Edin Sprečo (19 April 1947 – 12 May 2020) was a Bosnian professional
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...
who played as a
winger.
Club career
Born in
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...
,
SFR Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...
, present day Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sprečo started playing
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
for the youth team of hometown club
Željezničar when he was 12. At the age of 17, he made his debut for the first team. Sprečo scored two goals in his first game and it was clear that he would become a great player.
He played 199 league games and scored 61 goals for Željezničar. In total, Sprečo played in 234 games and managed to score 75 goals. He was a member of the Željezničar team that won the
Yugoslav First League
The Yugoslav First Federal Football League ( Serbian: Прва савезна лига у фудбалу / ''Prva savezna liga u fudbalu'', hr, Prva savezna liga u nogometu, sl, Prva zvezna nogometna liga, mk, Прва сојузна лига, ...
title in the
1971–72 season. In 1975, Sprečo turned 28 and he was allowed to go abroad, as it was prohibited for under-28 players to leave the domestic clubs at the time. He went to Dutch
Eredivisie
The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...
club
NAC Breda
NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eerste Divi ...
.
He played in Holland alongside compatriots
Miroslav Vardić
Miroslav Vardić (Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, Serbian Cyrillic: Мирослав Вардић; 4 December 1944 – 7 May 2018) was a professional association football, footballer who played as a midfielder.
In 1975, he played in the Canadian Nat ...
and
Nikola Budišić
Nikola Budišić (Serbian Cyrillic: Никола Будишић; born 12 October 1947) is a Serbian retired professional footballer who played as a defender, most notably with FK Partizan. In total, he appeared in 348 matches for Partizan (127 d ...
, finishing in 11th place in the
Eredivisie
The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...
.
He also played for, at the time, French
Ligue 2
Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions ...
club
Rennes
Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...
making his debut against
AS Brestoise on 8 January 1978. Sprečo finished his career at the age of 34 in 1981, while playing for
Iskra Bugojno.
International career
Sprečo earned 3
caps
Caps are flat headgear.
Caps or CAPS may also refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters
* Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...
for the
Yugoslavia national team and also scored two goals while playing for the national team from 1967 to 1969.
He scored his first goal for Yugoslavia on 12 November 1967, in a 4–0 win against
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
in a
UEFA Euro 1968 qualifying
The qualifying round for the 1968 UEFA European Championship consisted of 31 teams divided into eight groups; seven of four teams and one of three teams. Each group winner progressed to the quarter-finals. The quarter-finals were played in two l ...
match. His final international was a June 1969
World Cup qualification
The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup.
Qualifying tournaments are hel ...
match away against
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
.
Career statistics
Club
Source:
International
Source:
International goals
Death
Sprečo died at the age of 73 in his hometown of
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...
, Bosnia and Herzegovina on 12 May 2020.
Honours
Player
Željezničar
*
Yugoslav First League
The Yugoslav First Federal Football League ( Serbian: Прва савезна лига у фудбалу / ''Prva savezna liga u fudbalu'', hr, Prva savezna liga u nogometu, sl, Prva zvezna nogometna liga, mk, Прва сојузна лига, ...
:
1971–72
References
External links
Profile- Reprezentacija
Edin Sprečoat football database.eu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spreco, Edin
1947 births
2020 deaths
Footballers from Sarajevo
Men's association football forwards
Yugoslav footballers
Yugoslavia men's international footballers
FK Željezničar Sarajevo players
NAC Breda players
Stade Rennais F.C. players
NK Iskra Bugojno players
Yugoslav First League players
Eredivisie players
Ligue 2 players
Yugoslav Second League players
Yugoslav expatriate footballers
Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands
Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands
Expatriate footballers in France
Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in France