Red Star Belgrade

History

In February 1945, during World War II, a group of young men, active players, students, and members of the Serbian United Antifascist Youth League, decided to form a Youth Physical Culture Society, that was to become Red Star Belgrade on March 4. Previously, as of December 1944, all pre-war Serbian clubs were abolished and on May 5, 1945 the communist secretary of sports Mitra Mitrovic-Djilas signed the decree dissolving formally all pre-war clubs on the territory of Socialist Republic of Serbia. They got dissolved, because during the German occupation, there was an attempt to organize the league so all the clubs were labelled collaborators by Marshal Tito's communist regime. Two of the most popular clubs from Belgrade were SK Jugoslavija and BSK Belgrade. Red Star was formed on the remains of SK Jugoslavija and they were given SK Jugoslavija's stadium, offices, players, and even their red and white colors along with the logo with addition of a red star. The entire BSK Belgrade roster also joined along with some other players from Belgrade and central Serbia. The name Red Star was assigned after a long discussion. The initial vice presidents of the Sport Society, Zoran Žujović and Slobodan Ćosić, were the ones who assigned it. Red Star was soon adopted as a symbol of Serbian reactionary element within Yugoslavia and a sporting institution that remains the country's most popular to this day. On that day, Red Star played the first football match in the club's history against the First Battalion of the Second Brigade of KNOJ (People's Defence Corps of Yugoslavia) and won, 3–0.

Red Star's first successes involved small steps to recognition. The club won its first championship in 1951. It was a team of players consisting of Stanković, Popović, Mitić, Kostić and Šekularac. Those football players, whose names are still remembered, won four Yugoslav championships and two Cups, not missing the opportunity to win every Yugoslav Trophy for five straight seasons. As champions, Red Star were Yugoslavia's entrants into the 1957–58 European Cup where they were famously beaten, 5–4, on aggregate by English champions Manchester United in the quarter-finals, with the team managed by Matt Busby beating Red Star, 2–1, in the first leg in England before drawing, 3–3, with them in Yugoslavia in the return game on 5 February at JNA Stadium. The second leg is notable for being the last game played by the "Busby Babes". On the return flight to England the following day, the plane crashed in Munich, West Germany, resulting in the deaths of 23 people including eight Manchester United players.

After the Miljanić era, it was the time of Gojko Zec, whose reign as head coach was to last four years and bring Red Star three trophies and the first great European final. The first season with Gojko Zec at the helm was quite literally a real demonstration of force – the league was won with an advantage of nine points over all rivals, which was, up to that moment, the biggest margin of victory in the history of the league. In the following season, Red Star finished second in the league, paving the way for a great performance in the 1978–79 season of the UEFA Cup. After eliminating teams like Arsenal, West Bromwich and Hertha BSC, Red Star made for the first time the Cup final. And there, Red Star met Borussia Mönchengladbach, who played five European finals from 1973–80. The Germans, who were backed by about 100,000 fiery supporters, fell behind today a goal from Miloš Šestić, but Jurišić’s own goal gave Gladbach a psychological advantage before the rematch. This game was played at the Rheinstadion in Düsseldorf, where the Italian referee gave a questionable penalty to the Germans, and the Danish player Allan Simonsen sealed Red Star's fate. The Foals won, 2–1, on aggregate.

After the 1970s, historical matches against Udo Lattek’s Barcelona followed during the 1982–83 European Cup Winners' Cup. In both matches Barcelona were the better team and Red Star was eliminated. Remarkably, when Barça’s Maradona scored his second goal in front of about 100,000 spectators at "Marakana", the Belgrade audience were so excited about the goal, that even the loyal Belgrade fans applauded Maradona. Gojko Zec returned to the team in 1983, finding only one player from the champions generation he was coaching back in 1977 – Miloš Šestić. Zec similarly repeated the team’s triumph from his previous mandate by winning the championship immediately upon his arrival. Gojko Zec would later leave the club in a controversial Scheiber's case-style scandal which was the result of irregularities in the 1986 season.

