Ivan "Iko" Buljan (born 11 December 1949) is Croatian sport manager and a former Yugoslavian footballer, who played as a defender. He was a member of the Yugoslavia squad at the

1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the ...

and

UEFA Euro 1976 The 1976 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Yugoslavia. This was the fifth UEFA European Championship, held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 16 and 20 June 1976. Only f ...

Playing career

Buljan was born in

Runovići Runovići is a municipality in the Split-Dalmatia County. It has a population of 2,409 (2011 census), 99.71% which are Croats The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, ...

village near

Imotski Imotski (; it, Imoschi; lat, Emotha, later ''Imota'') is a small town on the northern side of the Biokovo massif in the Dalmatian Hinterland of southern Croatia, near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Imotski, like the surrounding inland D ...

. Ethnically Croatian, he was capped for the Yugoslavia national team 36 times. He reached the European Cup final 1979–80 with

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

where the club ultimately lost to

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

. He is also known by his nickname ''Iko''. Buljan started his career with local club NK Mračaj before moving to the first-league team

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 ...

in 1967. In 1975, he was selected as

Večernji list ''Večernji list'' (also known as ''Večernjak''; ) is a Croatian daily newspaper published in Zagreb. History and profile ''Večernji list'' was started in Zagreb in 1959. Its ancestor ''Večernji vjesnik'' ("Evening Courier") appeared for the ...

's top player in Yugoslavia. Buljan finally left Hajduk in 1977 for Hamburger SV where he played until 1981. He then finished his career with two seasons with the

New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to * New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada) * New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Independe ...

Managerial career

From 2008 to 2009, he was the sporting director at HNK Hajduk Split.

Honours

Individual

Yugoslav Footballer of the Year The Croatian Footballer of the Year ( hr, Nogometaš godine) is the most prestigious annual association football award in Croatia. It is awarded by the newspaper ''Večernji list'' to the best Croatian football player in the preceding year, regardle ...

: 1975

References

External links

*
Career stats of Ivan Buljan on Serbian national football team website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buljan, Ivan 1949 births Living people People from Split-Dalmatia County Association football central defenders Yugoslav footballers Yugoslavia under-21 international footballers Yugoslavia international footballers 1974 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1976 players HNK Hajduk Split players Hamburger SV players New York Cosmos players Yugoslav First League players Bundesliga players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Yugoslav expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in West Germany Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in West Germany Expatriate soccer players in the United States Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in the United States Croatian football managers HNK Hajduk Split managers Étoile Sportive du Sahel managers HNK Šibenik managers Al-Wakrah SC managers Al-Salmiya SC managers Kuwait Premier League managers Croatian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Tunisia Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Tunisia Expatriate football managers in Qatar Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Expatriate football managers in Kuwait Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Kuwait