Josip Skoblar

Club

Skoblar was born in Privlaka near Zadar (at the time in Banovina of Croatia). He started his career with NK Zadar (1957–58). He got spotted there by OFK Beograd goalie Perica Radenković who was serving his mandatory army stint in Zadar. Radenković recommended Skoblar to club management and the 19-year-old was soon on his way to Belgrade. With OFK Beograd Skoblar won the Yugoslav Cup in 1962 and 1966. In Germany he played for Hannover 96 (1967–70). In 57 games in Bundesliga, he scored 30 goals.^[3]

He wanted to play in Marseille, but the chairman of Hannover refused. Marcel Leclerc, chairman of Marseille, went to Hannover on a journey and came back with the player, it was the beginning of an adventure with Marseille. The player was applauded at the airport by many fans.

In France, Skoblar played for Marseille and was three time top goalscorer in Ligue 1 (1971–73). Skoblar won the European Golden Boot in 1971 for 44 goals in Ligue 1, he still remains as the best scorer in a season in Ligue 1. With Marseille, he won the French league title in 1971, and French league and cup title in 1972. OM fans refer to him as "l'Aigle Dalmate", "l'Aigle Dalmate"/"l'aigle des Dalmates" (The Dalmatian Eagle),^[6][7] or "Monsieur Goal" (Mister Goal).

He left OM after the arrival of the two Brazilians Jairzinho and Paulo César, winners of the FIFA World Cup in 1970.^[7]

Skoblar joined NK Rijeka in the summer of 1974. He played for the club until 1977 accumulating 37 appearances and scoring 11 goals in league and Cup.^[8]

International

For Yugoslavia Skoblar played between 1961 and 1967. In 32 games for Yugoslavia, he scored 11 goals.^[9] Skoblar participated in World Cup 1962. Skoblar scored one goal, and Yugoslavia finished in the fourth place. He first played for the national team on 7 May 1961, in a friendly match against Hungary. He ended his international career on 7 October 1967 against West Germany,^[10] before the end of the Euro 68 qualification competition. The Yugoslavia national football team ended 2nd of the Euro 1968 without him.

When he came to OFK Belgrade he was assigned left winger (outside left) position, because of his versatility, technique and speed. While being a winger he continued to score goals although as winger he couldn't completely fulfill his goalscoring potential. While at Marseille he was moved to centre forward while being able to play all forward positions. Skoblar was very well known scoring with headers. He was also a solid dribbler with tremendous speed.^[11]

Just Fontaine speaking about Josip: "When I watched him front of the goal, each time, I was thinking, kick from the inside of the left foot, ... from the outside of the right foot ... a header, now! ... he had already done it ... scoring each time, exactly by the only possible way, and in just a split second. In the last 30 years, he has been the only striker that I've seen like that in France."^[12]

Club

^{[13] [14]}

More information Club performance, League ...

Club performance			League		Cup		Continental		Total
Season	Club	League	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Yugoslavia			League		Yugoslav Cup		Europe		Total
1959–60	OFK Beograd	Yugoslav First League	18	5	2	0	–		20	5
1960–61			22	5	2	1	–		24	6
1961–62			21	8	5	2	–		26	10
1962–63			22	11	2	0	9	5	33	16
1963–64			26	16	1	0	3	0	39	16
1964–65			26	10	3	2	2	1	31	13
1965–66			27	8	5	5	–		32	13
1966–67			1	0	0	0	–		1	0
France			League		Coupe de France		Europe		Total
1966–67	Marseille	Division 1	16	13	3	4	–		19	17
Bundesliga			League		DFB-Pokal		Europe		Total
1967–68	Hannover 96	Bundesliga	21	9	1	0	–		22	9
1968–69			26	17	3	3	4	3	33	23
1969–70			10	4	0	0	2	1	11	5
France			League		Coupe de France		Europe		Total
1969–70	Marseille	Division 1	15	13	3	4	–		18	17
1970–71			36	44	8	5	2	0	46	49
1971–72			31	30	9	8	4	2	44	40
1972–73			31	26	4	2	1	0	36	28
1973–74			33	20	0	0	4	3	37	23
1974–75			12	5	0	0	0	0	12	5
Yugoslavia			League		Yugoslav Cup		Europe		Total
1974–75	NK Rijeka	Yugoslav First League	14	6	0	0	–		14	6
1975–76			21	5	1	0	–		22	5
1976–77			1	0	0	0	–		1	0
Country	Yugoslavia		198	73	21	10	14	6	233	100
	Germany		57	30	4	3	5	4	66	37
	France		174	151	27	23	11	5	212	179
Total			430	254	52	36	29	15	511	305

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International appearances

More information Yugoslavia national team, Year ...

Yugoslavia national team
Year	Apps	Goals
1961	1	0
1962	9	3
1963	5	2
1964	6	3
1965	4	0
1966	4	1
1967	3	2
Total	32	11

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International goal

More information #, Date ...

