Đuka Lovrić | |
Birth Date: | 23 August 1927 |
Birth Place: | Sarajevo, Kingdom of Yugoslavia |
Death Place: | Sarajevo, FPR Yugoslavia |
Position: | Midfielder |
Years1: | 1945–1946 |
Years2: | 1946–1955 |
Clubs1: | Sloboda |
Clubs2: | FK Sarajevo |
Caps1: | 19 |
Goals1: | 4 |
Caps2: | 196 |
Goals2: | 78 |
Đuka Lovrić (born 23 August 1927 in Sarajevo, Kingdom of Yugoslavia - died 20 February 1957 in Sarajevo, FPR Yugoslavia) was a Yugoslav professional footballer. He fell in love with the game by watching his older brother, Bosnian footballer Franjo Lovrić, play.[1]
After the end of the war he joined newly-formed Sloboda with his brother and the two eventually joined SD Torpedo which was formed a year later by the fusion of Sloboda and another Sarajevo-based side, Udarnik and later renamed FK Sarajevo.[1] He spent 9 years playing for FK Sarajevo during which time he earned 196 caps and scored 78 goals for the maroon-whites, earning him a call-up to the Yugoslavia national team for a friendly against England in Belgrade in 1954.[1] He did however not play.
In the autumn of 1954 he became terminally ill[2] and soon after had to retire from professional football at the age of 27. He played his last match for FK Sarajevo on 5 June 1955 against NK Zagreb.[3]
Lovrić died in Sarajevo, FPR Yugoslavia in 1957, at the age of just 30.[3]