Ivan Gudelj was one of Hajduk’s finest players, as well as a Yugoslavia international and captain. At just 25 years of age and at the peak of his career, he was forced to retire from playing after contracting hepatitis B. Nevertheless, he went on to devote a large part of his life in football to working with young players.

Gudelj made 362 appearances and scored 93 goals for Hajduk. With the Whites, he won the Yugoslav league title in 1979 and lifted the cup twice. He was also one of the key members of the generation that competed on equal terms with Europe’s biggest clubs in the early 1980s.

After his playing career came to an end, Gudelj graduated from the Faculty of Kinesiology and worked as a coach and instructor. He managed Primorac Stobreč, Zadar, Dubrovnik, Uskok and Austrian club Vorwärts Steyr, while he also briefly took charge of Hajduk’s first team during the 2005/06 season.

Within the Croatian Football Federation, he served as head coach of Croatia’s youth national teams and was a member of the coaching staff when the Croatian under-17 national team won the bronze medal at the 2001 European Championship. In recent years, he held the position of instructor at the Split Regional Football Centre.

The Croatian Football Federation delegation at the commemoration in Split was led by president Marijan Kustić, technical director of the senior and under-21 national teams Stipe Pletikosa and chief instructor Petar Krpan. Numerous friends, former teammates, current and former coaches, players and officials gathered in the packed cinema hall at Poljud Stadium to bid farewell to Ivan Gudelj.

“He was one of the finest footballers of his generation—a captain, a leader and a world-class player for whom the sky was the limit. However, illness prevented him from fulfilling that potential, which represented an immeasurable loss for Hajduk and Croatian football. Generations of Croatian players passed through his hands. He met some of them when they were still boys, long before the great stadiums, clubs and transfers, and before they went on to achieve Croatia’s greatest successes. I believe there can be no greater satisfaction for a youth coach than seeing his players win major medals with Croatia,” Kustić said.

“Above all, Ivan was a great man. Everyone here knows that, as does anyone who ever spoke with him. It takes exceptional strength of character to face a serious medical diagnosis at a time when the whole world is at your feet. The illness may have taken away his ability to play football, but it never took away his love for the game. Through his illness, he found even greater strength, deeper faith and a stronger desire to pass his knowledge on to others. I hope it can provide at least some comfort to know how many people Ivan touched throughout his life, how many remember him with love today and how his knowledge, values and humanity will live on through the generations he helped raise. Dear Ivan, thank you for everything you gave to Croatian football,” the HNS president added.

In addition to the HNS president, HNK Hajduk president Ivan Bilić, Minister of Tourism and Sport Tonči Glavina, Mayor of Split Tomislav Šuta and Hajduk veterans’ representative Vedran Rožić also spoke about Gudelj.

Ivan Gudelj’s funeral will be held on Saturday, 5 September, at the local cemetery in Zmijavci at 16:30.