Branko Kralj is a former Croatian

Croats

Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

 footballer who played as goalkeeper.

A native of Zagreb, Kralj joined local side HŠK Concordia

HŠK Concordia

HŠK Concordia was a Croatian football club formed in Zagreb. The club was founded asthe Srednjoškolski športski klub in 1906.By the end of the First World War the club had played many matches with both domestic and foreign clubs...

 in 1938. After World War II when the club was disbanded he joined NK Borac. Borac later merged into today's NK Zagreb

NK Zagreb

NK Zagreb is a Croatian football club, from the Croatian capital of Zagreb.NK Zagreb's home is the Stadion Kranjčevićeva with capacity of 8,850. The club's fans are known as the White Angels...

 and Kralj moved to local powerhouse Dinamo Zagreb. During his time with Dinamo he appeared in a total of 108 matches (including 61 Yugoslav First League

Yugoslav First League

The Yugoslav First League was the premier football league in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and socialist Yugoslavia...

 games) and helped the club win the 1953–54 championship title. He retired the following season after sustaining a career-ending injury during a match against Velež Mostar

FK Velež Mostar

FK Velež , successor of RŠD Velež, is a football club from Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the city of Mostar, founded on June 22, 1922....

.

He was called up for Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia national football team

The Yugoslavia national football team represented the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in association football. It enjoyed a modicum of success in international competition. In 1992, during the Yugoslav wars, the team was suspended from international...

 39 times during his time at Dinamo, but always as a substitute for the team's first-choice goalkeeper Vladimir Beara

Vladimir Beara

Vladimir Beara is a retired Croatian-born Serb football player, as goalkeeper, and also football manager.-Early life:...

 of Hajduk Split

HNK Hajduk Split

HNK Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split or simply Hajduk, is a Croatian football club founded in 1911 and based in the city of Split. The club's home ground since 1979 is the 35,000-seater Poljud Stadium and the team's traditional home colours are white shirts with blue shorts and...

. He eventually earned three caps for the national team, each time coming on as a substitute for Beara between 1954 and 1955, and was a member of the Yugoslav squad which reached the quarter-final in the 1954 World Cup

1954 FIFA World Cup

The 1954 FIFA World Cup, the fifth staging of the FIFA World Cup, was held in Switzerland from 16 June to 4 July. Switzerland was chosen as hosts in July 1946. The tournament set a number of all-time records for goal-scoring, including the highest average goals scored per game...

 in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

After retiring from active football he graduated from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Zagreb

University of Zagreb

The University of Zagreb is the biggest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of Southeastern Europe...

 and worked in Dinamo's club management.

External links

• Branko Kralj at the Serbia national football team
  Serbia national football team
  The Serbia national football team represents Serbia in association football and is controlled by the Football Association of Serbia, the governing body for football in Serbia. Serbia's home ground is Stadion Crvena Zvezda in Belgrade and their last head coach was Vladimir Petrović...
  
   website