Background
Beara was born in an ethnic Serb family in the village of Zelovo (known as Zelovo Sutinsko until 1991) near Sinj in present-day Croatia.
Beara was born in an ethnic Serb family in the village of Zelovo (known as Zelovo Sutinsko until 1991) near Sinj in present-day Croatia.
He is widely considered as one of the best goalkeepers in his era. He was Red Star"s goalkeeper against Manchester United in the last game United had played before the Munich Air Disaster. In 1963, the great Soviet goalkeeper, Lev Yashin said that not him, but Vladimir Beara is the greatest keeper of all time.
Beara ended his career in German clubs Alemannia Aachen (1960-1962) and Viktoria Köln (1963-1964).
Foreign Yugoslav national team, between 1950 and 1960, he played 59 games. Since then he was often called by his nickname "Big Vlad".
He played on three World Cups. World Cup 1950, World Cup 1954 and World Cup 1958.
In 1953, Beara was one of four Croatian players on the Fédération internationale de football association Select XI who played against England, it finished 4:4, with Beara receiving only one goal.
In 1967 Beara finished a coaching course at the sports academy at the German Sport University Cologne, today"s Hennes Weisweiler Academy. He went on to coach clubs in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Yugoslavia as well as the national team of Cameroon. A highlight of his coaching career was winning the Yugoslav national championship with in 1971 as assistant coach to Slavko Luštica.
This was the club"s first championship since his departure as player in 1955.
On 11 August 2014, Beara was announced dead by his family in. He died in Croatia and his family says that he died after several strokes over the past year.
"A good goalkeeper, still has to be a lot like he was in my time. He has to have courage and self-confidence." "My confidence in goal, the way I seemed to be able to catch a ball easily, and my technique for taming shots I put down to Barba Luka (aka Luka Kaliterna, one of his first coaches).
lieutenant was a simple drill we did in practice.
He made me catch a small ball about the size of a baseball and after that it was very easy for me to catch a football." "There was an entertaining, aesthetic air about him, that"s why his jumps and dives with feet curled and body perfectly poised appealed. He kept goal on his toes, like a coiled spring, always ready to pounce." "I am not the best goalkeeper in the world, it is Vladimir Beara.".
Quotations:
"A good goalkeeper, still has to be a lot like he was in my time. He has to have courage and self-confidence."
"My confidence in goal, the way I seemed to be able to catch a ball easily, and my technique for taming shots I put down to Barba Luka (aka Luka Kaliterna, one of his first coaches). lieutenant was a simple drill we did in practice.
He made me catch a small ball about the size of a baseball and after that it was very easy for me to catch a football."
"There was an entertaining, aesthetic air about him, that"s why his jumps and dives with feet curled and body perfectly poised appealed.
He kept goal on his toes, like a coiled spring, always ready to pounce."
"I am not the best goalkeeper in the world, it is Vladimir Beara.".