| Ante Vulić | |
| Fullname: | Ante Vulić |
| Birth Date: | 16 August 1928 |
| Birth Place: | Split, Kingdom of Yugoslavia |
| Death Place: | Split, Croatia |
| Position: | Goalkeeper |
| Years1: | 1951–1962 |
| Clubs1: | Hajduk Split |
| Caps1: | 116 |
| Goals1: | 14 |
| Totalcaps: | 116 |
| Totalgoals: | 14 |
| Nationalyears1: | 1956 |
| Nationalteam1: | PR Croatia |
| Nationalcaps1: | 1 |
| Nationalgoals1: | 0 |
Ante Vulić (pronounced as /hr/; 16 August 1928 – 7 August 1993) was a Croatian professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
He spent the entirety of his 11-year career with Hajduk Split, winning two Yugoslav league titles in 1952 and 1955. Although a talented goalkeeper, for a great part of his career he had to be a substitute to Vladimir Beara, who was named by legendary Soviet goalkeeper Lev Yashin as the greatest keeper of all time.[1] [2] However, he has never complained about that misfortune. According to Beara himself, Vulić was his best and most loyal friend, who even twice picked a fight to protect him.[3] He still managed to become the second-most-capped Hajduk Split goalkeeper ever, with 339 games (116 in the league, 17 in the domestic cup, 4 international games and 202 friendlies, scoring 29 goals in total),[4] after Radomir Vukčević (402).[5] Despite being a long-time substitute to Beara, he was also known as an excellent penalty taker. Beara (who was the first goalkeeper ever to save a penalty to Ferenc Puskás in the 1952 Olympic finals,[6] and who has also saved penalties from many other prominent strikers, having saved four penalties during a single game in a derby against Dinamo Zagreb) claimed that he has never seen a better penalty taker than Ante Vulić.
Vulić was capped in the only international game the Croatia national team played while Croatia was part of Yugoslavia, a 5–2 win against Indonesia in Zagreb, on 12 September 1956.[7]
Vulić's son, Zoran, also became a long-time player for Hajduk Split, the team's captain and later football manager, coaching Hajduk several times. Zoran also played internationally for Yugoslavia and Croatia[8] and they are the only father and son who played for Croatia before its independence from Yugoslavia was established.[9]