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Edin Sprečo (19 April 1947 – 12 May 2020) was a Bosnian professional footballer who played as a winger.
Born in Sarajevo, SFR Yugoslavia, present day Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sprečo started playing football for the youth team of hometown club Željezničar when he was 12. At the age of 17, he made his debut for the first team. Sprečo scored two goals in his first game and it was clear that he would become a great player.[1]
He played 199 league games and scored 61 goals for Željezničar. In total, Sprečo played in 234 games and managed to score 75 goals. He was a member of the Željezničar team that won the Yugoslav First League title in the 1971–72 season. In 1975, Sprečo turned 28 and he was allowed to go abroad, as it was prohibited for under-28 players to leave the domestic clubs at the time. He went to Dutch Eredivisie club NAC Breda.[1] He played in Holland alongside compatriots Miroslav Vardić and Nikola Budišić, finishing in 11th place in the Eredivisie.[2]
He also played for, at the time, French Ligue 2 club Rennes making his debut against AS Brestoise on 8 January 1978.[3] Sprečo finished his career at the age of 34 in 1981, while playing for Iskra Bugojno.[1]
Sprečo earned 3 caps for the Yugoslavia national team and also scored two goals while playing for the national team from 1967 to 1969.[1] He scored his first goal for Yugoslavia on 12 November 1967, in a 4–0 win against Albania in a UEFA Euro 1968 qualifying match.[4] His final international was a June 1969 World Cup qualification match away against Finland.[5]
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Sprečo died at the age of 73 in his hometown of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina on 12 May 2020.[7]
Željezničar