Frane Matošić (25 November 1918 – 29 October 2007) was a Croatian football player and coach who played as a striker. He is regarded as one of Hajduk Split's greatest players and he is the club's all-time leading goalscorer.
Playing career
Club
Born in Split, Matošić started to play football with HNK Hajduk from Split. In his very first game for Hajduk in 1934 against Slavija from Sarajevo, Matošić scored two goals.[1] He played 16 seasons for Hajduk. His older brother Jozo Matošić was also football player with whom he was a teammate at Hajduk.
Frane Matošić mural in Split
While serving the obligatory military service in the season 1939, he played for the BSK from Belgrade. Next season, season 1939–40, he returned to Hajduk. After Hajduk's management suspending the work of Hajduk in 1941, he went abroad to play for Bologna, played in season of 1942–43. When the information about restoring of Hajduk's work came to Frane Matošić, he returned to Croatia and smuggled himself on the free territory. There he joined Hajduk, that restarted its work on the free, Allied-controlled part of Croatia, on the island of Vis. Since then, Matošić was playing the games for Hajduk (that was playing friendly games against Allied teams on the Mediterranean). After the war Matošić as a team captain twice refused Josip Broz Tito's offer of transferring Hajduk to Belgrade and renaming it into "Partizan".[1] All together, Matošić played 739 games for Hajduk and scored impressive 729 goals.[1]
International
Matošić was a long-time Yugoslavia national team player. He played 16 games and scored six goals for Yugoslavia. His last game was in 1953, and in that game he also scored a goal. He was also part of Yugoslavia's squad for the football tournament at the 1948 Summer Olympics, but he did not play in any matches.[2] His final international was a May 1953 World Cup qualification match against Greece.[3]
Managerial career
After the ending of career as player, he turned to coaching career. He was the coach of Hajduk, few years after his brother Jozo was coaching it. He was also the coach of the Tunisia football team and of RNK Split.
Death
Matošić died in Split on the anniversary of Hajduk's historical victory over Red Star Belgrade in 1950.
