Petar Nadoveza

Petar Nadoveza
Personal information
Date of birth	9 April 1942
Place of birth	Šibenik, Kingdom of Italy
Date of death	19 March 2023 (aged 80)
Position(s)	Striker
Youth career
	Šibenik
Senior career*
Years	Team
1959–1963	Šibenik
1963–1973	Hajduk Split
1973–1975	Lokeren
Total
International career
1967	Yugoslavia
Managerial career
1982–1984	Hajduk Split
1985–1986	Šibenik
1988–1989	Hajduk Split
1992	Bizertin
1995–1996	Olimpija Ljubljana
2000	Hajduk Split
2004	Hajduk Split
2004	Cerezo Osaka
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Petar Nadoveza (9 April 1942 – 19 March 2023) was a Croatian professional football player and manager. During his playing spell at Hajduk he was nicknamed "Pere, splitski Pele" which meant "Pete, the Pelé from Split".

Playing career

Šibenik

Nadoveza started his youth and senior career at HNK Šibenik. In Šibenik's youth academy he was under the guidance of Stojan Mileta who created a lot of talented footballers from that region. At that time Slavko Luštica was the manager of Šibenik and with him Šibenik was a fierce club in the Yugoslav Second League.

Hajduk Split

In 1963 Nadoveza moved to Hajduk Split where he would spend the next ten years of his career. He was a real "killer" on the field. He had amazing speed and a real instinct for the goal. Nadoveza was not a very disciplined player which resulted in many arguments with his managers, especially with Branko Zebec but on the pitch he showed his commitment to the club and to the game. He was loved by the fans and the club personnel. His famous incident was in 1964 when he assaulted a football referee called Strmčeg. This resulted in a six-month ban from playing football.

During the 1960s Hajduk was not doing so well in the Yugoslav First League and many times they were facing relegation to the second league. In the 1965–66 Yugoslav First League Hajduk was accused of match fixing and was facing relegation. The match fixing case was dropped but Hajduk was still facing relegation in the league. Thanks to Nadoveza who scored 21 goals that season^[1] Hajduk was saved and managed to stay in the first league. Nadoveza became the top goalscorer that season. In 1967, he helped Hajduk win their first Yugoslav Cup. He played in the 1967–68 European Cup Winners' Cup which was Hajduk's first real participation in a UEFA competition.

At the end of the 1960s many young talented players such as

Leeds United

.

In 1973, after ten years with Hajduk, he left the club and went to play for Lokeren. Nadoveza made 460 appearances for Hajduk in which he scored 296 goals which makes him the 5th best goalscorer in Hajduk history. He retired in 1975.