Mladen Furtula

Mladen Furtula

Personal information
Full name	Mladen Furtula
Date of birth	(1950-09-17) September 17, 1950
Place of birth	Sarajevo, FPR Yugoslavia
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position	Goalkeeper
Youth career
–1969	Sutjeska Foča
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1969–1973	Partizan	23	(0)
1973–1974	Dinamo Pančevo	19	(0)
1974–1975	Panserraikos	34	(0)
1975–1984	PAOK	216	(0)
Total		292	(0)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Mladen Furtula (Serbian Cyrillic: Mлaдeн Фуpтулa; born September 17, 1950) is a former Bosnian Serb football goalkeeper.

Club career

Furtula started playing football at Sutjeska Foča. In 1969, he moved to Partizan Belgrade and he played for Dinamo Pančevo in the 1973–74 season. In the summer of 1974, he agreed to join Las Palmas, however his parents were opposed to their son's move to Spain, which at the time was under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. He was eventually transerred to Greek club Panserraikos and in the 1974–75 season, he participated in all Championship matches and stood out with his performance, attracting the interest of major teams, such as Panathinaikos, AEK Athens and PAOK. He chose to continue his career at the Double Head of the North and under the guidance of Gyula Lóránt in his first season with the team, he won the Greek Championship which was the first in the club's history. He played for PAOK until the summer of 1984, when he retired from active football at the age of 34. He made a total of 277 appearances in all competitions (216 in the league, 42 in the Cup and 19 in European competitions) with PAOK and his 137 "clean sheets" is an all-time club record.

Furtula's apps during his career in Greece

Club	Season	League	Cup	Europe	Total
Panserraikos	1974–75	34	1	0	35
PAOK	1975–76	30	3	2	35
	1976–77	15	3	4	22
	1977–78	33	6	4	43
	1978–79	21	1	1	23
	1979–80	18	4	0	22
	1980–81	31	8	0	39
	1981–82	15	5	0	20
	1982–83	29	6	4	39
	1983–84	24	6	4	34
	Τotal	216	42	19	277
Career total		250	43	19	312

Other football-related activities

After the end of his football career, Furtula took over as PAOK goalkeeper coach during the 1984–85 season, when the team won the second league title in the club's history. He suggested that year to PAOK president Giorgos Pantelakis the acquisition of Yugoslavs Rade Paprica and Ivan Jurišić. Pantelakis watched them himself and was convinced for their value. The following season, he did not come to terms with president Haris Savvidis and was dismissed from PAOK.

Furtula worked as a football agent for a while and returned to PAOK under the presidency of Giorgos Batatoudis, taking over as general manager of the football department. He was the one who proposed the hiring of Dušan Bajević as the team's manager in January 2000 and celebrated with the Double-headed Eagle of the North the conquest of the 2001 Greek Cup.

Honours

PAOK

• Alpha Ethniki: 1975–76

External links

• Profile at Playerhistory.com at the Wayback Machine (archived 2013-08-09)