Full name Ivan Hitrec Name Ico Hitrec Date of birth 13 April 1911 Role Football player | ||
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Date of death 11 October 1946(1946-10-11) (aged 35) Died October 11, 1946, Zagreb, Croatia | ||
Place of death Zagreb, FPR Yugoslavia | ||
Ivan "Ico" Hitrec (13 April 1911 – 11 October 1946) was a Croatian football player.
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The centre-forward became a legend after scoring twice against then famous Spanish keeper Ricardo Zamora during the first night game in Zagreb between Zagreb and Madrid in 1931. As one of the first Croatian international players, he went on to play for Grasshopper of Switzerland, and "Kicker", at the time the foremost sports journal in Europe, chose him as a member of the European elite 11.
Hitrec was a goal-scorer for the Kingdom of Yugoslavia national team. He appeared in 14 international games and scored 9 goals in 7 of them. He was one of seven Croatian players to boycott the Yugoslavian national team at the 1930 FIFA World Cup after the Football Association of Yugoslavia was moved from Zagreb to Belgrade.
He was the first technical officer and in his office in the Zagreb power-works in Gundulićeva Street, the best players from Građanski met and discussed forming a new club with blue shirts which later became Dinamo Zagreb. Hitrec was quoted as saying jokingly that he didn't like to perform 11 m penalty kicks because they were "too close" (to the goal).
He was able to sprint 100 meters in under 12 seconds, making him one of the fastest footballers of the era.