Ico Hitrec

Ivan 'Ico' Hitrec (April 13 1911 — 1946) is widely considered as the greatest Croatian football (soccer) player before World War II.

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The centre-forward became a legend after scoring twice against then famous Spanish keeper Ricardo Zamora during the first night game in Zagreb between Zagreb and Madrid in 1933. As one of the first Croatian international players, he went on to play for Grasshoppers of Switzerland, and "Kicker", at the time the foremost sports journal in Europe, chose him as a member of the European elite 11.

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Hitrec was also a goal-scorer for the Kingdom of Yugoslavia national team. He appeared in at least 14 international games and scored 9 goals in 7 of them.

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He was also the first technical officer and in his office in the Zagreb power-works in Gunduli?eva street, the best players from Gra?anski met and discussed forming a new club with blue shirts which later became Dinamo Zagreb.

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Hitrec was quoted as saying that he didn't like to perform 11m penalty kicks because they were "too close" (to the goal). He was able to sprint 100 meters in under 12 seconds which was quite fast given that the fastest sprinter at the time Jesse Owens ran the 100-meter dash in 10.30 seconds.

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1911: 1911 was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar)....

1946: 1946 was a common year starting on Tuesday. (see link for calendar)...

Croatia: The Republic of Croatia is a crescent-shaped country in Europe bordering the Mediterranean, Central Europe and the Balkans. Its capital is Zagreb. In recent history, it was a republic in the SFR Yugoslavia, but it achieved independence in 1991. It is a candidate for membership of the European Union....