FootballObituaryStjepan Bobek obituary
Striker for Yugoslavia in two World CupsThe striker Stjepan Bobek, who has died aged 86, will always be linked with his fellow player Rajko Mitic in the coruscating Yugoslavia team of the late 1940s and 50s. They were the team's two creative inside-forwards: Mitic on the right, Bobek on the left. Yugoslavia during this period might well have been called the nearly team. They were runners-up in two Olympic tournaments, held in London in 1948 and Helsinki in 1952, beaten in the former by a glittering Swedish side and in the latter by what was to prove an all-conquering Hungarian team.
At the World Cup in Brazil in 1950, Yugoslavia won their first game, beating Switzerland 3-0. The bumpy pitch at Belo Horizonte held no terrors for the technically gifted Yugoslavians. In their second game, at Porto Alegre, they easily disposed of Mexico (4-1), with Bobek scoring the first goal in the match. In Rio, for their crucial third game in the qualifying group, they met Brazil, who deployed their irresistible midfield attacking trio of Zizihno, Ademir and Jair.
How different things might have been had the huge Maracana˜ Stadium in Rio, thrown up in such haste, with 150,000 impassioned fans present on the day, been properly finished. Mitic, preparing to take to the field, split his head open on an exposed steel girder as he left the dressing room. That meant a delay while a bandage was fitted. Mervin Griffiths, the Welsh referee, refused to allow a delay, and by the time he made it on to the field, Brazil had scored through Ademir in the third minute. The Brazilians went on to win 2-0 and qualified for the final round at the expense of the unlucky Yugoslavs.
Bobek was born in Zagreb (now Croatia's capital). A fine ball player, like so many of his team-mates, he was adept both at creating goal-scoring chances and taking them. He got 38 of them in his 63 matches for the national side. For his club, Partizan Belgrade, he scored 403 goals in 468 matches between 1945 and 1958.
No giant, he stood 5ft 10in (1.77m) but weighed a solid 15.8st (99 kg). He made his international debut alongside Mitic against the Czechs in 1946. In the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, he helped his team beat France 1-0 in the first group game, in Lausanne, but Yugoslavia were dispatched in the quarter-finals, beaten 2-0 by West Germany.
On retiring, Bobek managed Partizan. He later coached Legia Warsaw in Poland, Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia and Greece's Panathinaikos and Olympiacos. He won titles with his original club and Panathinaikos.
Stjepan Bobek, footballer and manager, born 3 December 1923; died 22 August 2010
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