Željko Matuš spent the majority of his football career, from 1955 through 1965, with GNK Dinamo Zagreb, winning the Yugoslav Cup in 1960, 1963, and 1965, and the First League in 1958. He then went to SC Young Fellows Juventus in Switzerland, where he played through 1969, followed by a final 10-game stint at FC Zürich in 1970. Internationally, he had 13 caps with the Yugoslavian national team, including winning the tournament at the 1960 Rome Olympics. He was also a runner-up at that year’s European Nations’ Cup and finished fourth at the 1962 World Cup. After his retirement he remained in Switzerland, where he worked as a dentist.