Ivan "Ivica" Šurjak (born 23 March 1953) is a Croatian retired

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. He was the driving force behind the success of

Hajduk Split Hrvatski Nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979, the club's home ...

as it became a force in the

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) ...

in the 1970s.

Club career

He started his career as a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

, but with time learned

total football Total Football () is a tactical system in association football in which any outfield player can take over the role of any other player in a team. A player who moves out of his position is replaced by another from his team, thus retaining the ...

, according to which all players can, during the ebb and flow of the match, slot into every position as needed. He continued his career at

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain () or simply PSG, is a French professional Association football, football club based in Paris. They compete in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top d ...

and

Udinese Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...

, but turned down offers by 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 Indepen ...

and

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

. He concluded his playing career in Spain at

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system. Zarag ...

International career

Šurjak made his debut 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 an October 1973

World Cup 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 name is ...

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 ...

, coming on as a 61st-minute substitute for Petar Krivokuća. Over the subsequent 9 years, Šurjak ended up earning a total of 54 caps, scoring 10 goals. His final international was a June

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain from 13 June to 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national footbal ...

match against

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

Post-playing career

He served as a sports director at

of the

Croatian First Football League The Hrvatska nogometna liga (; ), abbreviated as HNL and also known for sponsorship reasons as the SuperSport HNL, is a professional association football league in Croatia and the highest level of the Croatian football league system. Establishe ...

from 1999 to 2003.

Personal

Speedboat incident

In July 1999, while piloting his seven-

meter The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...

1989 Formula Runabout F-242

speedboat A motorboat or powerboat is a boat that is exclusively powered by an engine; faster examples may be called "speedboats". Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the intern ...

on the Croatian

Adriatic The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...

coast, NK Hajduk sporting director Šurjak was involved in a boating accident that resulted in a swimmer's death. The victim, 29-year-old

Okrug An okrug is a type of administrative division in some Slavic-speaking states. The word ''okrug'' is a loanword in English, alternatively translated as area, district, county, or region. Etymologically, ''okrug'' literally means ' circuit', der ...

resident Miroslav Didak, sustained life-threatening head injuries in the Bušinci

inlet An inlet is a typically long and narrow indentation of a shoreline such as a small arm, cove, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In ...

, 400 meters off the

Čiovo Čiovo (pronounced ) is an island located off the Adriatic coast in Croatia with an area of (length , width up to ), population of 5,908 inhabitants (2011). Its highest peak is the 218 m Rudine. The centre of the island has geographical coord ...

island shoreline near

Trogir Trogir () is a historic town and harbour on the Adriatic coast in Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia, with a population of 10,107 (2021) and a total municipal population of 12,393 (2021). The historic part of the city is situated on a small island ...

on 21 July 1999 around 5pm when Šurjak struck him with his boat's propeller, reportedly after suddenly noticing the swimmer in the water and attempting to swerve out of the way. Šurjak and the other four individuals on the boat, including Šurjak's wife Renata and Šurjak's friend Ljubomir Šimundić, then reportedly took comatose and severely injured Didak out of the water and brought him to the shoreline where an ambulance rushed him 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, enter ...

. According to a ''

Slobodna Dalmacija (, where "Free" is an adjective) is a Croatian daily newspaper published in Split. History was first issued on 17 June 1943 by Tito's Partisans in an abandoned stone barn on Mosor, a mountain near Split, while the city was occupied by the I ...

'' report, Šurjak did not have the mandatory

insurance policy In insurance, the insurance policy is a contract (generally a standard form contract) between the insurer and the policyholder, which determines the claim (legal), claims which the insurer is law, legally required to pay. In exchange for an initial ...

for the vessel he owned and operated. ''

Večernji list (also known as '; ) is a Croatian and Bosnian-Herzegovinian daily newspaper published in Zagreb and Mostar. History and profile was started in Zagreb in 1959. Its predecessor ' ('Evening Courier') appeared for the first time on 3 June 1957 in ...

'' further reported that Šurjak did not have a boating license and that his blood alcohol level at the time of the incident was 0.4

‰ The phrase per mille () indicates parts per thousand. The associated symbol is , similar to a per cent sign but with an extra zero in the divisor. Major dictionaries do not agree on the spelling, giving other options of per mil, per mill, pe ...

. Didak died a few days after the accident, while in a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to Nociception, respond normally to Pain, painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal Circadian rhythm, sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate ...

in the intensive care unit of the Firule hospital. Šurjak was charged with involuntary

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...

. In a legal process that began years later before the Municipal Court in Trogir, a verdict was delivered in March 2008, acquitting Šurjak of any responsibility in the death of Miroslav Didak. The Municipal Court judge's verdict cited that by swimming 400 meters from the shore Didak violated a by-law prohibiting swimming farther than 100 meters from the shore, and additionally stated that "Šurjak couldn't swerve out of the way due to having sun in his eyes and facing waves mater-and-a-half high". On subsequent appeal by the Croatian State Prosecutor's Office, the case went before the Provincial Court in Split. In July 2009, one month before the

statute of limitations A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In ...

for the

case Case or CASE may refer to: Instances * Instantiation (disambiguation), a realization of a concept, theme, or design * Special case, an instance that differs in a certain way from others of the type Containers * Case (goods), a package of relate ...

was set to expire, the Provincial Court handed down its decision: confirming the lower court's verdict to acquit Šurjak.

Accomplishments

* Champion of Yugoslavia – 1974, 1975 and 1979 * Co-champion of Yugoslavia – 1976 and 1981 * Cup winner of Yugoslavia – 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976 and 1977 *

Coupe de France The Coupe de France (), also known in English language, English as the French Cup or less commonly as the France Cup, is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in French football organised by the French Football Fed ...

–

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

* 54 caps for Yugoslavia, 10 goals scored between 1973 and 1982 *

Yugoslav Footballer of the Year The Croatian Footballer of the Year () 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, regardless of the league they ...

– 1976

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Surjak, Ivica 1953 births Living people Footballers from Split, Croatia Men's association football midfielders Yugoslav men's footballers Yugoslavia men's international footballers 1974 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1976 players 1982 FIFA World Cup players HNK Hajduk Split players Paris Saint-Germain FC players Udinese Calcio players Real Zaragoza players Yugoslav First League players Ligue 1 players Serie A players La Liga players Yugoslav expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Spain