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.

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. He played 16 seasons for Hajduk. His older brother Jozo Matošić was also football player with whom he was a teammate at Hajduk.

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 refused Josip Broz Tito's offer of transferring Hajduk to Belgrade and renaming it into "Partizan". All together, Matošić played 739 games for Hajduk and scored impressive 729 goals.

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.

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.

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

Player

Club

Hajduk Split

• Banovina of Croatia Championship (1): 1940-41
• Socialist Republic of Croatia Championship (2): 1945, 1946
• Yugoslav First League (3): 1950, 1952, 1955

BSK Belgrade

• Yugoslav First League: 1938–39

International

Yugoslavia

• Olympic Silver Medal: 1948

Individual

• Socialist Republic of Croatia Championship Top Goal Scorer: 1946
• Yugoslav First League Top Goal Scorer: 1948-49

Manager

RNK Split

• Yugoslav Second League (West): 1959–60

Tunisia

• Africa Cup of Nations: Third place 1962

Records

• Hajduk Split All-Time Leading Goalscorer: 211 goals
• Hajduk Split All-Time Leading Goalscorer: 729 goals (Unofficial matches included)
• Hajduk Split All-Time Appearance Maker: 739 games (Unofficial matches included)