Where is the trainer's laptop, and where is his leg?

Although at the height of his European coaching career, Špaco returned to coach Hajduk in the nineties. With him, he won the first championship of the independent Croatian state in 1992 and the Supercup. He also coached Osijek for a while, and won the Croatian Football Cup with them in 1999.

After the departure of Edoard Reja from Hajduk before the start of the spring part of the 2009/10 season, Poklepović takes over the Split club and fulfills the set goal by the end of the season - winning the title of winner of the Croatian Football Club. In 2015, he successfully took over the bench again, and in 2018 he ended up on the operating table where his lower leg was amputated. On that occasion, he said the sentence that best describes his optimistic and cheerful spirit: - Well, now I can no longer say that I have two lives, I only have one left. –

Until the end, he remained faithful to the so-called old school of balloons and did not like the use of new technology. So once, at a meeting, they asked the coach where his laptop was. - But you can't see him, he's wearing a hat - he answered them.

Spaca's heart remained forever "with Hajduk". Towards the end of his life, he told Slobodna Dalmacija: - Yes, they would have kicked me out of Hajduk, but they brought me back every time. They would always come back to help me. I would always come too. And now I would be happy if they called me, I would have something to say to them, but I don't really move easily. - Generations remember Špaca as one of the best coaches of "Bili", and he is now forever in the world and must be commenting somewhere: - Wow, this current balun is worthless! –

Old school baloon

Stanko

Dino

Stanko led Hajduk's first team from 1984 to 1986. Then he coaches the Titograd and Banja Luka teams, and the most interesting coaching experience was the one in Iran.

He was named Iran's Coach of the Year two years in a row. He was recommended to Persepolis by a Slovenian coach who listened to him at a lecture in Slovenia. He went to distant Iran because the Iranians offered him a large salary. There he made a real turnaround in training! The president of the local club, based on his training, concluded that the Croatian coaches are the best. So the other coaches, Ćiro and Ivanković, followed in Špaca's footsteps.

Iranian players Špaci have given an interesting nickname. They called him "Stanko pizda materina". Namely, Špaco would tell them: - Let's work your mother's pussy! - . It should be emphasized that Špaco did not want to insult them.

That was, as Špaco himself says, more "stylistic". The Iranians didn't know what the phrase meant, but as Špaco kept repeating it, they thought it must be some important football advice. Anyway, that advice seems to have helped. Namely, the team, with Špaca's leadership, reached the title of the third best team in Asia.

Stankov nadimak

About stews, spiral impostations and a football coach who is a physicist.

Stanko Poklepović, a native of Split, was the celebrated coach of Hajduk. The first jersey he wore was that of the football club Split. He did not take off any clothes for a full twenty years, until 1976. Then he got a job as a shipbuilding engineer, he worked as a welding chief. Not long after that, Tomislav Ivić invited him to be his right hand in managing Hajduk. He chose between Stanko and another former Split player, Kusa Kraljević, but in the end he chose the legendary Špac. Šjor Špaco asked the director of the club if he could leave and he said: - Come on! – and that's how Špaco became an assistant coach.

Many important players left Hajduk in the early eighties, and many young juniors who had not played in the first league until then arrived: Asanović, Andrijašević, Španjić... Torcida was delirious because Hajduk was in the race for the championship that season under Poklepović's leadership. Compared to the score of previous years, Hajduk excelled! He scored, then unimaginable, almost two goals per game.

Ćiro called him a "football poet", and many called him a football genius. His well-known strategies with unusual names, such as cotavi attack, kolovaje, pijere, made both players and opponents laugh, but also confused. Even the combination of coffee and "juice" in Poljudski cafe is named after the famous spiral installation. These were just some of Stanko's football innovations.

Pirju, the name that journalists often grabbed for, wanted to demonstrate visually at one of the Poljud matches. Namely, everyone was wondering what it was - stew.

At the aforementioned match, Špaco appeared with, no less – a funnel. Then he explained: - The last time I was there, the topic was stew, and the journalists had no idea what it was. The stew is a funnel: you close the flanks and let the center halves lead the game, who then go inside, into our stew, and leave a hole behind them. And it can be a reverse stew, even halved... -

For Večernjak, he also revealed the source of his strategies: - All my ideas came from physics, every action is opposed by a reaction. For every attack comes a defense, for every defense comes an attack. Anyone who does not know how to realize this in football is not a coach. –

And Špaca's exceptional knowledge of football physics enabled him to achieve significant sporting success, which is why he will forever be remembered as Hajduk's iconic coach.

Old school baloon

Where is the trainer's laptop, and where is his leg?

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Stankov nadimak

Football poet

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