August Bivec

August Bivec (30 September 1909 – 22 June 1987) was a Croatian football player and coach.

August Bivec

Personal information
Date of birth	30 September 1909
Place of birth	Vrbovec, Austro-Hungary
Date of death	22 June 1987 (aged 77)
Place of death	Zagreb, SFR Yugoslavia
Position(s)	Defender
Youth career
	Građanski Zagreb
	Concodia Zagreb
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1927–1930	HAŠK Zagreb
1930–1934	Građanski Zagreb
1934–1935	BSK Belgrade
1935–1938	Građanski Zagreb
National team
1933	Yugoslavia	1	(0)
Teams managed
1937–19xx	Građanski Bjelovar
19xx–1941	Viktorija Karlovac
194x–19xx	Grafičar Zagreb
	Rade Končar
	NK Zagreb
	Lokomotiva Zagreb
	Tekstilac Zagreb
	Metalac Zagreb
	Samobor
	Radnik Velika Gorica
	Dolomit Podsused
	Segesta Sisak
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Career

Born in Vrbovec, a town located about 30 kilometers north-east of Zagreb, he started playing in 1925 in the youth team of HŠK Građanski Zagreb.[1] A missfortune of missing a penalty-kick will make him leave Građanski and join city-rivals HŠK Concordia.[2] Between 1927 and 1930 he played as senior with HAŠK, and then he returned to Građanski where, for the exception of the season 1934–35 which he spent playing with BSK Belgrade, he will stay until 1938.[1] With Građanski, playing along Bernard Hügl in the defense, he wins the Yugoslav championship in 1937[3] and he became noticed as fast and elegant defender with great positioning and ball recovering skills.[2] He finished his career in 1938 when, after disagreements with Građanski president Berger, he refused to sign a new contract.[2]

National team

August Bivec made one appearance for the Yugoslav national team. It was in a friendly game against Czechoslovakia, a 2–1 win, played on August 6, 1933, in Zagreb.[3]

While he was on his military service, he was part of the Royal Yugoslav Army team that played the Little Entente tournament in 1935 in Bucharest, Romania.[1]

Coaching career

He became one of the first professional coaches in Yugoslavia. He started right in 1937 when he took charge of BGŠK archiving impressive results.[1] Before the start of Second World War in 1941, he also coached in Karlovac,[3] a club named ŠK Viktorija.[1] After the war, he coached numerous clubs from and around Zagreb, namely, Grafičar Zagreb, Rade Končar, NK Zagreb, NK Lokomotiva Zagreb, Tekstilac Zagreb, Metalac Zagreb, NK Samobor, NK Radnik Velika Gorica, NK Dolomit Podsused and NK Segesta.[1] His major achievement was driving NK Samobor from the lower leagues to the national third level.[3]

For many years he was active in several football organisations; between 1971 and 1973 he was president of the Association of Football Coaches of Croatia, between 1971 and 1973, he was member of the direction board of the Association of Football Coaches of Yugoslavia, and between 1978 and 1981 he was the first president of the Council of Football Coaches of Croatia.[1]

Personal life

He graduated at the Zagreb State Commercial Academy in 1929 and worked as chief accounting officer at the Zagreb Institute of Health Protection until hiis retirement in 1965.[1]

He was awarded with the zlatna plaketa by the Football Association of Yugoslavia.[3]

He died on June 22, 1987, in Zagreb.[2]

Honours

Građanski Zagreb

• Yugoslav championship: 1936–37[3]

References

1. August Bivec at encikopedija.lzmk.hr (in Croatian)
2. August Bivec biografija at povijest.gnkdinamo.hr (in Croatian)
3. August Bivec Archived 27 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine at Reprezentacija.rs (in Serbian)