Sabahudin "Saša" Vugdalić (born 16 January 1953) is a Bosnian sports journalist and former

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 ...

goalkeeper who played for clubs in the former Yugoslavia and Turkey.

Club career

Born in

Srebrenica Srebrenica ( sr-cyrl, Сребреница, ) is a town and municipality in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a small mountain town, with its main industry being salt mining and a nearby spa. During the Bosnian War in 1995, Srebr ...

, Vugdalić started playing professional football for local side FK Famos Hrasnica. He would play in the

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 ...

for FK Bor and NK Rudar Velenje, before joining

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) ...

side NK Olimpija Ljubljana In 1981, Vugdalić moved to

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, joining

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

side

Gaziantepspor Gaziantepspor was a Turkish football club located in the city of Gaziantep. Formed in 1969 and dissolved in 2020, Gaziantepspor were nicknamed the ''Şahinler'' (The Falcons). The club colours were black and red, and they played their home matc ...

. He made 20 league appearances in one season with the club. He will then return to Yugoslavia and finish his career by playing in Second League with

FK Napredak Kruševac Fudbalski klub Napredak Kruševac (), commonly known as Napredak Kruševac, is a Serbian professional football club based in the city of Kruševac. The word ''Napredak'' means "progress" in Serbian. The club's nickname is the Čarapani which ...

in 1983–84.Stats from Yugoslav firsta nd Second League
at zerodic.com After retiring from playing, Vugdalić became a sports journalist, working for Sarajevo-based

Televizija OBN OBN (abbreviation of ''Open Broadcast Network'') is a local television network broadcasting a TV channel in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Headquarters of this TV is in Sarajevo, Pofalići neighborhood. OBN originally stood for ''Open Broadcast Network' ...

Personal life

Vugdalić earned fame for executing a series of dangerous rescues. At age 17, he jumped off a bridge over the

Drina The Drina ( sr-Cyrl, Дрина, ) is a long river in the Balkans, which forms a large portion of the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. It is the longest tributary of the Sava River and the longest karst river in the Dinaric Al ...

to save a drowning 11-year-old. Two years later, he rescued a mother and daughter from a car that had crashed into a ravine in Ivan planina while he was on leave from military duty. Four years later, he saved a mother and her two children who were trapped in a burning vehicle while he was in

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. Vugdalić is the father of former Slovenia international footballer, Muamer Vugdalić.

References

External links

EX YU Fudbalska Statistika po godinama
* 1953 births Living people People from Srebrenica Footballers from Vlasenica Region Men's association football goalkeepers Bosnia and Herzegovina men's footballers Yugoslav men's footballers FK Famos Hrasnica players NK Iskra Bugojno players FK Bor players HNK Rijeka players NK Rudar Velenje players NK Olimpija Ljubljana (1945–2005) players Gaziantepspor footballers FK Napredak Kruševac players Yugoslav First League players Süper Lig players Yugoslav Second League players Yugoslav expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Bosniaks of Bosnia and Herzegovina {{BosniaHerzegovina-footy-goalkeeper-stub