 Bobek moved to Greece where he spent four years at the helm of Panathinaikos. He led the club to two Greek championship titles, including the first undefeated season for any Greek club, in the 1963–64 season.

Bobek returned to Yugoslavia and again took over Partizan, finishing second in the Yugoslav league in the 1967–68 season and third in 1968–69. After that, he returned to Greece to manage Olympiacos, spending ten months at the club. He briefly worked in Turkey, and then took over the recently promoted Galenika Zemun in the Yugoslav second level.

He was then hired by Dinamo Zagreb for the 1972–73 season, but was sacked in November 1972 after only four months, with the club sitting at the bottom of the table, winning only two out of their first 13 games. During the 1974–75 season he returned to Panathinaikos for a second time, but without much success. He also coached Espérance ST in Tunisia, and his last managing job was at Vardar, with whom he won the 1978–79 Yugoslav Second League East Division title and promotion to the First League.

In 1995, he was named the all-time greatest player of Partizan.^[6] In 2009, Bobek's biography written by sports journalist Fredi Kramer was published.^[7]

Death

Bobek died shortly after midnight on 22 August 2010 in Belgrade.^[6] He is interred in the Alley of Distinguished Citizens in the Belgrade New Cemetery.^[8]

Career statistics

Club

International

Scores and results list Yugoslavia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Bobek goal.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Partizan

• Yugoslav First League: 1946–47, 1948–49
• Yugoslav Cup: 1947, 1952, 1954, 1956–57

Yugoslavia

• Olympic Silver Medal: 1948, 1952
• Balkan Cup runner-up: 1946 and 1947

Individual

• Yugoslav First League top scorer: 1945, 1953–54
• FK Partizan Magnificent Eleven (1995)
• FK Partizan Best player in club history (1995)

Records

• Yugoslavia all-time top scorer: 38 goals^[9]

Manager

Partizan

• Yugoslav First League: 1960–61, 1961–62, 1962–63

Panathinaikos

• Alpha Ethniki: 1963–64, 1964–65
• Greek Cup: 1967

Vardar

• Yugoslav Second League: 1978–79

References

1. ^ "INTERVJU: Stjepan Bobek. Srbi su sjajni" (in Serbian). kurir-info.rs. 29 October 2006. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2013. Ja sam Hrvat, normalno, ali istina je da sam zavoleo Srbiju.
2. ^ Hrvatska reprezentacija je igrala i u doba zloglasne NDH. Jasno je zašto HNS to ne priznaje
3. ^ "Stjepan Bobek - Goals in International Matches". RSSSF. 14 January 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
4. ^ "Stjepan Bobek". Olympedia. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
5. ^ "Mitrovic becomes Serbia's all-time top scorer with goal against Portugal". Goal.com. 27 March 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
6. ^ "IN MEMORIAM: Stjepan Bobek, jedan od najvećih hrvatskih nogometaša, umro u 87. godini" (in Croatian). SEEbiz.eu. 22 August 2010. Archived from the original on 27 August 2010. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
7. ^ "U Beogradu predstavljena monografija o Stjepanu Bobeku" (in Croatian). Slobodna Dalmacija. 15 February 2009. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
8. ^ International graves
9. ^ "Stjepan Bobek najbolji strelac" (in Serbian). www.reprezentacija.rs. 25 September 2013.