Željko Čajkovski

Željko Čajkovski
Personal information
Date of birth (1925-05-05)5 May 1925
Place of birth Zagreb, Kingdom of SCS
Date of death 11 November 2016(2016-11-11) (aged 91)
Place of death Munich, Germany
Playing position Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1942-1945 HAŠK Zagreb
1946-1956 Dinamo Zagreb
1956-1958 Werder Bremen
1958-1960 1. FC Lichtenfels (player-manager)
National team
1947-1951 Yugoslavia 19 (12)
Teams managed
1964-1966 SpVgg Fürth
1967-1969 Borussia Neunkirchen
1971-1974 SSV Ulm 1846
1974 VfR Heilbronn
1975 Wacker 04 Berlin

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


Željko Čajkovski (5 May 1925 – 11 November 2016) was a Croatian football (soccer) player and coach. He was born in Zagreb, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

With the national team he won the silver medal in the football tournament of the 1948 Olympics held in London, losing in the final 1-3 to Sweden, then starring the young Gunnar Nordahl, Gunnar Gren, and Nils Liedholm. In the qualification for the 1950 World Cup he scored in December 1949 the winning goal in the 114th minute of the decisive match against France. Together with his brother Zlatko he was in the side that won its 1950 FIFA World Cup matches against Switzerland and Mexico, to which he contributed a goal. A 0-2 defeat against hosts and eventual runners up Brazil, however, put an end to the Yugoslav campaign.

On club level he played from 1942 for HAŠK Zagreb and, after the dissolution of the club, from 1945 onward for Dinamo Zagreb. With Dinamo he won the championship titles of 1950 and 1954 as well as the 1951 cup tournament. In 1956 he joined the German first division club Werder Bremen for two seasons. According to some sources he was amongst the ranks of 1. FC Nuremberg in the season 1958/59. In 1959/60 he was player manager of the northern Bavarian third division side 1. FC Lichtenfels which he led to the Bavarian amateur championship.

Later he was a coach for the German second division clubs SpVgg Fürth and Borussia Neunkirchen. He led Borussia into the Bundesliga, however he had to face relegation after one season. From 1971 he was at the helm of the third division club SSV Ulm 1846, winning the division two times, albeit failing to achieve promotion. In the first half of the season 1974/75 he managed VfR Heilbronn and in the second half Wacker 04 Berlin, both in the second division.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/13/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.