Tomislav Crnković

Who was Tomislav Crnković?

Tomislav Crnković was a Croatian footballer.

He was born in Kotor in what was still the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. As a defender, he played for HAŠK, Metalac and Dinamo Zagreb. Abroad, he later played at Wiener Sportclub and Servette FC.

With the Yugoslavian national team, he had 51 caps. He was part of the team that won silver at the 1952 Olympics, and was also a member of Yugoslavia's 1954 and 1958 FIFA World Cup squads.

With his 439 caps at Dinamo, Crnkovic was part of their Yugoslav First League-winning club in 1954 and 1958 as well as their Yugoslav Cup - winning team in 1951 and 1960. Crnkovic is regarded to be one of Dinamo's greatest defenders of all time. In 2006, he was also the founder of the Croatian Football Federation. After his football career ended, Crnkovic spent a brief time as a journalist and later the owner of a popular restaurant in Zagreb.

Crnkovic was a well known womanizer, and was married at least five times in his life. He also found himself in financial trouble after being involved in a car accident where he was injured. He insisted to pay money to the other victims of the accident as well which left him nearly bankrupt.