Meet the drunkest footballer ever: Breakfast booze, night-long sessions and pre-game liquor

Brandy with the boss

In 1965, new coach Branko Zebec began implementing a more professional approach at Dinamo. He had a peculiar relationship with Lamza – criticising and blaming him publicly when things didn’t go well, but also praising him more than anyone else when Dinamo were winning. Zebec also tacitly approved of his star player’s ‘special’ status and allowed him more freedom than the others.

“We had several conflicts,” Lamza says. “But there was this one occasion that set the course of our relationship. As I drove him home after practice one evening, he said, ‘Pour us a shot of rakija’ [home-made brandy]. I refused, because we had a game tomorrow. But he was insistent: ‘Oh, come on, Stef,’ he said. So we had one, two, three, I don’t know how many... He could never hold his liquor well and first started teasing, then insulting me. I got mad and left before it got any worse. We never spoke about that night again. Never!”

^{"I could still drink more than you now"}

Zebec had been a talented manager, who later worked in Germany. He brought Bayern their first Bundesliga title in 1969 and took Hamburg to the 1980 European Cup Final. But he was also a very difficult character. Towards the end of his coaching career, he became infamous for his strict disciplinarian measures and extremely harsh training methods.

Players complained that he often insulted them and, as he started falling asleep on the bench during matches, the reason for his behaviour transpired. In 1988, he died of alcohol-related illness aged 59. Both Zebec and Lamza belong to a long line of Dinamo legends who struggled with the same demon. In 1967, they led the club to European glory together, but neither got to participate in the big final.

Dinamo scraped through the early rounds of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup as the first side to benefit from two innovations. For the first time in the history of the competition – the predecessor to the UEFA Cup – replays were scrapped with teams going through on away goals, or by tossing a coin if they beat each other by identical results after extra time in the second leg.

^{"Best of three?"}

Head turned

Dinamo first ‘cheated’ in the coin toss against Spartak Brno, as they started jumping in the air and celebrating before anyone could see which side it had fallen. Then they took advantage of the away goals rule as they beat Dunfermline 2-0, after having lost 4-2 in Scotland. They narrowly beat their Romanian namesake Dinamo Pitesti by a single goal in two matches, then thrashed Juventus 5-2 on aggregate. The Eintracht tie in the semis was their huge comeback.

On that magical evening in Zagreb, the crowd gathered outside the Dinamo locker room, chanting: “We’re not letting Stef go!” and “Dinamo is Lamza, Lamza is Dinamo!” What they didn’t know was that Stef Lamza had already agreed to join Standard Liege.

Later that night, the team gathered for a dinner party at the Vila Rebar. Moved by what he had heard from fans, he started rethinking his decision to leave. Standard were a strong and respected side, but hardly bigger in stature than Dinamo. They could only pay more money – much more, as professionalism was never officially introduced in Yugoslavia and payments were illicit. Always the misfit and uncomfortable in unfamiliar surroundings, he worried that he might not have what it takes to play abroad. But it was already a done deal and there was no coming back.

^{Lazma had the chance to move to Stade Sclessin, home of Standard Liege}

“We all had too much to drink that night,” Lamza says. “I couldn’t sleep in the morning, my head was a mess. I went downstairs to the bar – there was nobody there, but I found a bottle of rum and started drinking. By the time my team-mates woke up and came down for breakfast, I had drunk the whole bottle.”

Karlo Zagar, Dinamo’s physio at the time, recalls: “It was around 10am when guests started arriving at the Vila Rebar. They were observing Lamza and laughing at him.”

As one group of players and coach Zebec left for the Maksimir Stadium to train, others stayed for a massage. Zagar convinced Lamza to retreat to his room and try to get some more sleep; he also asked one of the maids to lock him in.

Brush with death

But Lamza couldn’t sleep. He soon woke up and, after realising the room had been locked from the outside, tried to use the balcony. Still drunk, he didn’t see the sign warning the balcony was out of use, as its wooden floor was rotten. As soon as he stepped out, he fell right through it and onto the terrace where people had been discussing his genius.

Doctors managed to save his life, but the centre of balance in his brain was permanently damaged, which meant he couldn’t dribble anymore. His transfer to Standard fell through, and he wouldn’t play for Dinamo again either – except in his farewell match against Benfica in 1970. He also played for three other clubs, but he wasn’t anywhere near his former self.

Without him, Dinamo were beaten by Rijeka and they drew with Sarajevo, losing their title challenge to them. When the big clash with Leeds came, Zebec was already at Bayern and Lamza confined to a hospital bed. Their team won 2-0 in Zagreb and drew 0-0 in Leeds. Listening to the match live on his transistor radio, Lamza said he felt “magnificent”.

These days, Lamza is living off a life-long pension from Dinamo Zagreb and still drinking, but “less than before”. He’s regularly voted the club’s best ever player in polls.

“I led an easy, comfortable life,” he tells FFT. “I saw the world and squandered everything I earned, but I’d do it all again – if only I could avoid that Vila Rebar incident. But I was really drunk and don’t remember much of what happened.”