Stjepan Bobek (pronounced [stjêpaːn bǒbek]; 3 December 1923 – 22 August 2010) was a Croatian and Yugoslav professional football striker and later football manager.^[1]

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Stjepan Bobek

Bobek in 1949
Personal information
Date of birth	(1923-12-03)3 December 1923
Place of birth	Zagreb, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Date of death	22 August 2010(2010-08-22) (aged 86)
Place of death	Belgrade, Serbia
Position(s)	Forward
Youth career
1936–1938	HŠK Derbi
1938–1942	ŠK Zagreb
1942–1944	HŠK Ličanin
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1942	Admira Wacker	8	(7)
1944–1945	Građanski Zagreb	15	(13)
1945	Yugoslav Army	3	(8)
1946–1959	Partizan	198	(121)
Total		224	(149)
International career
1946–1956	Yugoslavia	63	(38)
Managerial career
1959	Legia Warsaw
1960–1963	Partizan
1963	Legia Warsaw
1963–1967	Panathinaikos
1967–1969	Partizan
1969–1970	Olympiacos
1970	Altay
1970–1972	Galenika Zemun
1972	Dinamo Zagreb
1973–1974	Galenika Zemun
1974–1975	Panathinaikos
1975–1976	Panetolikos
1976–1978	Espérance
1978–1981	Vardar
Medal record Men's Football Representing  Yugoslavia Olympic Games 1948 London Team 1952 Helsinki Team
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

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Usually a forward or attacking midfielder, Bobek was renowned for his technique, vision and goalscoring ability and is commonly regarded as one of Yugoslavia's greatest players. He is remembered for his time at the Serbian side Partizan, where he moved to following the end of World War II. He played for Partizan between 1945 and 1959 helping them win two Yugoslav First League titles and four Yugoslav Cups, and was named the club's greatest player in history in 1995. Internationally, he is the second all-time top scorer for the Yugoslavia national team, scoring 38 goals in 63 appearances between 1946 and 1956, and was member of Yugoslav squads which won two Olympic silver medals (in 1948 and 1952) and played in two FIFA World Cups (in 1950 and 1954).

After retiring from active football in 1959, he was a successful manager, winning Yugoslav and Greek national titles with Partizan and Panathinaikos.

Bobek was born in Zagreb and started playing at the age of 13 for Viktorija, a lower league club, using his brother's registration papers. When he was 20 he became the center-forward of Građanski Zagreb.

He was the top scorer of the Yugoslav First League twice, in 1945 (25 goals) and 1954 (21 goals).

Bobek played for Croatia U21 between 1943 and 1945.^[2] He made his debut for the Yugoslavia national team on 9 May 1946, in a 2–0 win over Czechoslovakia at the Letná Stadium, which was the nation's inaugural match as SFR Yugoslavia. He scored his first international goal against the same opponents on 29 September 1946, in a 4–2 win at the JNA Stadium.^[3]

Bobek won two Olympic silver medals for Yugoslavia, scoring four goals in London 1948 and three in Helsinki 1952.^[4] He also appeared at the 1950 and 1954 FIFA World Cups, scoring once in a 1950 4–1 win over Mexico.^[3]

On 17 October 1954, Bobek scored a hat-trick in a 5–1 win over Turkey, which were also his last goals on international duty. He reached 38 goals for Yugoslavia on that day and became the national side's top scorer, surpassing Blagoje Marjanović's 37-goal tally.^[3] Bobek's record stood for over 66 years, until it was beaten by Serbia's Aleksandar Mitrović on 27 March 2021.^[5]

After retiring from the play, he became a football manager. In 1959 he became the coach of CWKS Warszawa in Poland, moving back to Yugoslavia the next season to manage FK Partizan. The team won three successive Yugoslav League championships under him, after which he was replaced by Kiril Simonovski in 1963. In 1964 he had another spell in Warsaw, and then he moved to Greece where he led Panathinaikos in the 1960s. During his time in Panathinaikos, the team won the first unbeaten championship in Greece, for the 1963-64 season. In the 1967–68 and 1968–69 seasons, he again returned to manage Partizan. In 1969, he moved to Olympiacos. In 1972, he was the manager of Dinamo Zagreb and during 1974–75 season of Panathinaikos for a second time, but without former success. He also coached Vardar and led them to 1978–79 Yugoslav Second League's East Division title and subsequent promotion to the First League.

In 1995, he was named the all-time greatest player of Partizan Belgrade.^[6] In 2009, Bobek's biography written by sports journalist Fredi Kramer was published.^[7]

Bobek died shortly after midnight on 22 August 2010 in Belgrade.^[6] He is interred in the Alley of Distinguished Citizens in the Belgrade New Cemetery.^[8]