Ico Hitrec

Ivan Ico Hitrec

Personal information
Full name	Ivan Hitrec
Date of birth	13 April 1911
Place of birth	Zagreb, Austria-Hungary
Date of death
Place of death	Zagreb, FPR Yugoslavia
Position(s)	Striker
Youth career
1924-1927	Ilirija Zagreb
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1927-1931	HAŠK
1931-1932	Grasshopper Club Zürich
1933	Krajišnik Banja Luka
1933	Sparta Zagreb
1933-1940	HAŠK
International career
1929-1939	Kingdom of Yugoslavia	14	(10)
Managerial career
1945	OSK Mladost
1945-1946	Dinamo Zagreb (assistant)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Ivan "Ico" Hitrec (13 April 1911 – 11 October 1946) was a Croatian-Yugoslavian football player.

The centre-forward became a legend after scoring twice against then famous Spanish keeper Ricardo Zamora during the first night game in Zagreb between Zagreb and Madrid in 1933. As one of the first Croatian international players, he went on to play for Grasshopper of Switzerland, and "Kicker", at the time the foremost sports journal in Europe, chose him as a member of the European elite 11.

Hitrec was a goal-scorer for the Kingdom of Yugoslavia national team. He appeared in 14 international games and scored 9 goals in 7 of them. He was one of seven Croatian players to boycott the Yugoslavian national team at the 1930 FIFA World Cup after the Football Association of Yugoslavia was moved from Zagreb to Belgrade.

He was the first technical officer and in his office in the Zagreb power-works in Gundulićeva Street, the best players from Građanski met and discussed forming a new club with blue shirts which later became Dinamo Zagreb. Hitrec was quoted as saying that he didn't like to perform 11m penalty kicks because they were "too close" (to the goal).

He was able to sprint 100 meters in under 12 seconds which was quite fast given that the fastest sprinter at the time Jesse Owens ran the 100-meter dash in 10.30 seconds.

Honours

Grasshopper Club Zürich

• Swiss Cup (1932)

HAŠK

• Yugoslav First League (1937/1938)