Mladen Cukon (born 21 March 1946) is a former

Croat The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, Ge ...

ian

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 ...

player.

Club career

Born in

Pula Pula (; also known as Pola, it, Pola , hu, Pòla, Venetian language, Venetian; ''Pola''; Istriot language, Istriot: ''Puola'', Slovene language, Slovene: ''Pulj'') is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, and the List of cities and town ...

, as a player he spent much of his career playing in Rijeka for

NK Orijent HNK Orijent is a football club from Sušak, the eastern part of the city of Rijeka, Croatia. The club was established under the name ''Orient'' in 1919. They compete in the Croatian Second Football League. It is a Phoenix club (sports), phoenix ...

and

HNK Rijeka Hrvatski nogometni klub Rijeka ( en, Croatian Football Club Rijeka), commonly referred to as NK Rijeka or simply Rijeka, is a Croatian professional association football, football club from the city of Rijeka. HNK Rijeka compete in Croatia's top ...

. He also had a short and unsuccessful spell with

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb ( en, Dinamo Zagreb Citizens' Football Club, link=yes, italics=yes), commonly referred to as GNK Dinamo Zagreb or simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo ...

playing only one game. Afterwards, he had two stints with

Toronto Metros-Croatia Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

in 1976 and 1977, also playing for

NK Osijek Nogometni klub Osijek ( en, Osijek Football Club), commonly referred to as NK Osijek or simply Osijek (), is a Croatian professional football club from Osijek. Founded in 1947, it was the club from Slavonia with the most seasons in the Yugoslav F ...

between the two spells in Canada.

References

1947 births Living people Footballers from Pula Men's association football defenders Yugoslav men's footballers HNK Orijent players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players HNK Rijeka players Toronto Blizzard (1971–1984) players NK Osijek players Yugoslav First League players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Yugoslav expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Canada {{Croatia-footy-defender-stub Mladen Cukon is now retired and living in Pula. He has one daughter and one son. Also he has two granddaughters named Mia(21) and Chiara(12). Wife named Mirjana is spending her last days with Mladen.