Former Team Melli and Persepolis club coach Stanko Poklepovic passed away at the age of 81.

Poklepovic died after a long illness at the Split Hospital in the early hours of December 24th.

The Croatian made his impact in the 1984–85 Yugoslav First League as the manager of Hajduk Split when he took over the Yugoslav powerhouse at the time when a lot of important players left the club and a lot of young players like Asanovic, Andrijasevic and Spanjic joined the club with little experience.

In 1994, he was named as the head coach of the Iranian national football team and Persepolis. He won back-to-back Azadegan League titles with Persepolis in 1996 and 1997.

Poklepovic replaced Ali Parvin as Team Melli coach in 1994 after the Iranian legendary coach failed to qualify for World Cup 1994.
He took the helm for the Asian Games Hiroshima 1994. Team Melli played Bahrain (0-0), Turkmenistan (1-1), China(0-1) and Yemen (4-0) but failed to qualify from the group stages.

Poklepovic also coached Iranian football clubs Sepahan and Damash Gilan.

TeamMelli.com offers heartfelt condolences to his bereaved family.