lit a candle 3h ago"Those were more beautiful football times." Saw that line in a clip someone posted today. 91 years old and he still wasn't bitter about any of it.
Their story
Željko Matuš was a Croatian footballer, a long-serving captain of Dinamo Zagreb and a member of the Yugoslavia side that won Olympic gold in Rome in 1960. He was also something rare in the football of his day: a player who earned a university degree while at the top of…
Željko Matuš was a Croatian footballer, a long-serving captain of Dinamo Zagreb and a member of the Yugoslavia side that won Olympic gold in Rome in 1960. He was also something rare in the football of his day: a player who earned a university degree while at the top of the game, qualifying as a doctor of dental medicine in 1963 and later building a respected career as a dentist in Switzerland. His death, in his 92nd year, was reported by Croatian media on 10 November 2026. He had lived in Switzerland for decades.
Matuš was born on 9 August 1935 in Donja Stubica, in the Hrvatsko Zagorje region north of Zagreb. His father was a physician who was killed while at work, and he grew up with very little. He played for local clubs in Donja Stubica, Krapina and Oroslavje, and as a secondary school pupil he turned out for Tekstilac Oroslavje. In 1954, at 19, he moved to Zagreb to continue his education and joined Dinamo. His family told him he would have to choose between school and football. He decided to do both, partly because he feared that a single knee injury could end a playing career and leave him with nothing.
He made his Dinamo debut in 1955 in Slavonski Brod and scored twice in his first official match, against Proleter Osijek. Over the next decade he made 428 appearances and scored about 150 goals for the club. He won the Yugoslav championship in 1957-58 and the Yugoslav Cup in 1960, 1963 and 1965. He was a versatile player who wore almost every shirt number from 2 to 11, and for many years he owned Dinamo's number 10. Fans nicknamed him Zagorec, after his home region, and the club remembers him as the symbol of an elegant, old Zagreb Dinamo, the player who inspired the phrase "a gentleman in football boots".
As captain, Matuš led Dinamo to the 1963 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final, the first of the club's two European finals in the competition that later became the UEFA Cup and today's Europa League. On the way Dinamo won away at Porto and beat Bayern Munich 4-1 in Munich in the quarter-final before overcoming Ferencváros in the semi-final. Valencia beat them in the two-legged final.
On 12 September 1956 he played for the Croatian representative side against Indonesia in Zagreb, the only match a Croatia team played between 1945 and 1990. Croatia won 5-2 and Matuš scored the opening goal. He was later the last surviving Croatian player from that game.
For Yugoslavia he won 13 caps and scored 5 goals, and he also played twice for the B team. In 1960 he played in the first European Nations' Cup in France, the forerunner of the European Championship, and appeared in the final at the Parc des Princes in Paris on 10 July, which the Soviet Union won 2-1 after extra time. Weeks later he won gold at the Rome Olympics, scoring the goal that put Yugoslavia 2-0 up in the 3-1 final win over Denmark on 10 September 1960. He also went to the 1962 FIFA World Cup in Chile, where Yugoslavia finished fourth. His last international was a friendly against West Germany in September 1962. He once said he would have played more often for his country if he had not been competing for the same position as Dragoslav Šekularac.
In 1965 Matuš moved to Switzerland to join Young Fellows Zürich, and in 1968 he joined FC Zürich, where he stayed until 1970. He then played for the amateur clubs Schwamendingen and Seebach and briefly worked as a coach. Above all he practised as a dentist, and he settled in Switzerland for the rest of his life. He later said that as a dentist he had earned his pension, because footballers of his era could not earn enough in ten years to last a lifetime.
He looked back on his era without bitterness. Friends told him he had been born too early and would be a millionaire today, and he once worked out that Luka Modrić earned in a month what he had earned in his whole career. Still, he said he would not swap places with modern players, because those had been more beautiful football times.
After the death of Soviet forward Viktor Ponedelnik in December 2020, Matuš became the last living player from the 1960 European Nations' Cup final. Dinamo marked his 90th birthday in August 2025 with a tribute to one of the great figures of its history. His death was reported on 10 November 2026. No cause of death has been made public, and funeral details had not been announced at the time of writing.
Biography adapted from Večernji list (10 November 2026), Telegraf.rs (10 November 2026), GNK Dinamo Zagreb 90th birthday tribute (August 2025), Wikipedia (English and Croatian, CC BY-SA 4.0). Wikipedia ↗
In their own words
“They told me: either you will finish school or you will be a footballer. And I decided, I will succeed at both!”
On moving to Zagreb at 19, interview with Večernji list (translated from Croatian)
“Friends often tell me I was born too early, because today I would be a millionaire. I once calculated that Modrić earns in a month what I earned in my whole career. But I would not swap with today's footballers, those were more beautiful football times.”
Interview with Večernji list (translated from Croatian)
“I would have played more of them if I had not had the bad luck of playing in the same position as Šekularac.”
On his 13 Yugoslavia caps, Večernji list (translated from Croatian)
“In the end, as a dentist, I earned my pension.”
On why he studied while playing, Večernji list (translated from Croatian)
“We beat them 5-2, I scored the first goal, but I really do not remember what that move looked like. It was long ago, I was 21 and only just starting my career at Dinamo.”
On Croatia v Indonesia, 1956, Večernji list (translated from Croatian)
Photos
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