Josip Pirmajer (14 February 1944 – 24 June 2018) was a Yugoslav

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 ...

player and manager who played as a winger. At international level, he represented the Yugoslavia national team.

Playing career

Club

Pirmajer was born in

Trbovlje Trbovlje (; ''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 4: ''Štajersko''. 1904. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 58.) is Slovenia's eleventh-largest town, located in the traditional province of Styria ...

in present-day Slovenia. At the time of his birth, Trbovlje was renamed Trifail by the occupying Nazi German forces. He moved with his family to Serbia to Srbobran in 1947."Istorija fudbala u Srbobranu, page 135 His football skills were spotted while he was in elementary school and he joined the youth-team of Elan Srbobran. When he was 16, with a special medical permission, he was allowed to start playing in the main team of Elan Srbobran. After a handful of games he attracted attention from bigger clubs, and shortly after he joined RFK Novi Sad. He debuted in the season 1960–61 in which Novi Sad made their historical promotion to the

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) ...

after winning the 1960–61 Yugoslav Second League East. Pirmajer played the following seasons with Novi Sad in the First League, until the winter-break of the 1963–64 season when he was brought by

FK Partizan Fudbalski klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Партизан, ; ), often referred to in English as Partizan Belgrade, is a Serbian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Belgrade. It forms ...

. Pirmajer moved to the capital and played with Partizan a total of seasons during which he won one championship and was European vice-champion after losing the

1966 European Cup final The 1966 European Cup final was a football match held at the Heysel Stadium, Brussels, on 11 May 1966 that saw Real Madrid of Spain defeat FK Partizan of Yugoslavia 2–1 to win the 1965–66 European Cup title. Route to the final Match Summa ...

. During his spell in Partizan he got the record of having played 252 consecutive competitive matches.Josip Pirmajer
at reprezentacija.rs In summer 1967 Pirmajer returned to Novi Sad this time joining

FK Vojvodina Fudbalski klub Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Војводина), commonly known as Vojvodina and colloquially as Voša ( sr-Cyrl, Воша), is a Serbian professional football club based in Novi Sad, Serbia, the second large ...

where he played further four seasons in Yugoslav top-flight. Afterwards, he played seasons abroad, in France, with

Nîmes Olympique Nîmes Olympique (commonly referred to as simply Nîmes) is a French association football club based in Nîmes. The club was founded on 12 April 1937 and currently plays in the Championnat National, the third tier of French football. The Sta ...

in League 1. During the 1974–75 winter break, Pirmajer returned to Yugoslavia and, aged 30, he joined his former club RFK Novi Sad playing with them until summer 1977 in the Yugoslav Second League.

International

Pirmajer played for all youth levels of the Yugoslavia national team, including the Olympic team, before debuting for Yugoslavia national team in 1964. He made four appearances for Yugoslavia.

Managerial career

After retiring, Pirmajer became a coach and he worked at RFK Novi Sad, FK Jedinstvo Novi Bečej,

, FK Elan Srbobran, FK Beograd, FK Sileks, FK Big Bull Bačinci and FK Bečej. Pirmajer continued living in Serbia where he became president of FK Srbobran. In January 2009, the Sports Association of the municipality of Srbobran gave Pirmajer a special award as recognition of him as the most successful sportsman from Srboobran and for his overall contribution for development of sport in the municipality. As well as being an excellent footballer, Pirmajer played also

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

with RK Bačka,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

with KK Akademik, and

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

Death

Pirmajer died on 24 June 2018 in Srbobran, Serbia at the age of 74.Novosti.rs article
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Honours

;Novi Sad *

Yugoslav Second League Yugoslav Second League ( Bosnian: ''Druga savezna liga,'' Croatian: ''Druga savezna liga'', Serbian: ''Друга савезна лига'', Slovenian: ''Druga zvezna liga'', Macedonian: ''Втора сојузна лига'', ''Vtora sojuzna l ...

;Partizan *

: 1964–65 *

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

: 1965–66 finalist

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pirmajer, Josip 1944 births 2018 deaths Sportspeople from Trbovlje People from Srbobran Footballers from South Bačka District Serbian people of Slovenian descent Men's association football forwards Yugoslav men's footballers Yugoslavia men's international footballers Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Yugoslavia Competitors at the 1971 Mediterranean Games Mediterranean Games medalists in football Olympic footballers for Yugoslavia Footballers at the 1964 Summer Olympics RFK Novi Sad 1921 players FK Partizan players FK Vojvodina players Nîmes Olympique players Yugoslav First League players Ligue 1 players Yugoslav expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in France Slovenian football managers Serbian football managers Serbia and Montenegro football managers RFK Novi Sad 1921 managers FK Vojvodina managers FK Sileks managers FK Bečej managers Slovenian expatriate football managers Serbian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in North Macedonia Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in North Macedonia Serbian expatriate sportspeople in North Macedonia