Career As Player
In his youth days Branko Zebec played for a number of teams in his hometown: Građanski (Dinamo), Poštar, Lokomotiva, Milicioner and Metalac. In 1951 he had the call from Partizan, one of the capital city teams dominating Yugoslav football. His quality and speed soon secured him a place on the left wing of the team, and almost as soon with the national team, in which he would feature 65 times, scoring 17 goals. In 1952 he won his first title, the national cup. In the same year the Summer Olympics in Helsinki provided a great international stage for him. Yugoslavia had to settle for the silver medal, because this tournament was also the birthplace of the Hungarian miracle team of the 1950s. With seven goals Zebec was to secure for himself the honour of top scorer of the event.
At the club level his successful career continued. 1954 saw Partizan finishing second in the championship and again winning the cup. Zebec secured an invitation for the 1954 FIFA World Cup in Switzerland. There Yugoslavia overcame the group stage with a win against France and a draw against Brazil thanks to a goal by Zebec. In the quarterfinals the eventual winners Germany put a stop to the campaign of the team from the Balkans.
In his club side Zebec evolved more and more to be the leading player in midfield, a position for which he was most suitable due to his intelligence. In 1955 he played in the Partizan debut in the European Cup of Champions (Partizan played as a nominated team and not as a national champion - a historic peculiarity of the first edition of this tournament). In the first round Partizan beat Sporting CP in two high scoring encounters, 5-2 and 8-5. In the second round, then the quarterfinals, the team of the era, Real Madrid, put an end to Yugoslavia's first entry into this new competition as a home 3-0 win against the Iberian glamour side was insufficient to compensate for a 0-4 defeat at the hands of Alfredo Di Stéfano and Co. in the Spanish capital. On the domestic scene, Partizan remained in the shadow of the big two of those days, Hajduk Split, and Crvena Zvezda (Red Star Belgrade). Thus, in 1956 Partizan again had to make do with being honourable runner up in the championship, as they did in 1958. In between Partizan would grab another Yugoslav cup.
By the time the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden took place Branko Zebec had become the captain of the national side. In the group stages, draws against Scotland and Paraguay and a win against the hosts Sweden, who would finish the tournament as runners-up, was enough to enter the quarterfinals, but, as four years before, Germany put an end to Yugoslav ambitions.
In Yugoslavia he achieved another second place in the championship before making a controversial switch of allegiances to local rivals Red Star, where at the end of his career, in 1960, he finally got his hands on the championship trophy. This would remain his last honour as player.
In 1963 he was old enough for a player to leave the country, in line with the political circumstances of those days. For Branko Zebec it was then to late for the big-time clubs, so the German second division side Alemannia Aachen may not have provided a great opportunity for renewed success on the pitch, but for Branko Zebec it was a valuable two years in which he could acquaint himself with the country in which he would celebrate his greatest successes as coach.
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Famous quotes containing the words career and/or player:
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