He was brilliant in his playing role, and later had an impressive career both as a coach and football official. Former celebrated Maksimir defender and later coach, longtime president of the Croatian Football Federation, Vlatko Marković, passed away on 23 September 2013 at the age of 77.

Born on New Year's Day 1937 in Bugojno, he began playing for local club Iskra, then for Čelik from Zenica, and in 1958 opened the doors to Maksimir where he spent eight brilliant seasons in Dinamo's shirt. Later he played for Gent, GAK, Wiener SC and Austria Vienna.

Interestingly, he started as a forward, but at Dinamo he played in the defensive line, first as a fullback, then in central defense.

During his Maksimir career he won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1960 and 1963, participated in the brilliant European season when the Blues played in their first of two Inter-Cities Fairs Cup finals in 1963, a competition that later evolved into the UEFA Cup, today's Europa League. He was also runner-up three times and Cup finalist twice. At Dinamo he played 149 official matches and scored five goals.

Later he was technical director of the club, as well as head coach of the team, across four separate mandates. He led the Blues in the 1978/79 season when Dinamo was awarded the championship title by court decision in the famous "Tomić case", but this decision has still not been implemented in the FSJ archives. A year later he led the Blues to the Cup Winners' Cup. He was also the last Dinamo coach in the former SFRY league when the Blues finished the season as runners-up.

He participated in the 1962 World Cup in Chile where he finished fourth with the Yugoslav national team. He was coach of the Croatian national team, leading them in one match, a 3-1 victory against Ukraine in a friendly in Zagreb in 1993.

From 1994 he was vice-president of the HNS, while for a full 14 years, from 1998 to 2012, he was at the helm of the Federation as president.