Happy 90th Birthday to Dinamo legend Željko Matuš!

Among the first and few athletes with an academic education, after his football career he became a respected dentist and has been living in Switzerland for decades. He is a legend of Dinamo, a former owner of the blue number 10, although as a versatile athlete in his career he has worn almost all numbers from 2 to 11. The former popular Dinamo football player and national team member Željko Matuš celebrated his "round" 90th birthday this Saturday, August 9, and on this occasion, his GNK Dinamo sincerely congratulates him on his birthday and wishes him all the best.

Matuš is originally from Donja Stubica, and as a high school student he played for the then Tekstilac from Oroslavje, from where he went to Dinamo in 1954. Today we remember him as a kind of symbol of the refined, "old Zagreb" Dinamo, as a player around whom the motto "gentleman in football boots" developed. Matuš is part of the celebrated generation of the blues who "danced" from the mid-1950s and 1960s, long-time captain of Maksimir, winner of four trophies and finalist of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1963, thus the first of two Dinamo's European finals in the competition that eventually evolved into the UEFA Cup, today's Europa League.

He led the Maksimir team to the final matches against Valencia in the role of captain. The Blues then "overcame" Porto away in the very opening of the competition, later they also surpassed Bayern among others, defeating them in the quarterfinals in the heart of Munich with a score of 4:1, then with two victories in the semifinals against Ferencvaros they secured a spot in the final matches where they were ultimately stopped by Valencia.

In Dinamo, he won the championship title in 1958, the Cup in 1960, 1963, and 1965. He participated in the World Cup in 1962 in Chile, where he reached the semi-finals with the Yugoslav national team, ultimately finishing in fourth place. Two years earlier, he participated in the final of the European Championship in Paris in July and then won gold at the Olympic Games in Rome in August and September, where he scored to give a 2-0 lead in the victory against Denmark with a 3-1 score in the final.

He played for the Croatian national team in a match against Indonesia in 1956 in Zagreb. It was the only match of the Croatian national team between 1945 and 1990. Croatia won 5-2, and it was Matuš who scored the goal for 1-0.