Old school baloon
Where is the trainer's laptop, and where is his leg?
Although at the height of his European coaching career, Špaco returned to coach Hajduk in the nineties. With him, he won the first championship of the independent Croatian state in 1992 and the Supercup. He also coached Osijek for a while, and won the Croatian Football Cup with them in 1999.
After the departure of Edoard Reja from Hajduk before the start of the spring part of the 2009/10 season, Poklepović takes over the Split club and fulfills the set goal by the end of the season - winning the title of winner of the Croatian Football Club. In 2015, he successfully took over the bench again, and in 2018 he ended up on the operating table where his lower leg was amputated. On that occasion, he said the sentence that best describes his optimistic and cheerful spirit: - Well, now I can no longer say that I have two lives, I only have one left. –
Until the end, he remained faithful to the so-called old school of balloons and did not like the use of new technology. So once, at a meeting, they asked the coach where his laptop was. - But you can't see him, he's wearing a hat - he answered them.
Spaca's heart remained forever "with Hajduk". Towards the end of his life, he told Slobodna Dalmacija: - Yes, they would have kicked me out of Hajduk, but they brought me back every time. They would always come back to help me. I would always come too. And now I would be happy if they called me, I would have something to say to them, but I don't really move easily. - Generations remember Špaca as one of the best coaches of "Bili", and he is now forever in the world and must be commenting somewhere: - Wow, this current balun is worthless! –