Ivan "Ivica" Bek (; 29 October 1909 – 2 June 1963), also known as Yvan Beck, was a Serbian

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 ...

player. He was part of Yugoslavia's team at the

1928 Summer Olympics The 1928 Summer Olympics ( nl, Olympische Zomerspelen 1928), officially known as the Games of the IX Olympiad ( nl, Spelen van de IXe Olympiade) and commonly known as Amsterdam 1928, was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated fro ...

and at the

1930 FIFA World Cup The 1930 FIFA World Cup was the inaugural FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national football teams. It took place in Uruguay from 13 to 30 July 1930. FIFA, football's international governing body, selected Uruguay as host nati ...

Club career

Bek was born to a German father, and a Czech mother in the Serbian capital Belgrade borough of

Čubura Čubura ( sr, Чубура), ) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Located in Belgrade's municipality of Vračar, it is a synonym of the city's bohemian life. Location Čubura stretches along the crossroad of the str ...

. At age of 16, started playing in BSK Belgrade for which he scored 51 goals in 50 matches. In 1928, Bek moved to

Mačva Mačva ( sr-Cyrl, Мачва, ; hu, Macsó) is a geographical and historical region in the northwest of Central Serbia, on a fertile plain between the Sava and Drina rivers. The chief town is Šabac. The modern Mačva District of Serbia is nam ...

, and soon proceeded to French

FC Sète FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Pakist ...

. In his first season, he reached the cup finals, but lost 2–0 against

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the department of Hérault. In 2018, 290,053 people l ...

. Next year in cup finals against RC France, was victorious for Sète (3–1) with Bek scoring two decisive goals in extra time. Four years later with the same club, Bek was part of the first team that win the Double in France. Bek helped Yugoslavia get fourth place in the first

FIFA world cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...

in Uruguay. Bek and his team went on a train from Belgrade to Marseille. When they came to Marseille they went on a crew ship to Uruguay in the second class.

International career

Internationally, Bek represented the Kingdom of

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

(seven caps, four goals) and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

(five caps). For Yugoslavia he debuted in 1927 against Bulgaria (2–0), participated Olympic tournament in 1928 in Amsterdam and played in the

for Yugoslavia scoring three goals. In 1933, Bek took French citizenship and renamed himself Yvan Beck and in February 1935 he was picked for the first time for the Equipe Tricolore.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Yugoslavia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Bek goal.''

Post-playing career

During the Second World War, Bek was a member of the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

. After the war, he worked as a dockworker in Sète, where he died from a heart attack.

Honours

FC Sète * Champion of France: 1934 * French Cup: 1930, 1934

References

External links

* * * *
Yvan Beck at the French Football Federation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bek, Ivan 1909 births 1930 FIFA World Cup players 1963 deaths Footballers from Belgrade French footballers France international footballers Yugoslav footballers Yugoslavia international footballers Olympic footballers of Yugoslavia Serbian people of German descent Serbian people of Czech descent French people of German descent French people of Czech descent Yugoslav emigrants to France Serbian emigrants to France Footballers at the 1928 Summer Olympics Dual internationalists (football) OFK Beograd players FK Mačva Šabac players Yugoslav First League players FC Sète 34 players AS Saint-Étienne players Nîmes Olympique players Ligue 1 players Association football forwards French Resistance members Pays d'Aix FC players Naturalized citizens of France People from Sète Sportspeople from Hérault Footballers from Occitania (administrative region)