Željko Čajkovski

Club

At club level he played from 1942 to 1945 for HAŠK Zagreb and, after the dissolution of the club, from 1945 onward for Dinamo Zagreb. With Dinamo he won the championship titles of 1950 and 1954 as well as the 1951 cup tournament. In 1956 he joined the German first division club Werder Bremen for two seasons. According to some sources he was amongst the ranks of 1. FC Nürnberg in the 1958–59 season. In the 1959–60 season, he served as player-manager of the northern Bavarian third division side 1. FC Lichtenfels, which he led to the Bavarian amateur championship.

International

With the Yugoslavia national team he won the silver medal in the football tournament of the 1948 Olympics held in London, losing in the final 1–3 to Sweden, then starring the young Gre-No-Li attacking trio of Gunnar Nordahl, Gunnar Gren, and Nils Liedholm. He also played in two games for Yugoslavia in 1947 and 1948 for the regional Balkan Cup tournament. In the 1950 World Cup qualifiers Yugoslavia was tied with France and had to play a playoff on neutral grounds in December 1949. In that game, played in Florence, the score was 2–2 after regular time. Čajkovski dramatically scored the winning goal in the 24th minute of extra time for Yugoslavia's 3–2 win, booking Yugoslavia's spot at the tournament and knocking out France, captained by Jean Baratte and managed by Gaston Barreau. Together with his brother Zlatko he was in the side that won its 1950 FIFA World Cup matches against…

Later he served as a coach for the German second division clubs SpVgg Fürth and Borussia Neunkirchen. He led Borussia into the Bundesliga, however he had to face relegation after one season. From 1971 he was at the helm of the third division club SSV Ulm 1846, winning the division two times, albeit failing to achieve promotion. In the first half of the 1974–75 season, he managed VfR Heilbronn, and in the second half, Wacker 04 Berlin, both in the second division.