Slaven Zambata (24 September 1940 – 29 October 2020) was a Croatian professional football player best known for his time at

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 ...

in the 1960s, for whom he appeared in 171

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, ...

matches. He was also a Yugoslav international, scoring 21 goals in 31 matches for the national side.

Career

Zambata started playing football at his hometown club Junak Sinj and was signed by Dinamo Zagreb in 1959, at the age of eighteen. He stayed with the Croatian powerhouse until 1969, and during this time earned a total of 393 appearances and scored 267 goals (93 of which in the Yugoslav First League). He won four

Yugoslav Cup The Yugoslav Cup ( hr, Pokal Jugoslavije; sr, Куп Југославије; sl, Pokal Jugoslavije, mk, Куп на Југославија), officially known between 1923 and 1940 as the King Alexander Cup ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Kup kralja Aleksandra, ...

s with Dinamo (in 1960, 1963, 1965 and 1969) and also captained the team to their triumph in the

1966–67 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup The ninth Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was played over the 1966–67 season. The competition was won by Dinamo Zagreb over two legs in the final against Leeds United. For the first time in the history of the cup, replays were scrapped, with sides going ...

in a campaign that saw Zambata scoring six goals. He also finished as Cup runner-up on two occasions (in 1964 and 1966) and was Inter-Cities Fairs Cup runner-up in 1963. After leaving Dinamo in 1969 he played for a few seasons for Belgian clubs

KSV Waregem Koninklijke Sportvereniging Waregem was a Belgian football club that existed between 1925 and 2001. It played three spells at the highest level in the Belgian football league system each separated by a single season at the second level: from ...

and Crossing Club before returning shortly to Zagreb in 1972. He quit playing football in 1973 after a couple of serious injuries (he had surgery performed on both of his menisci just before his retirement). As of 2009, he was the 8th most prolific goalscorer in Dinamo's history, and one of two players to score a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in a Yugoslav Cup final game, against Hajduk Split on 26 May 1963. Although Dinamo never won the Yugoslav championship during his ten years with the club, they did finish as runners-up five times (in 1960, 1963, 1966, 1967 and 1969) in one of the most successful periods in the history of the club. Considered one of the best Yugoslav forwards of the 1960s, Zambata had two appearances and netted two goals for Yugoslavia U-21 selection, before debuting for

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

on 16 September 1962 in a friendly against

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

in Leipzig. He went on to earn 31 caps and scored 21 goals, and during his international career he captained Yugoslavia at the

1964 Olympics 1964 Olympics refers to both: *The 1964 Winter Olympics The 1964 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IX Olympic Winter Games (german: IX. Olympische Winterspiele) and commonly known as Innsbruck 1964 ( bar, Innschbruck 1964, label=Austro-Ba ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, where they finished sixth out of 16 teams. His last international match was on 27 October 1968 against

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

in Belgrade.

Honours

* Yugoslav Football Cup:

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Jan ...

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Co ...

, 1965,

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

* Inter-Cities Fairs Cup: 1966–67

References

External links

*
Slaven Zambata
at Reprezentacija.rs * *

at gnkdinamo.hr {{DEFAULTSORT:Zambata, Slaven 1940 births 2020 deaths People from Sinj Yugoslav footballers Yugoslavia international footballers Yugoslav First League players Croatian footballers Croatian expatriate footballers GNK Dinamo Zagreb players Belgian First Division A players Olympic footballers of Yugoslavia Footballers at the 1964 Summer Olympics Association football forwards NK Junak Sinj players K.V.V. Crossing Elewijt players