The Maksimir teenager, playful, gifted, scattered, smiling, likeable Marijan Čerček, who had just turned 18 and had only just stepped into the first team – scored one of the most important goals in the club's history. It was the day when Čerček 'checked' the victory in the final! He found the net against English Leeds United and thus pulled the Blues towards the most important trophy in the club's history. On that 30th of August 1967, in the first final clash, Dinamo defeated Leeds United 2-0 and 'opened the trophy cabinet wide'.

The Blues won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, a competition that soon after grew into the UEFA Cup, today's Europa League. A week later in the return leg in England it was 0-0, which meant that Dinamo had – in their second final – captured the trophy. Four years earlier, the Zagreb side had been stopped in the final clashes by Valencia. The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was organized by FIFA, and UEFA took it over in 1971 and changed its name.

Marijan Čerček and Krasnodar Rora, one of the pillars of that Dinamo team, the popular left winger, were the 'signatories' of the two goals with which the Blues outplayed Leeds 2-0 and created a rich reserve ahead of the return leg in England.

What a schedule the teenager Čerček jumped into at the start of his career: in his first five official matches he played two final clashes against Leeds and league matches against all three opponents from the then 'Big Four', namely Red Star, Partizan and Hajduk.

Dinamo against Leeds was not led by Branko Zebec, the coach who brought the Blues to the final and with whom the team flew past Juventus in the quarter-final, and then in an unforgettable clash against Eintracht.

Zebec left Dinamo in the summer of 1966, and his place was taken by former renowned defender Ivica Horvat, one of the finest Maksimir footballers of all time. The paradox is that Horvat was assistant to Eintracht's coach Elek Schwartz in the semi-final, so in the semi-final clashes between Dinamo and Eintracht he sat on the bench of the German team. And he was the one who practically 'invented' Čerček.

English scouts were in the stands of the stadium in Frankfurt in the first semi-final clash between Eintracht and Dinamo. Reporters emphasized that the English observers left the stadium after the Germans' 2-0 lead and exclusively sent reports about – Eintracht's players. They didn't come to the return leg in Zagreb.

However, Dražan Jerković scouted Leeds' team. The celebrated Maksimir striker was technical director of the club at that time, while in the summer he took over the function of chairman of the technical committee. He followed Leeds' squad at a match in Manchester. The star of the team was Jackie Charlton, the celebrated, charismatic defender of the English national team, brother of the famous centre-forward Bobby.

In the 39th minute Čerček 'emerged' from the grass, towered over Charlton himself and shook the net. Rora scored for 2-0 in the 59th minute. After a brilliant performance, Čerček's fairy-tale promotion, Rora's masterly goal and victory with promising 2-0, followed the departure into – the lion's den. Leeds at Elland Road on 6th September. The Blues withstood the hurricane attacks of the hosts, and for a moment were even close to another victory when Danijal Pirić shook the crossbar with a long-range shot. It ended 0-0 and the Blues lifted the trophy.