Želimir "Željko" Stinčić (born 13 July 1950 in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

) is a Croatian retired footballer.

Club career

Stinčić, son of Yugoslav international Branko Stinčić, started playing at

NK Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb (), commonly referred to as simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Cr ...

in 1967, but had only a handful of appearances in his first six seasons with the club, acting as a second- or third-choice goalkeeper at the time when established goalkeepers Zlatko Škorić and Fahrija Dautbegović were at the club. Following Dautbegović's departure, Stinčić appeared in 21

Yugoslav First League The Yugoslav First League ( Bosnian: Prva savezna liga u fudbalu, sr-Cyrl-Latn, Прва савезна лига у фудбалу, Prva savezna liga u fudbalu, , , , , ) was the premier football league in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941) ...

matches in the 1973–74 season, and became a regular member of the first team squad in the following years. By 1981 he played a total of 478 games (including 190 league matches) for the Blues. At the end of the 1980–81 season he moved abroad to

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n side SV Austria Salzburg, where he played for four seasons, appearing in 91

Austrian Bundesliga The Bundesliga ( , "Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Austria and the highest level of the Austrian football league system. The competition decides the A ...

games, before retiring in 1985.

International career

He was capped once for

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

, in a Euro 1980 qualifier against

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

on 4 October 1978 and conceded two goals from

Juanito Juanito is a given name or nickname, meaning "Little Juan" or Johnny. Notable people with the name include: Professional footballers * Juan Ignacio Gomez Taleb (born 1985), Argentinian forward * Juan Díaz Sánchez (1948–2013), Spanish forw ...

and Santillana in a 2–1 defeat. After retiring he worked as a goalkeeping coach at Dinamo Zagreb until 2005, when he opened a goalkeeping academy together with Zlatko Škorić. Zlatko unfortunately got

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

and since his finger has got cut off (because of diabetes) he wasn't able to work. After that incident Stincic was working alone.

References

External links

* 1950 births Living people Footballers from Zagreb Men's association football goalkeepers Yugoslav men's footballers Yugoslavia men's international footballers GNK Dinamo Zagreb players FC Red Bull Salzburg players Yugoslav First League players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Yugoslav expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Austria {{Croatia-footy-goalkeeper-stub