Vladimir Beara (; 26 August 1928 – 11 August 2014) was a Yugoslav

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 ...

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...

and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activitie ...

. He played the vast majority of his professional club career for

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 197 ...

and Red Star Belgrade in the Yugoslav Federal League and for the

Yugoslavia national football team The Yugoslavia national football team; hr, Jugoslavenska nogometna reprezentacija; sl, Jugoslovanska nogometna reprezentanca; mk, Фудбалска репрезентација на Југославија, Fudbalska reprezentacija na Jugosl ...

. He is considered to have been one of the best goalkeepers of his era.

Early life

Beara was born into an ethnic

Serb The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...

family to parents Jakov and Marija in the village of Zelovo Sutinsko near

Sinj Sinj (; it, Signo; german: Zein) is a town in the continental part of Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia. The town itself has a population of 11,478 and the population of the administrative municipality, which includes surrounding villages, is 24, ...

in present-day

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 = , capi ...

. He had two brothers named Ljubo and Sveto. According to

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, entertai ...

-based journalist Zdravko Reić, Beara declared himself as a Croat in the state censuses.

Club career

For

(1946–55) Beara played 308 games, and helped his team to win the

Yugoslav 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, ...

title in 1950, 1952 and 1955. He made, however, a transfer in 1955 to

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...

Red Star A red star, five-pointed and filled, is a symbol that has often historically been associated with communist ideology, particularly in combination with the hammer and sickle, but is also used as a purely socialist symbol in the 21st century. I ...

(1955–60), after the season he had won the third league title. With Red Star he won even more Yugoslav league titles, in 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960, and won the

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, ...

in 1958 and 1959. He was Red Star's goalkeeper against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

in the last game United had played before the Munich Air Disaster. In 1963, the great Soviet goalkeeper,

Lev Yashin Lev Ivanovich Yashin (russian: Лев Иванович Яшин; 22 October 1929 – 20 March 1990), nicknamed the "Black Spider" or the "Black Panther", was a Soviet professional footballer regarded by many as the greatest goalkeeper in the h ...

said that not him, but Vladimir Beara is the greatest keeper of all time. Beara ended his career in German clubs

Alemannia Aachen Alemannia Aachen () or ATSV Alemannia 1900 is a German football club from the western city of Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia. A long term fixture of the country's second division, ''Alemannia'' enjoyed a three-year turn in the Bundesliga in the ...

(1960–62) and

Viktoria Köln Viktoria usually refers to Viktoria, a name which is the same as Victoria (name), but may also refer to: Places * FK Viktoria Stadion, stadium of Viktoria Žižkov * Viktoria-Luise-Platz, building in Berlin * Viktoriastadt, now known as Victori ...

(1963–64).

International career

Beara played 59 games for the Yugoslavia national team between 1950 and 1960. Immediately after being selected to play for the Yugoslav national team, he became famous mostly due to his fabulous stops in a match against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

Highbury Stadium Arsenal Stadium was a football stadium in Highbury, London, which was the home of Arsenal Football Club between 6 September 1913 and 7 May 2006. It was popularly known as "Highbury" due to its location and was given the affectionate nickname ...

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostl ...

. Since then he was often called by his nickname Vladimir Veliki. Beara participated in the

1952 Summer Olympic Games The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

; he was a member of the team that reached the final against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

, winning a silver medal. He also represented his nation in three

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

; World Cup 1950, World Cup 1954 and

World Cup 1958 The 1958 FIFA World Cup was the sixth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Sweden from 8 to 29 June 1958. It was the first FIFA World Cup to be played in a Nordic country. Brazil b ...

. In 1953, Beara was one of four Yugoslav players on the FIFA World-Stars XI who played an exhibition game against England; the match finished in a 4–4 draw, with Beara conceding only one goal.

Coaching career

In 1967 Beara finished a coaching course at the sports academy at the

German Sport University Cologne German Sport University Cologne (German: Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln, DSHS, Spoho), is a sport university in Cologne, Germany. History The Sport University Cologne was founded in 1947. After the Sport University had changed its name to "G ...

, today's ''Hennes Weisweiler Academy''. He went on to coach clubs in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Yugoslavia as well as the national team of Cameroon. A highlight of his coaching career was winning the Yugoslav national championship with Hajduk Split in 1971 as assistant coach to

Slavko Luštica Slavko Luštica (11 January 1923 – 14 July 1992) was a footballer who represented Yugoslavia at the 1952 Summer Olympics. He played club football in Yugoslavia with NK Osvit and Hajduk Split. Playing career Club Born in a small fishing commu ...

. This was the club's first championship since his departure as player in 1955. He also won the

African Cup Winners' Cup The African Cup Winners' Cup was a football competition that started in 1975 and merged with the CAF Cup in 2004 to form the CAF Confederation Cup. It was a competition between the winning clubs of domestic cups in CAF-affiliated nations and wa ...

with

Tonnerre Yaoundé Tonnerre Kalara Club of Yaoundé is a football club based in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The club was most prominent during the 1980s, winning all of their 5 national championships. They have also won the national cup 5 times. Among the club's most notabl ...

in 1975.

Death

On 11 August 2014, Beara's family announced that he died in

, Croatia after several

stroke A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...

s over the previous year. He was buried in the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Lovrinac Cemetery. The decision made by Beara's widow Jadranka to bury him at a Catholic cemetery was met with criticism, because Beara was a staunch believer of the

Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches. The majori ...

Style of play

Beara was an athletic and self-confident keeper, endowed with an eye-catching yet effective style. Thanks to his firm grip on the ball and his brave attitude, not only he was an outstanding shot-stopper, but he also excelled at coming off his line. He was nicknamed ''The ballet dancer with the hands of steel'' because of his ability to combine elegance with goalkeeping skills.

Quotes

Honours

Hajduk Split *

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, ...

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 crashes in a snowstorm. All 19 ...

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

, 1954–55 Red Star Belgrade *

: 1955–56, 1956–57, 1958–59, 1959–60 * Yugoslav Football Cup: 1957–58, 1958–59 Yugoslavia *

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...

: Silver Medal

References

Sources

Player profile on Serbian National Team page
*''Nogometni leksikon'' (2004) * * *
Meet Yugoslavia's ballerina Beara, once the best keeper in the world
guardian.co.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:Beara, Vladimir 1928 births 2014 deaths People from Sinj Serbs of Croatia Association football goalkeepers Yugoslav footballers Yugoslavia international footballers Footballers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Yugoslavia Olympic silver medalists for Yugoslavia Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in football 1950 FIFA World Cup players 1954 FIFA World Cup players 1958 FIFA World Cup players HNK Hajduk Split players Red Star Belgrade footballers Alemannia Aachen players FC Viktoria Köln players Yugoslav First League players Yugoslav expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in West Germany Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in West Germany Yugoslav football managers Freiburger FC managers Fortuna Sittard managers HNK Rijeka managers SC Fortuna Köln managers NK Osijek managers NK Troglav 1918 Livno managers Cameroon national football team managers FK Bregalnica Štip managers First Vienna FC managers RNK Split managers Yugoslav expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in West Germany Expatriate football managers in the Netherlands Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate football managers in Cameroon Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Cameroon Expatriate football managers in Austria Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Austria HNK Hajduk Split non-playing staff Red Star Belgrade non-playing staff Yugoslav Partisans members Child soldiers in World War II Burials at Lovrinac Cemetery