Branko Oblak (born 27 May 1947) is a Slovenian

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 ...

coach and former international player. He usually played as an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

or deep-lying playmaker.

Playing career

Brane, as he is often known, started playing football at the youth team of Svoboda. In 1965 he went to Ljubljana's more famous club, Olimpija. He made his debut on 20 May 1966 against Partizan in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

, where he scored both Olimpija's goals for a 1–2 win. He stayed with Olimpija until 1973. During that time he played 181 matches and scored 33 goals. In 1973, he moved to Hajduk Split and stayed there for two seasons. In both seasons Hajduk won the national champion and cup winner titles. In 1975, he signed a two-year contract with Schalke 04 of the German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

for what was a world record fee for that season. In the 1976–77 season, Oblak's second year at the club, Schalke 04 finished the league in second place, behind

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. Mönchengladbach, better known as Borussia Mönchengladbach () and colloquially known as just Gladbach, is a professional Association football, football club based in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-W ...

. In the summer of 1977, Oblak went to Bayern Munich. He stayed there for three seasons and in his final season with the club (1979–80), Bayern became the German champion. After that, Oblak played in various

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n amateur clubs until 1987, when he retired as a football player. During the 1945–1990 period, Oblak was among only a handful of Slovenian players, along with Srečko Katanec and Danilo Popivoda, who managed to get into the Yugoslavia national team. Oblak's debut for the Yugoslavia national team came in a friendly match against

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in 1971. The same year he had the honour of playing at

Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; 23 October 1940 – 29 December 2022), better known by his nickname Pelé (), was a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Widely reg ...

's farewell match at the Maracanã in

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. At the

1974 World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the 10th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the ...

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, he and his teammate Danilo Popivoda became the first

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

ns to play in a World Cup. Even more impressive is that Oblak was selected into the best squad of the World Cup. In 1976, he played at the European Championship, which was hosted by

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 ...

. His excellent pass for the first goal in the semi-final match against

is still remembered among football experts. After the tournament, he retired from international football. In altogether 46 matches he scored six goals.

Coaching career

After retirement as a football player, Oblak started coaching at various Slovenian clubs, including three times at Olimpija Ljubljana, NK Naklo and FC Koper. He proved to be a good youth coach, so in February 2004 he was named the new Slovenia under-21 national coach. On 24 May 2004, he replaced Bojan Prašnikar as the head coach of the

Slovenia national football team The Slovenia national football team () represents Slovenia in men's international Association football, football and is controlled by the Football Association of Slovenia, the governing body for football in Slovenia. The national squad is under ...

. The team started brightly under his guidance, with the highlight being a 1–0 over

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(eventual World Champions) in a

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qualifying match. However, the team soon ran into a series of bad results, and the pressure mounted on Oblak, until finally in late 2006, he was fired from the job. He was succeeded by Matjaž Kek. In 2009, he again took the managers job at his home club NK Olimpija Ljubljana. He was relieved of his duties after only four games. In November 2003,

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

member football associations organized surveys to find the best national players in 50-year period of existence of UEFA. In Slovenia Branko Oblak was awarded this title, "beating" rivals such as Srečko Katanec and Zlatko Zahovič.

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Yugoslavia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Oblak goal.''

Honours

Club

Hajduk Split *

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) ...

: 1973–74, 1974–75 *

Yugoslav Cup The Yugoslav Cup (; ; , ), officially known between 1923 and 1940 as the King Alexander Cup (; , and between 1947 and 1991 as the Marshal Tito Cup (; ; ; ), was one of two major association football, football competitions in Socialist Federal Re ...

: 1974 Bayern Munich *

: 1979–80 Individual *''Sport Ideal European XI'': 1975, 1976 * World XI: 1976 * UEFA Slovenian Golden Player: 2004

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oblak, Branko 1947 births Living people Footballers from Ljubljana Men's association football midfielders Yugoslav men's footballers Yugoslavia men's international footballers 1974 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1976 players UEFA Golden Players NK Olimpija Ljubljana (1945–2005) players HNK Hajduk Split players FC Schalke 04 players FC Bayern Munich footballers HNK Šibenik players SV Spittal/Drau players Yugoslav First League players Bundesliga players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Yugoslav expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in West Germany Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in West Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Austria Slovenian football managers NK Olimpija Ljubljana (1945–2005) managers NK Rudar Velenje managers FC Koper managers NK Olimpija Ljubljana (2005) managers Slovenia national football team managers Slovenian PrvaLiga managers