Tree decades(and more) before. In an international competition in Italy in 1990.
Ivković was born in Zagreb, PR Croatia, Yugoslavia. He started his professional career playing for hometown club Dinamo Zagreb in 1978, moving to Dinamo Vinkovci in January 1983 and soon after to Red Star Belgrade.
In 1985, Ivković transferred to his first foreign club as he joined Tirol Innsbruck from Austria, where he played until 1988. After short spells with Wiener Sport-Club and Genk, he moved to Sporting CP in 1989, and remained there for the following four seasons, rarely missing a game, although he did not collect any silverware.
Ivković's final years were also spent in Portugal, with Estoril, Vitória Setúbal, Belenenses and Estrela Amadora, before retiring in 1998. Prior to Estrela, he contributed with six matches for Salamanca's 1997 promotion to the La Liga, retiring finally at 38.
Ivković earned 38 caps for the Yugoslavia national team, between 1983 and 1991. His first major tournament was UEFA Euro 1984 in France, where he was second-choice behind Zoran Simović: the nation lost all of its three group matches at the tournament, and his only appearance came in the second game, a 5–0 defeat to Denmark; during the same year, he also won the bronze medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.[1]
Ivković went on to start for Yugoslavia at the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy, appearing in all of the team's five games before they were defeated by Argentina on penalties in the quarter-finals: in that match, he became famous for saving Diego Maradona's kick during the penalty shootout (mere months earlier, he had already saved a penalty from the same player in UEFA Cup action, when Sporting played Napoli, and the two allegedly had a bet on the possible outcome of another penalty before their World Cup match, which the Yugoslav won).
Yugoslavia lost that match....But Tomislav Ivković is remembered as a MVP on that match and made a football history.
We wish them long and healthy life.
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