Vladimir Beara was a Yugoslav football goalie, considered one of the greatest in the world in his era. He played 308 games for Hajduk Split from 1946-55, helping them win the Yugoslav league title in 1950, 1952, and 1955. In 1955 he moved to Beograd Red Star, playing with them until 1960, winning further league titles in 1956-57 and 1959-60. He was Red Star goalkeeper against Manchester United in the last match they played before the München Air Disaster. Beara tended goal for Yugoslavia at the 1954 and 1958 World Cups. He ended his playing career with Alemannia Aachen (1960–62) and Viktoria Köln (1963–64) in Germany. In 1963 the great Soviet keeper Lev Yashin said that Beara was the greatest goalkeeper of all-time, an honor often bestowed on Yashin.
In 1967 Beara graduated from a coaching course at the Deutsche Sporthochschule in Köln (Cologne), and later became a well-known coach in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Cameroon, and Yugoslavia. He helped Hajduk Split, as an assistant, win the 1971 Yugoslav league title, their first since he left them as a player in 1955. He also won the African Cup Winners’ Cup with Tonnerre Yaoundé in 1975. His coaching odyssey was as follows: Freiburger FC (1964-66), Sittardia (1966-67), Rijeka (1967-68), SC Fortuna Köln (1969-70), Hajduk Split (assistant) (1970-72), Cameroon National Team (1973-75), First Vienna FC (1979), RNK Split (1980-81), and BŠK Zmaj Blato (1986-87).
Yugoslavia
Croatia