The Yugoslavian Footballer Who Played A Whole Career Smashed Off His Face

Football, you can’t just be good at hoofing a ball around the park these days. No you have to be a well oiled machine also, it’s all about sports science and nutrition as players have now become highly tuned athlete’s (just ask Wazza).

It kind of makes you yearn for the good old days doesn’t it when men where men and diet was not necessarily such an important aspect of any preparations. The kind of era when fish n’ chips was considered a pre-match meal and post match heavy drinking was not just encouraged it was mandatory.

In England this was deemed normal behaviour throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s but in what was the former Yugoslavia it seems one player has taken it that little bit further. That man was none other than Stjepan ‘Stef’ Lamza whose boozy antics have gone down in Balkan folklore.

Take for example when fans of his then club Dinamo Zagreb were discussing their clubs chances of winning the Yugoslavian League in 1967 in an outdoor terraced section of a Café when they heard an all mighty whack.

What was the commotion are hear you ask – An eyewitness at the time explains the scenario

“A man fell from the balcony upstairs onto the table next to where I was sitting. He hit it with his shoulder, rebounded off it and banged his head on the ground. We all jumped from our chairs.”

The man appeared conscious, but he wasn’t moving and his head was covered with blood. Every one of the terrace were horrified when they recognised his face. It was Lamza himself. His eyes were blinking uncontrollably and he reeked of alcohol”.

The talented footballer would eventually stumble away unharmed but that would not be the last of his drunken exploits, as he has also revealed that he has played more than one game shall we say slightly refreshed

Lamza takes up the story of when his club Dinamo Zagreb faced Barcelona back in 1961

“That day, a team-mate and I made an early start in one cafe near the ground,” Lamza recalls. “We’d been drinking since before lunch. Then he started feeling unwell and I told him he needed to stop. So he left – they later found him sleeping on the street. I stayed, although I was aware the people from the club were probably looking for me all over the city by then. In the end I showed up just in time and scored two beautiful goals in that match that we drew 2-2.”

With a level of that drinking I am surprised he can even remember what happened let alone play and just to make the scenario even more incredible he scored twice that day. If that does not confirm legendary status then I don’t know what does

Unfortunately this is from a bygone era when there probably was not as much scrutiny and no player could ever get away with that these days especially with clubs now having a non-alcohol culture (thanks for that Arsene Wenger)

So let’s all raise our glasses and toast the incredible exploits of Stef Lamza who shows how the boozyful game should really be played. Cheers.

Related Post: Arsenal’s Old Guard Claim Alcoholism Key to Keeping Clean Sheet

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