Bernard
Vukas

Drenovačka was for Bajda and the gang, whose singing would later, during Hajduk's victories, become a balm to his ear, full of a sense of hearing, wide and too wide for football between the garden gates on one side and the other of the street. Bajdo soon left his wooden horse and 'sat' on the ball, from dawn till dusk. First with ragged footballs and trainers with which he was a juggler, and then with a proper 'Balk', which his dad bought just for him when no one could match him any more.

Bajdo's little 'Concordians', when they thrashed the little 'Purgerasians', were often treated to kremšnita. And opposite, where the lads feasted on melšpajz, there was a little house with a balcony. And little Hohnjecova, Lili. Bajdi's secret crush as he transitioned from shorts to long trousers, when the lights in the magical cinemas would be gently dimmed, their screens shrouded by a heavy curtain, and the hands would sing, along with Kiki, their song...

And Bajdo had a clear run of it. Agile, quick with the dribble, equally valuable on both ends of the court. He broke into the first junior team in no time. The lads are taller and stronger, but Bajdo is the better player. Čop, two Dolićs, Petanjek, two Konići, Klepić, Mihovilić, Kavran, Dornik and Čop, along with Bajdo, were Concordians.

Bajdo was already courting Lili, Bajdo was already playing billiards, Bajdo was already playing cards for high stakes, and not infrequently played football 'with the big boys'. By mid-1943, Bajdo had broken through from all those juniors.

He also played for Concordia's reserve team in the onslaught of the excellent Kapetanović, Kosmat, Senčar and Arnold, and in the autumn, in a match against Ličanin, 3-3, he plays for 'Korisnica', after the Croatian State Assembly's proclamation on the annexation of all Croatian lands to the motherland, in favour of Hajduk for his only 45 minutes, at least as recorded by the press, for the first team when he replaced Frančičević in the second half. In the final match for the Croatian juniors, on 5 May 1945, five days after his eighteenth birthday, Vukas scored the winning goal for Zelene 1906 against the excellent Uskok, in what today would be described as a Maradona-style move, dribbling past half of the opposing team!

The match is between Amater and Sloboda. It's a points game. Sloboda are coached by Toni Pogačnik. And the defence is marshalled by the lanky Bolfek, for whom breaking a leg is just a 'good morning'. In that very match, Bolfek broke Juršić's leg. Amater continue with ten men. Once again, Bolfek lifts his boot on that handsome Šimunović they call Cigan. Srećko avoided that challenge to the eternal fields, grabbed hold of Bolfek with his arms, and the referee sends him off. Where's the referee? Amater are down to nine men! In the end, it's 2-1 to Sloboda.

"I want that little yellow one at Hajduk. Straight away!"

But after this match, there's no more Amater or Sloboda. Tekstilac and Grafičar join the merger, and so the city of Zagreb gets - NK Zagreb. Vukas plays in Zagreb, too. And he's not alone; he has his 'spaner': Marold, Klaić, Pogačnik, Kapetanović, Kleščić, Platušić, Drvodelić, Jurišić, Muradori, Pećnik. After the match between NK Zagreb and Split in Split, Vukas was so brilliant that Frane Matošić, watching the game, ordered: 'I want that little yellow one at Hajduk. Now!'

Bajdo also wanted to join Hajduk, but his father Vinko refused or made conditions. And he got guarantees: schooling and Australia. And, when Bajdo finally went down there, he sent him five hundred dollars a month for living expenses! He played his first match for Bile in Mostar. In the Split side's victory, he scored two of the eight goals. The journalists were given instructions: don't write. And they didn't. Or they wrote in code: 'The left wing stood out'. He wasn't in the line-ups. Or, if he was, it was as Juričenko! That was the policy... Hats off to Fran! The Hajduk fans immediately realised they had a golden goose on their hands. The Blaus didn't.

This is the year that means fulfilling my father's demands. Vukas is going on tour with Hajduk to Australia. For two months. There wasn't a pitch Vukas hadn't left his mark on. They were unforgettable days. We trained like mad. Everyone knew that a World Cup was waiting for them in the fifties.

With their tour of Australia, Hajduk had visited all five continents. People had already forgotten Vukas's look by the time he arrived in Split: a cockade, tight, Scottish-style trousers, patent leather shoes, immediately in the company of poker players, and if necessary, they would even go to the islands. There was a lot of noise and shouting. But time has since calmed both Bajda and Hajduk. Adelaide, Sydney, Perth and Melbourne were the successful postcards from Australian Hajduk supporters on the club's longest post-war tour.

At the World Cup in Switzerland, in the summer of 1954, Bajdo Vukas was brilliant. The Germans in the quarter-final could not hold him, not with their hands nor their feet. He evaded them with ease and created chances. Real big ones. He once dribbled past even the Turk; the goal was empty, but cursed.

The ball didn't go in, because Bajdo went for the grand gesture, waiting for another attack from the terrified Herberger men. And it wasn't a goal. And the Germans – they have two! A misunderstanding between Icek Horvat and Beara and a soft back-pass from our centre-half into his own net, then a solo run from Rahn for 0-2. Und Auf Wiedersehen!

Hard times. The difficult Italian years. As early as the first season, Vukas was struck down by jaundice. Treatment and the loss of the dynamism that had been Bajda's foul weapon. It never allowed him to reach his full potential. At thirty, against the tough Italian game where everything is locked down (il catenaccio) and the after-effects of a serious illness, even Vukas couldn't cope. Only in a few matches, at the start, was he the best playmaker in the entire league. His ratings in 'Sport Illustratu' – straight fives.

After that devastating bout of hepatitis, he was never the same. One more season, with good and bad games, and – that was it. He loved Bologna. He had his tifosi. With his blue, flowing hair, he was a magnet for the prettier part of the crowd at the Stadio Comunale. And on his day, he was unbeatable, even in a contest with Juventus's Sivori!

And everything comes to an end. Bajdo, who scored 300 goals in 615 matches for Hajduk, played 59 times for the national team and scored twenty-two goals, twice in the Continental Cup against England in 1953. and Great Britain in 1955, with two silver Olympic medals from London and Helsinki around his neck, having scored 20 goals, the top scorer in the First League in the 1954/55 season, with three former-state championship titles in 1950, 1952 and 1955, in Bologna the first 'foreigner' of socialist football, preparing for his farewell.

"You were better, you, the Dinamo players."

It was December 1962. And who else but a tear in his eye. Dinamo are coming. His unrequited love. A love that does not forgive. A 4-1 win for the Dinamo players in Split. Bajdo is dejected; he did not expect such a farewell, but he is a sportsman: 'You were better, you Dinamo players.'

He received the Lifetime Achievement Award at Hajduk in the white salon. His arms are full of flowers. Goodbye, Bajdo. Football gave him everything. Elegant, chic, dressed in Italian clothes, he stands out wherever he goes. The crowd adores him. And he will no longer be at the Black Lamb under Marijan, by the Plinari plant. The hole left by his departure is immense. For the Croatian football club Hajduk.

He couldn't turn down Hajduk. The team, with his departure, is in deep crisis. Vukas takes up the post of technical director. But when he's not there, he kicks off his smart shoes at training and whips in the corners! "Hey lads, look...!" When he grew tired of Hajduk and vice versa, he took up the post at NK Zagreb, where he had begun his great career. He is the technical director under coach Franjo Glaser. But it's all too little.

Bajdo hangs around at card games, he's lost his nerve for the pitch, he's at odds with the situation and he leaves. Not from football. Football without Bajdo is an April Fool's joke, and that doesn't cut it.