Vladimir Beara

Vladimir Beara (born August 28, 1928 in Sinj, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) was a Croatian football player, as goalkeeper, and also football manager.

Beara was born in the village of Zelovo near Sinj, Croatia (at the time in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes).For Hajduk Split (1946–55) Beara played 308 games, and helped his team to win the Yugoslavian league title in 1950, 1952 and 1955.

He made, however, sudden transfer in 1955 to Belgrade's FK Red Star (1955–60), after the season he had won the third league title. With Red Star he won the Yugoslav league titles in 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960, and Yugoslav cup in 1958 and 1959. He played for Red Star against Manchester United in the last game United had played before the Munich Air Disaster.

Beara ended his career in Germans clubs Alemannia Aachen (1960–62) and Viktoria Köln (1963–65).

For Yugoslav national team, between 1950 and 1960, he played 60 games. Immediately after being selected to play for the Yugoslav national team he became famous mostly due to his fabulous defences in the match against England at the Highbury Arsenal Stadium. Since then he was often called by his nickname “Big Vlad”. Beara participated in 1952 Olympic Games, and won the silver medal. He played on three World Cups; World Cup 1950, World Cup 1954 and World Cup 1958.

In 1967 Beara finished school in Köln, and began his career as football manager.

References

*"Nogometni leksikon" (2004, in Croatian)