Ivan "Ivica" Medarić was a Croatian football player who played in top league clubs in Yugoslavia and in the Yugoslav national team
Education
He was part of Vojvodina so called "Millioners" team that finished third in the 1940-1941 Serbian League and was qualified for the final phase of the Yugoslav League, however due to the start of the Second World War the championship was cancelled.
Career
Born in Sisak, Austro-Hungary (nowadays Croatia), he begin his career at local club HNK Segesta. In 1935, along his teammate Jozo Kovačević, they moved to Zagreb and were signed by. A year later Medarić signed with HŠK playing back then in the Yugoslav First League.
He played with until 1940 when he moved to Novi Sad and joined FK Vojvodina.
In 1941 the city of Novi Sad was occupied by Hungary. FK Vojvodina stopped their activities.
Medarić for some time continued playing football with NAK Novi Sad, then known as Újvideki Air Corps and playing in the Hungarian championship. Medarić was in the group of Vojvodina players that joined NAK, among them there was goalkeeper Plac, Marjanović, Avramović, Jovanović and Živković, in order to avoid problems or even being sent to labour (concentration) camps.
So in 1943 he left NAK and joined the Yugoslav Partisans in their fight against Axis forces.
During the time he played with Ujvideki Air Corps in the Hungarian championship, he was in the Hungarian press by the magyrized name of Mézes Iván. Immediately after the war, in 1945, he was among the first players of newly founded NK Dinamo Zagreb. He later played one season with FK Željezničar Sarajevo, before retiring in his home-town club HNK Segesta, known then as Naprijed.
After retiring he was a coach for some time at Naprijed and at NK Lokomotiva.
He was condecorated by the Yugoslav Football Association, and has lived in Zagreb until his death, on 30 November 1990. Medarić was a right-winger, and besides 18 appearances for the team of Zagreb football subassociation, and one for the B team of Yugoslavia, he played 3 matches for the Yugoslav national team
Membership
Medarić was in danger because he had been a member of the Yugoslav Communist Party since he was 20, and he has already been imprisoned for illegal activities during the pre-World World War II period in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia while he was a veterinary student in Zagreb.