Slavko "Vavo" Stojanović (born 1 June 1930 in Osijek

Osijek

Osijek is the fourth largest city in Croatia with a population of 83,496 in 2011. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja county...

) is a former Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

n football goalkeeper.

Career

He started playing in his hometown clubs Udarnik and Proleter, the predecessors of today's NK Osijek

NK Osijek

NK Osijek is a Croatian football club, from Osijek in eastern Croatia.- History :NK Osijek's early roots are found in club called NK Udarnik that was formed in 1945 under FPR Yugoslavia's new communist authorities on the ashes of dissolved HŠK Slavija...

, before moving to Belgrade

Belgrade

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

, in 1951, to play in FK Partizan

FK Partizan

Fudbalski klub Partizan is a professional football club based in Belgrade, Serbia. In its long history, FK Partizan won as many as 37 trophies. The club is the holder of 23 national championships, 12 national cups and 1 national supercup, and has also won the Mitropa Cup in 1978...

 where he would play until 1960, winning three national Cups

Yugoslav Cup

The Yugoslav Cup, officially the Marshal Tito Cup, was one of two major football competitions in the former Yugoslavia, the other one being the Yugoslav League Championship. The Yugoslav Cup took place after the league championships when every competitive league in Yugoslavia had finished, in order...

, in 1951

Yugoslav First League 1951

The First Federal League of Yugoslavia of 1951 , colloquially known as the Yugoslav First League of 1951, was the highest tier football competition played in communist Yugoslavia during 1951.-League table:...

, 1954 and 1957 and playing a total of 382 matches, 135 First League, and even scoring one goal in the 1956-57 season. It was in this period that he became known as one of the best country's goalkeepers, receiving, in 1952, his first, of a total of eight, caps for the Yugoslavia national football team

Yugoslavia national football team

The Yugoslavia national football team represented the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in association football. It enjoyed a modicum of success in international competition. In 1992, during the Yugoslav wars, the team was suspended from international...

. After nine years playing with the "black & whites", in 1960 he moved to another top league club, NK Rijeka

NK Rijeka

HNK Rijeka is a Croatian football club, from Rijeka on the Croatian coast.-History:The club was founded as NK Kvarner in 1946, after Rijeka passed from Italy to Yugoslavia following the end of World War II. During its early period in Yugoslavia, the club had moderate success in various Yugoslav...

, where he would play two seasons, until 1962. Then he decided to move abroad, signing with the 2. German Bundesliga

2. Fußball-Bundesliga

- Changes in division set-up :* Number of clubs: currently 18. From 1974 to 1981 there were two conferences, each of 20 teams. In 1981–91 it had 20...

 club Wormatia Worms

Wormatia Worms

VfR Wormatia 08 Worms is a German association football club that plays in Worms, Rhineland-Palatinate. The club and its historical predecessors were regular participants in regional first division football competition right up until the formation of the national top-flight Bundesliga in 1963...

 where he would stay until 1969, playing a total of 148 league matches and curiously scoring also once, in the 1963-64 season.

After retiring, he kept his links with football, he had some coaching experiences with low league club Germania Eich, in 1969, right after finishing his playing career, and also with his former club, Wormatia Worms

Wormatia Worms

VfR Wormatia 08 Worms is a German association football club that plays in Worms, Rhineland-Palatinate. The club and its historical predecessors were regular participants in regional first division football competition right up until the formation of the national top-flight Bundesliga in 1963...

between 1977 and 1980.

National team

Curiously, it was against Austria that Vavo played both his debut and farewell matches. The first was played in 1952, in Belgrade on 21 September, finishing with a 4-2 win, and the second, the farewell, was played on 14 September 1958, in Vienna, finishing also with a Yugoslav victory, this time by a result of 4-3. Yugoslavia didn't lose any of the eight matches that Slavko played.

External sources

• Profile at National-football-teams.
• Profile at Serbian Federation website.
• Career story at Nogometni leksikon.