Mirko Kokotović (; 15 April 1913 – 15 November 1988) was a Bosnian/Croatian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played international football for Yugoslavia.

Club career

He became national champion of the

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () h ...

with Građanski Zagreb in 1937 and 1940. During World War II he continued to play for Građanski, and after the war he joined the newly established

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 ...

, where he was one of the key players in the period from 1945 to 1948, and even acted as player-manager in the 1946–47 season. During his time at Dinamo he played alongside other club greats such as Franjo Wölfl, Zvonimir Cimermančić,

Željko Čajkovski Željko Čajkovski (5 May 1925 – 11 November 2016) was a Croatian and Yugoslav Association football, football player and coach, who played as a Forward (association football), forward. A prolific goalscorer, Čajkovski spent most of his career ...

Ivica Horvat Ivan "Ivica" Horvat (16 July 1926 – 27 August 2012) was a Croatian and Yugoslav professional football player and manager. He spent most of his playing career in the 1940s and 1950s with Dinamo Zagreb, with whom he won two Federal League cham ...

Ratko Kacian Ratko Kacian (; 18 January 1917 – 18 June 1949; spelled Kacijan in some sources) was a Croatian and Yugoslav footballer. He played internationally for the wartime Independent State of Croatia team from 1940 to 1943 and for the Yugoslavia natio ...

and

Ivan Jazbinšek Ivan "Oskar" Jazbinšek (9 August 1914 – 28 June 1996) was a Croatian and Yugoslav footballer of Slovenian descent, who played as a defender. Club career Jazbinšek started his career with Zagreb sides, ŠK Meteor and ŠK Policijski. After a ...

. After retiring from active playing in 1948 he managed a series of lower-tier clubs around Croatia and Yugoslavia, and in the early 1960s he went abroad and had managing stints at Fenerbahçe in Turkey and

AEK Athens A.E.K. (; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople'') is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica. The club is more commonly known in European competitions as A.E.K. Athens. Establishe ...

in Greece. His last managing job was at

Austria Klagenfurt Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, of which the capital Vienna is the most populous city and state. Austria is bordered by Ger ...

in 1969–70.

International career

His international career in Yugoslavia lasted from 1931 to 1939 during which he was capped 23 times, scoring four goals. Just before

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he played four matches for the

Banovina of Croatia The Banovina of Croatia or Banate of Croatia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=, Banovina Hrvatska, Бановина Хрватска) was an administrative subdivision ( banovina) of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1939 and 1941. It was formed by a m ...

team, which was a province within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. With the establishment of the wartime

Independent State of Croatia The Independent State of Croatia (, NDH) was a World War II–era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Fascist Italy. It was established in parts of Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, occupied Yugoslavia on 10 April 1941, ...

in 1941, which was allied with

Axis powers The Axis powers, originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis and also Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis, was the military coalition which initiated World War II and fought against the Allies of World War II, Allies. Its principal members were Nazi Ge ...

, Kokotović also played for its national team, earning 12 caps and scoring 2 goals in friendlies against other Axis national teams.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kokotovic, Mirko 1913 births 1988 deaths People from Lukavac Footballers from Tuzla Canton People from the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina Men's association football midfielders Yugoslav men's footballers Yugoslavia men's international footballers Croatian men's footballers Croatia men's international footballers Dual internationalists (men's football) HŠK Građanski Zagreb players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players Yugoslav First League players Yugoslav football managers GNK Dinamo Zagreb managers NK Lokomotiva Zagreb managers NK Varaždin (1931–2015) managers HNK Segesta managers NK Olimpija Ljubljana (1945–2005) managers FK Borac Banja Luka managers Fenerbahçe S.K. (football) managers AEK Athens F.C. managers P.A.E. G.S. Diagoras managers FK Velež Mostar managers FC Kärnten managers Yugoslav First League managers Süper Lig managers Super League Greece managers Yugoslav expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Turkey Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate football managers in Greece Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate football managers in Austria Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Austria