This is how the first Croatian Brazilian became.

Slaven Zambata started his football career as a fourteen-year-old in the club NK Junak from Sinj. At the age of sixteen, he was promoted to the first team. Because of his talent, he soon caught the eye of Hajduk from Split. They invited him to play with the juniors at the tournament in San Remo. Zambata was good in the rehearsals, but also in the tournament. The owners of the club invited him to sign a contract with them. They promised him good conditions, including admission to the faculty of pedagogy. They promised him that they would call him, and Zambata eagerly awaited the invitation to join his favorite club.

However, days passed and the phone did not ring. His mother told him to pack for Zagreb and better enroll in college. The young man obeyed her and headed to the capital. Mladen Delić, a well-known football commentator from Sinj, found out about his move. He warned the owners of Dinamo that a talented goal scorer had just moved to their city.

Dinamo invited Delic to a trial in Maksimir. They delayed the testing for two months, during which he was smuggled around Zagreb's student dormitories. Finally, Dinamo's director Otto Hoffman invited him to join the club. He placed him in the Esplanade Hotel, and Slaven did not know where to go with so much luxury. They dragged him from the second team to the first team and then they would place him again in the second team. However, in 1962, he became part of the main eleven. That year, thanks to numerous goals, he reached the national team.

Zambata won a series of victories and, thanks to hard work and practice, in the 1966/67 season. reached the position of Dinamo's captain. He led the team in winning the Fair Cities Cup, which Dinamo won, and Zambata was declared one of the best scorers in that competition.

"Blue Nine"

Slaven

Dino

Everything depended on one thing - a coin.

It was the cult season of 1966/67. Dinamo's "golden team" participated in the Fair Cities Cup. In the return match, they won the Czech Spartak 2:0. Since the first match was held in Brno, ended with 2:0 for Spartak, the passage to the second round was decided by a coin.

Even when he was a child, Zambata always picked heads when tossing a coin. Before the start of the game, the captains chose the side by tossing a coin. Zambata decided to choose a letter for a change. A coin was tossed and it came up heads. Wrong choice. Zambata thought to himself: - It doesn't matter which side we go to... - Then the overtime came. The coin was tossed again. Zambata picked the letter again. The referee tossed a coin and it came up heads. Zambata was already tense. He thought: - Today luck is not on my side... -

The match was a draw. Since there were no penalties at that time, the referee demanded that the coin be tossed again. Although he loved games of chance and often won them, Zambata became worried. After playing a tough game in which he barely scored a goal himself, the fate of the entire championship depended on his luck in the flip of a coin.

The tension could be cut with a knife. - What now? Head – or letter! - he thought. He knew that his head always brought him luck and that he should have chosen it in the first two throws. Still, he was consistent. He chose the letter. A coin was tossed. And then an incredible thing happened. Since the pitch was rough, the coin got stuck between two grasses.

The angry referee dragged the captains to the track. The throw is repeated. The judge took the coin and threw it in the air. Those few seconds of throwing for Zambata lasted forever. The coin flipped and flipped and flipped. The stadium was silent, broken by the thump of a small but fateful coin that fell on the flat ground of the athletics track. Tense and expectant, all the players, referees, delegates and rivals leaned over him. Everyone's breath stopped at that decisive moment. Luck had its say. There was - a letter. Thunderous screams of the Blues echoed through the stadium. They threw themselves on the lawn, sang and were happy. They passed to the second round.

There are several legends that say that Zambata, without even looking at the coin, told his team to jump and rejoice as if they had won. There is also a legend that Zambata reached into his wallet and, instead of the mud coin with which they played the first two throws, gave the judge a coin that had two sides. But that was not necessary. Luck was with Zambata and Modre that day. They made it to the second round, and luck didn't leave them until the end of the championship. That season, Dinamo won the Fair Cities Cup. Zambata was one of the best scorers in that championship, and it seems that he scored a full goal in the coin toss as well.

Head or letter?!

How Ray Charles came to the South thanks to Zambia.

Slaven Zambata, one of Dinamo's greatest football players and a talented goal scorer who became the youngest captain of this team, had many interests. "Blue Nine", as they called him, loved music. Since it was only possible to get records of foreign artists in Yugoslavia at the time, everyone who went abroad was responsible for smuggling at least some of the western music.

Soccer players were no exception. As they often traveled to championships, they had the opportunity to hear the world's best artists. That's how Zambata used every opportunity to bring home a good record. He was the first to bring a Ray Charles record to Zagreb, which included the cult single Hit the road Jack. The single was immediately included in the music library of Radio Zagreb, and Zambata showed that successful football players have excellent musical taste.

"Blue Nine"

This is how the first Croatian Brazilian became.

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