Nikola Perlić (4 February 1912 – 19 January 1986) was a Yugoslavian

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 ...

who played in top league clubs in Yugoslavia and France, and played for the Yugoslav national team.

Club career

Born in

Slavonski Brod Slavonski Brod (), commonly shortened to simply Brod, is a city in eastern Croatia, near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Being one of the principal cities in the historical regions of Slavonia and Posavina, Slavonski Brod was the 7th large ...

,Nikola Perlić biography
at Reprezentacija.rs

Austro-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

(nowadays

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

), Perlić was not tall but strong and reliable, playing either as an attacking midfielder or a winger, remembered by strong and effective shots from mid-distance. His playing style was characterised as simple and rational, pressing always the ball and fighting all over the field. He is among the players with longest playing careers at that period: 25 years. Perlić started playing in the youth team of local club ŠK Proleter. He moved to a major local club,

NK Marsonia NK Marsonia is a Croatian football club based in the city of Slavonski Brod. They currently play in the third division Treća HNL. NK Marsonia was founded in 1909. From 1945 to 1962 the club was called ''NK Radnički Brod'', and then ''BSK'' f ...

, where he became senior and played between 1927 and 1933. In 1933 he moved to the national capital, Belgrade, and signed with one of the major Yugoslav clubs,

SK Jugoslavija Sportski klub Jugoslavija ( en, Sport Club Yugoslavia), commonly known as SK Jugoslavija (Serbian Cyrillic: Cпортски клуб Југославија) was a Serbian football club from Belgrade. It was originally formed as SK Velika Srbija ...

. His good exhibitions will make him with Jugoslavija will earn him 3 calls for the Belgrade representative team (it was usual at that time major cities to have their own selections), and later in 1936 his first call to the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

. In 1937 Perlić moved to France and played one season with Lille OSC in the Ligue 1. The following year he returned to

and played further two seasons in the Yugoslav National Championship. In August 1940 he moved to ŠK Bata Borovo and played with them in the 1940–41 Serbian League. However at the end of the season the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

started and the Yugoslav football was reorganised. During the war, Nikola Perlić would be twice imprisoned for his resistance activities. He would appear again in the football fields after the war ended, wearing again the colors of Borovo, now renamed into Slaven Borovo. He will stay in Borovo until 1953 finishing his career at the impressive age of 41.

International career

His debut for the Yugoslav national team was on 6 September 1936, in a 9:3 win in a friendly match against Poland in Belgrade. His fairway match was on 12 November 1939, in a 0:2 loss against Hungary in Belgrade. In between Perlić made a total of 8 appearances and scored 3 goals.Nikola Perlić
at EU-Football.info His highlight at the national team occurred on 18 May 1939, when he scored the winning goal against England in a 2:1 victory in Belgrade.

Personal life

After retiring Perlić became a tailor. He died on 19 January 1986, in Borovo (

SR Croatia The Socialist Republic of Croatia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Hrvatska, Социјалистичка Република Хрватска), or SR Croatia, was a constituent republic and federated state of the Sociali ...

, SFR Yugoslavia).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Perlic, Nikola 1912 births 1986 deaths Sportspeople from Slavonski Brod Association football midfielders Yugoslav footballers Yugoslavia international footballers NK Marsonia players SK Jugoslavija players Lille OSC players HNK Borovo players Yugoslav First League players Ligue 1 players Yugoslav expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in France Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in France