- Igor Vrablic
Igor Vrablic (born
July 19 ,1965 inBratislava ,Slovakia ) is a former Canadian international star striker whose promising international career abruptly ended amid a match-fixing scandal shortly after Canada's 1986 World Cup appearance.The 188cm, 86kg, 21 year-old Vrablic was Canada's best striker when in 1986 the country qualified for its only
FIFA World Cup finals. He played the 1985-86 season with Belgian First Division club R.F.C. Seresien, one of the few Canadian players playing outdoor professional soccer in the season leading up to the Mexico finals. In 35 internationals in 1984 through 1986 he scored 12 times, including 3 goals in qualifying. Vrablic started in first two of Canada's three W.C. games.Two months following the World Cup finals Canada played the
Merlion Cup inSingapore in late August/early September. Favoured to do well, they lost to North Korea in the semi-finals 2-0 (despite having drawn with the same team earlier in the tournament round robin phase). Vrablic, although he scored four tournament goals, and three other players were charged with accepting bribes at this tournament and banned for one year, while a fifth player was granted immunity for his testimony. Vrablic was never recalled to the team, resulting in the end at age 21 to what was a promising international career.Vrablic played the summer of 1984 with the NASL's
Golden Bay Earthquakes . In 1986-87 he played with the famous Greek clubOlympiakos .Vrablic was also an Olympian, having competed for Canada's Olympic team in both qualifying and in the games themselves. Canada, fielding a full national team as weaker nations were allowed to do at the time, reached the quarterfinals where they lost to Brazil's 'B' national team, 2-1 in penalty kicks shootout.
Vrablic has worked as a
Kitchener, Ontario based horse agent since retiring from soccer. He is the son ofSlovakia n immigrants.On June 12, 2007, he was arrested for his involvement in a major drug trafficking operation across the U.S.-Canadian border [cite web|url=http://www.therecord.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=record/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=1024322398726&c=Article&cid=1181710713595|title=Former soccer star charged|author=The Record|accessdate=2007-06-14|date=2007-06-13] .
In May 2008 all charges with regards to the June 12, 2007 arrest were dropped. [http://news.therecord.com/printArticle/342197]
References
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