Frane Matošić

Frane Matošić (25 November 1918 – 29 October 2007) was a Croatian football player and coach. Born in Split, he played at the position of striker. He is regarded as one of Hajduk Split's greatest players ever where he is the all-time leading goalscorer.

Frane Matošić
Personal information
Date of birth (1918-11-25)25 November 1918
Place of birth Split, State of Slovenes,
Croats and Serbs
Date of death 29 October 2007(2007-10-29) (aged 88)
Place of death Split, Croatia
Position(s) Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1935–1938 Hajduk Split 73 (54)
1938–1939 BSK Belgrade 14 (9)
1940–1941 Hajduk Split 8 (13)
1943 AC Bologna 28 (13)
1944–1955 Hajduk Split 196 (122)
National team
1938–1953 Yugoslavia 16 (6)
Teams managed
1956–1958 Hajduk Split
1959–1961 RNK Split
1961–1963 Tunisia
1963–1964 RNK Split
1965 Hajduk Split
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Player career

Club career

Matošić started to play football with HNK Hajduk from Split. In his very first game for Hajduk in 1935 against Slavija from Sarajevo, Matošić scored two goals.[1] He played 16 seasons for Hajduk. His older brother Jozo Matošić was also football player with whom he was a teammate at Hajduk.

Frane Matošić in a mural in Split

While serving the obligatory military service in the season 1939, he played for the BSK from Belgrade. Next season, season 1939/40, he returned to Hajduk. After Hajduk's management suspending the work of Hajduk in 1941, he went abroad to play for Bologna F.C. 1909, played in season of 1942/43. When the information about restoring of Hajduk's work came to Frane Matošić, he returned to Croatia and smuggled himself on the free territory. There he joined Hajduk, that restarted its work on the free, Allied-controlled part of Croatia, on the island of Vis. Since then, Matošić was playing the games for Hajduk (that was playing friendly games against Allied teams on the Mediterranean). After the war Matošić as a team captain twice refused Josip Broz Tito's offer of transferring Hajduk to Belgrade and renaming it into "Partizan".[1] All together, Matošić played 739 games for Hajduk and scored impressive 729 goals.[1]

National team career

Matošić was a long time Yugoslav national team player. He played 16 games and scored 6 goals for Yugoslavia. His last game was in 1953, and in that game he also scored a goal.

Coach career

After the ending of career as player, he turned to coaching career. He was the coach of his Hajduk (few years after his brother Jozo was coaching it), he was also the coach of Tunisian football team and the coach of RNK Split.

Death

Frane Matošić died in Split on the anniversary of Hajduk's historical victory over Red Star Belgrade in 1950.

Honours

Club
Hajduk Split
BSK Belgrade

International
Yugoslavia

Individual

Manager
RNK Split
Tunisia

Records

References
  1. "Fenomen koji je i Titu rekao 'ne', ali i završio pred komisijom: 'Žao mi je što ga nisam jače udario!'". Sportske novosti (in Croatian). 11 June 2020. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  2. "Croatia - Final Tables". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. 18 December 2008. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
  3. "Hajduku priznata i 18. titula". Sportnet.hr. 9 February 2011. Retrieved 16 February 2011.
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