Slovakia football great Jan Popluhar, a member of the Czechoslovakia team that reached the final of the 1962 World Cup in Chile, has died.
The Slovak football federation said in a statement that Popluhar died in a Bratislava hospital on Sunday. He was 75. The cause of the death was not announced.
Popluhar was born Sept. 12, 1935, in the Slovak town of Bernolakovo. The central back anchored the Czechoslovak national team defense on its way to the 1962 World Cup final against Brazil, which Czechoslovakia lost 3-1. He was also on the team that won the bronze at the 1960 European Championship and played at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden.
Popluhar scored just one goal in his 62 international games for Czechoslovakia between 1958-67, but was considered a football gentleman because of his clean style of play.
''During the 19 years of my top football career, I was never sent off and I didn't even receive a yellow card,'' Popluhar once said. ''It may sound unbelievable but it's true.''
The International Fair Play Committee honored him with a fair play award in 1996.
In 2002, Popluhar was chosen Slovakia's best footballer of the 20th century. In 2002, he received a Slovak state award, the Ludovit Stur Order of the first class.
He spent most of his career playing for Slovan Bratislava and Lyon in France before finishing with a stint as a playing coach for Austrian club Slovan Vienna.
Together with other Czechoslovak major stars - Josef Masopust and Svatopluk Pluskal - Popluhar was selected to the international team to face England at Wembley to mark the centenary of the English Football Association.
''He was like a pillar,'' Masopust one said about him. ''When I faced him, I rather opted to pass the ball.''
He is survived by his wife, Cecilia, a son and a daughter.
The funeral in his home town of Bernolakovo, located just east of the capital, is scheduled for Thursday.
