Slaven Zambata's Football Career

Slaven Zambata, former Croation football player, was born September 24, 1940 in Sinj, then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He began playing football in his hometown at club NK Junak Sinj, and in 1959, he was signed by Dinamo Zagreb at age 18. The tall blond played center-forward and scored many goals for Dinamo until he became known as one of the "Plavi 9" or the "Blue No. 9." His 10 years with Zagreb are considered legendary in Yugoslavian football.

Zambata's successes in Yugoslavia

Zambata played 393 appearances and scored 267 goals, 93 of which were League goals. He earned 31 caps and 21 goals for Yugoslavia in 10 years, yet he never won Yugoslavian first league. He won Yugoslav Cups in 1960, 1963, 1965 and 1969, and was captain of the team for the 1966 to 1967 Inter-Cities Fairs Cups, where he scored six goals. He finished as Yugoslav Cup runner-up in 1964 and 1966, and runner-up in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1963. Although Zambata never won the championship during the 10 years with the club, he was runner-up five times in 1960, 1963, 1966, 1967 and 1969, during one of the most successful times in the history of the club.

Zambata distinguishes himself as topscorer

Zambata was one of the Topscorers in Fairs/Uefa Cup during 1963. He holds the distinction of being the only player of former Yugoslavia's major players to have scored a hat trick against their rivals, and only the second Yugoslav to have done so ever during a Yugoslav Cup final game. Overall, Zambata scored 41 goals in the former Yugoslavian Cup, and eight of them were in the final games. He was the team captain for his country in the 1964 Olympics in Japan, where he scored four goals.

In 1969, Zambata played several seasons for the Belgian club KSV Waregem until 1971. He played 33 games and scored 16 goals. From 1971 to 1972, he played with Crossing Schaerbeek, but scored only three goals during 23 games. After a very short stint in Austria with FC Villach during 1973, he was forced to quit playing, despite having surgery performed on both knees. Despite a somewhat short career, Zambata proved himself as one of the best football players ever in Yugoslavia.