Vinko Cuzzi (11 July 1940 – 8 December 2011) was a Croatian

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

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

or libero.

Playing career

Club

Cuzzi was the

Hajduk Split Hrvatski nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split () or simply Hajduk, is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979, t ...

squad

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

for several years, receiving the trophy when Hajduk won the 1967

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, ...

, which was also their first triumph in that competition.

International

He made his debut for

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

in a September 1965

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

away against the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and earned a total of 8 caps, scoring no goals. His final international was a June 1966 friendly away against

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

Post-playing career

After his playing career, he worked as a lawyer and later as a judge in the

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

court of Split. He was also a long time member of Hajduk's executive board as well as the president of its assembly from 1994 to 1996.

Personal life

His son Ivo Cuzzi was also a footballer.

Honours

Hajduk Split *

: 1966–67

References

External links

* * 1940 births 2011 deaths Footballers from Split, Croatia Dalmatian Italians Association football defenders Yugoslav footballers Yugoslavia international footballers HNK Hajduk Split players FC Lausanne-Sport players Yugoslav First League players Swiss Super League players Yugoslav expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Burials at Lovrinac Cemetery {{Croatia-footy-defender-stub