Ivan "Iko" Buljan (born 11 December 1949) is a Croatian football manager and former player who played as a defender. He was a member of the Yugoslavia national team at the

1974 FIFA 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 ...

and

UEFA Euro 1976 The 1976 UEFA European Football Championship tournament was held in Yugoslavia. This was the fifth UEFA European Championship, held every four years and endorsed by UEFA and the first and only tournament that was held in a socialist state. The ...

Playing career

Buljan was born in Runovići village near

Imotski Imotski () is a small town on the northeastern side of the Biokovo massif in the Dalmatian Hinterland of southern Croatia, near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The town has a generally mild Mediterranean climate which makes it a popular ...

. Ethnically Croatian, he was capped for the Yugoslavia national team 36 times. He reached the European Cup final 1979–80 with

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

where the club ultimately lost to

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

. He is also known by his nickname ''Iko''. Buljan started his career with local club NK Mračaj before moving to the first-league team

Hajduk Split Hrvatski Nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979, the club's home ...

in 1967. In 1975, he was selected as

Večernji list (also known as '; ) is a Croatian and Bosnian-Herzegovinian daily newspaper published in Zagreb and Mostar. History and profile was started in Zagreb in 1959. Its predecessor ' ('Evening Courier') appeared for the first time on 3 June 1957 in ...

's top player in Yugoslavia. Buljan finally left Hajduk in 1977 for Hamburger SV where he played until 1981. He then finished his career with two seasons with the

New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to * New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada) * New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Indepen ...

Managerial career

From 2008 to 2009, he was the sporting director at HNK Hajduk Split.

Honours

Individual *

Yugoslav Footballer of the Year The Croatian Footballer of the Year () is the most prestigious annual association football award in Croatia. It is awarded by the newspaper ''Večernji list'' to the best Croatian football player in the preceding year, regardless of the league they ...

: 1975

References

External links

* *
Career stats of Ivan Buljan on Serbia national football team website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buljan, Ivan 1949 births Living people Footballers from Split-Dalmatia County Men's association football central defenders Yugoslav men's footballers Yugoslavia men's under-21 international footballers Yugoslavia men's international footballers 1974 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1976 players HNK Hajduk Split players Hamburger SV players New York Cosmos (1970–1985) players Yugoslav First League players Bundesliga players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Yugoslav expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in West Germany Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in West Germany Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in the United States Croatian football managers HNK Hajduk Split managers Étoile Sportive du Sahel managers HNK Šibenik managers Al-Wakrah SC managers Al-Salmiya SC managers Kuwait Premier League managers Croatian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Tunisia Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Tunisia Expatriate football managers in Qatar Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Expatriate football managers in Kuwait Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Kuwait