Ivan Toplak

Ivan Toplak had a successful football career in Yugoslavia as both a player and a coach. Toplak made his professional début for Olimpija Ljubljana in 1951 and won the Slovenian Republic League title the following year. In 1954 he signed for Red Star Belgrade, playing more than 90 matches for the side until 1961. With Red Star he won four Yugoslav First League titles (1955–56, 1956–57, 1958–59, 1959–60), and two Yugoslav Cups (1957–58, 1958–59). Whilst at Red Star he played in his one and only international match for Yugoslavia, a friendly against England in November 1956. Toplak left Red Star in 1961 and retired as a player shortly after.

Toplak returned to Red Star in 1964 as the club’s manager, but after a short unsuccessful spell with the team he then moved to the United States in 1967. From then until 1975 he managed the California Clippers, Stanford University, and the San Jose Earthquakes, before returning to Yugoslavia. From 1976 to 1980 Toplak managed the Yugoslavia national team, along with the national U20 and U21 teams. At the 1980 Moskva Olympics he helped Yugoslavia to finish fourth, before going one better at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics when the team won the bronze medal. Toplak’s final managerial stint came in the early 1990s when he took charge of the Indonesia national team from 1991 to 1993.