Stjepan Loparić (born 24 April 1951) is a Croatian former

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 as a defender.

Club career

Loparić played in the

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its ...

in 1974 with

Hamilton Croatia Hamilton Croatia is a Croatian Canadian amateur soccer team founded in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1957. It is supported by the Croatian Sports and Community Centre of Hamilton Inc. (formerly the Croatian National Sports Club of Hamilton, Inc. ...

. The following season he re-signed with Hamilton, but signed with league rivals

Toronto Italia The National Soccer League was a soccer league in Canada that existed from 1926 to 1997. Teams were primarily based in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The league was renamed to Canadian National Soccer League in 1993 following the folding ...

late in the season. During his tenure with Toronto he featured in the NSL Cup final against Toronto Panhellenic where he recorded a goal in a 3–2 defeat. He continued playing in the National Soccer League for the 1977 season for

Toronto Croatia C.N.S.C. Toronto Croatia (Croatian National Sports Club Toronto Croatia) is a Canadian soccer team based in Toronto, Ontario, that plays in the Supergroup Open Division in the Canadian Academy of Football. The team's colours are red, white and b ...

. He featured in the promotion/relegation match against Ottawa Tigers where he contributed a goal which helped Croatia remain in the NSL First Division. In 1978, he played in the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...

with

Toronto Metros-Croatia Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the fourth-most populous city in North America. The city ...

. In his debut season he played in 28 matches with Toronto.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loparić, Stjepan 1951 births Living people Footballers from Zagreb Men's association football defenders Yugoslav men's footballers Hamilton Croatia players Toronto Italia players Toronto Croatia players Toronto Blizzard (1971–1984) players Canadian National Soccer League players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Yugoslav expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Canada