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	16 May 1962	Stadion JNA, Belgrade, Yugoslavia	East Germany	2 – 0	3–1	Friendly match
2	2 June 1962	Estadio Carlos Dittborn, Arica, Chile	Uruguay	1 – 1	3–1	1962 FIFA World Cup
3	4 November 1962	JNA Stadium, Belgrade, Yugoslavia	Belgium	1 – 0	3–2	1964 European Nations' Cup qualifying
4				2–1
5	6 October 1963	Stadion JNA, Belgrade, Yugoslavia	Hungary	1 – 0	2–0	Friendly match
6	3 November 1963	Stadion Maksimir, Zagreb, Yugoslavia	Czechoslovakia	2 – 0	2–0	Friendly match
7	17 May 1964	Stadion Československé Armády, Prague, Czechoslovakia	Czechoslovakia	0 – 1	2–3	Friendly match
8	25 October 1964	Praterstadion, Vienna, Austria	Australia	2 – 2	3–2	Friendly match
9	27 September 1964	Népstadion, Budapest, Hungary	Hungary	2 – 1	2–1	Friendly match
10	8 May 1966	Stadion Maksimir, Zagreb, Yugoslavia	Hungary	2 – 0	2–0	Friendly match
11	3 May 1967	Red Star Stadium, Belgrade, Yugoslavia	West Germany	1 – 0	1–0	UEFA Euro 1968 qualifying

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Summarize Timeline Fact Check

With his playing career over, he came back to Marseille, and became technical manager in 1977 under manager Ivan "Ðalma" Marković.^[15] Due to an internal conflict he left the club after one season to pursue a career as a manager.^[16] He began his career as a manager in third tier club NK Orijent in Rijeka. He took the club to the quarter-final of the 1981 Yugoslav Cup beating NK Zagreb and OFK Beograd. In the quarter-final Orijent lost to Budućnost Titograd of penalties.^[17]

Skoblar joined NK Rijeka in May 1983 replacing Marijan Brnčić. He concluded the last six matches of 1982–83 season and saved the club from relegation and finished at 15 place.^[18] In his second season at the club Skoblar nearly won the League short three point from first placed Red Star Belgrade, Rijeka finished in fourth place behind Željezničar and Partizan. This result was the club best league result since 1965–66, they also reached the quarter-final of Yugoslav Cup and qualified for UEFA Cup.

On 24 October Rijeka beat Real Madrid 3:1 in the second round of the UEFA Cup. This match made Skoblar reputation with the supporters and club rise to a status of legend. In their away match against the Spanish side they lost 3:1 with Real Madrid advancing and eventually winning the Cup. Many of the players and Skoblar himself have stated that they were cheated from victory by the referee.^[19] The season ended with the club at a mid-table eight place, four points shy of a European qualification.^[20]

1985–86 season started out poorly with losses in the league and elimination in the second round of the Cup. During the second part of the season Skoblar managed to secure fifth place with the club and secured a place in the UEFA Cup. Rijeka was eliminated during the first round of the 1986–87 UEFA Cup by Standard Liège. Mid-season Rijeka was in tenth place in the league and had reached the semi-final in the Cup. Skoblar left the club in December 1986.

He later became head coach for Hajduk Split with whom he won 2 Yugoslavia Cups. With Hamburger SV he lost DFB Supercup in 1987. In 1988 he managed Čelik Zenica and saved them from relegation.^[21]

He also had short stints in Spain with Real Valladolid and Portugal with F.C. Famalicão. He also coached Croatian clubs Dinamo Zagreb, NK Zagreb, Zadarkomerc and HNK Rijeka. At his second stint at Rijeka Skoblar's results were unfavorable so he was sacked after two months in 1995. Later during the year in October he was again set as manager of Rijeka but was again sacked due to results in February 1996. Years later Skoblar stated that he wasn't given enough freedom by the (then) president of the club Hrvoje Šarinić to work properly with the team.^[22]

He is employed at the Marseille since 2001 as scout, and he is now close to retirement. During the summer 2001, he was with Marc Levy the co-manager of the team for 3 days, few days before the nomination of Tomislav Ivić. He managed the Lebanon national football team. He joined them in March 2000 and got sacked later in the year (October) after failing to qualify to the second round of the 2000 AFC Asian Cup.

As of 4 September 2017^{[23][24][25][26]}

*Dates of first and last games under Skoblar; not dates of official appointments

Skoblar owns a family restaurant with his brother in Zadar.^[27]

Player

OFK Beograd^[28]

• Yugoslav Cup: 1961–62, 1965–66

Marseille^[28]

• Division 1: 1970–71, 1971–72
• Coupe de France: 1971–72
• Challenge des Champions: 1971

Individual^[28]

• European Golden Shoe: 1970–71^{[citation needed]}
• French championship top goalscorer: 1970–71, 1971–72, 1972–73^{[citation needed]}
• French Division 1 Foreign Player of the Year: 1970, 1971^[29]
• Coupe de France top scorer: 1972^{[citation needed]}
• Ligue 1 Record holder for most goals in single season (44)^[30]
• The Dream Team 110 years of OM: 2010^[31]
• "Romantičari" (The romantics): Golden era of OFK Beograd^[32]
• Olympique de Marseille Hall of Fame^[33]
• NK Rijeka all time XI^[34]
• Most goals scored in a single French First Division season: 44^[35]
• Marseille 3rd all time goalscorer^{[citation needed]}

Manager

Hajduk Split

• Yugoslav Cup: 1986–87, 1990–91^{[citation needed]}

Orders

• Knight of the National Order of Merit: 2015^[1]