After Zec left in 1986, there were great changes in the club. The management of the club, run by Dragan Džajić and Vladimir Cvetković, began to build a team that could compete with some of the most powerful European sides. During that summer, Velibor Vasović became coach and the side was strengthened by acquiring a number of talented young players, among whom Dragan Stojković and Borislav Cvetković stood out. In the first season that started with penalty points, Red Star focused on the European Cup and achieving good results. In 1987, a five-year plan was developed by the club with the only goal being to win the European Cup. All that was planned was finally achieved. On the club's birthday in 1987, it started. Real Madrid were defeated at "Marakana". From that day through to March 1992, Red Star enjoyed the best period of success in its history. In these five seasons, Red Star won four National Championships; in the last of those four years of heyday, the club won the 1991 European Cup Final which was played in Bari. Red Star coach Petrović brought the team to Italy a week before the finals, in order to peacefully prepare the players for a forthcoming encounter with Marseille. By that time, Red Star had 18 goals in 8 matches, whereas the French champions had 20. Therefore, the 100th European competing final was expected to be a spectacle of offense. Nonetheless, both Petrović and Goethals opted for defence and the match settled down into a war of attrition. After a 120-minute game and only few chances on both sides, the match was decided following the penalty shootout. After several minutes of stressful penalties, two of Marseille's players missed their penalties, and Darko Pančev converted his penalty and brought the European Cup to Yugoslavia for the first time. Red Star won the shootout, 5–3, on 29 May 1991 in front of 60,000 spectators and the millions watching on television around the world. 20,000 Red Star fans at Stadio San Nicola and millions of them all over Yugoslavia and the World celebrate the greatest joy in Red Star’s history. Sadly the night of the 1991 European Cup Final was to prove to be one of the final times that Yugoslavia could come together to celebrate as one. They won unbeaten the 1990–91 European Cup in Bari and the 1991 Intercontinental Cup in Tokyo.

In 1992, the club was weakened by the departure of almost the whole champions generation (new players were later added, such as Drobnjak and Ivić). In addition, Red Star had to defend the trophy out of their country due to the war in former Yugoslavia (not even in Serbia, although there was possible locations), thereby reducing their chances of defending their title. UEFA changed the form of the championship that year and instead of the cup they started the 1991–92 Champions League, in which eight best teams from the continent participated. In domestic competition, main rival Dinamo Zagreb left the league, just as all the other clubs from Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia did, and the championship in a Yugoslavia that was cut in size was played on the edge of observance of regulations around the beginning of the Bosnian War. At the end of May the UN had the country under sanctions and dislodged Yugoslav football from the international scene. The disintegration of Yugoslavia, the civil war (1992–95), the inflation and the UN sanctions have hit Red Star hard. In the period between May 1992 and May 2000, only one championship victory was celebrated at "Marakana". However, they did manage to win five cups, along with several glorious European performances, including the famed 1996 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup showdown against an Barcelona side which featured Ronaldo and Hristo Stoichkov.

Immediately after the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia ended, Red Star won the 17th cup in its history by winning 4–2 against Partizan. Just a season later, the club returned to the European spotlight by making it to the 2001–02 UEFA Champions League qualification, where Red Star was eliminated by Bayer from Leverkusen (0–0 and 0–3 in away), which would later be a finalist in the Champions League that year. Muslin left the bench in September 2001, after which Red Star's subsequent seasons became more volatile.

In the 2006–07 UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds, Red Star was barely eliminated (by 3–1 aggregate score) by the same AC Milan side which ended up winning the 2007 UEFA Champions League Final. Furthermore, the campaign in Group F of the 2007–08 UEFA Cup was a large disappointment, especially given that the first game against Bayern Munich was a sensational last-minute loss (by a score of 2–3 in Belgrade). In those recent years, Red Star's teams featured the likes of Žigić, Pantelić, Janković, Luković, Basta, Biševac, Milijaš, Koroman, Castillo, Gueye, and Đokić. After a six-year drought, Red star won their 26th league title in season 2013–14.

Despite Red Star's success on the pitch in 2013–14, the financial situation at the club has worsened—so much so that the club were banned from participating in the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League for which they qualified by winning the Serbian SuperLiga. The UEFA Club Financial Control Body found that Red Star's debts to players, some of whom had not been paid for at least six months, staff and other clubs, totalled €1.86 million. The club board were also alleged to have hidden debts and falsified documents. This, on top of an earlier UEFA disciplinary measure in 2011, meant Red Star did not meet the necessary Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play criteria and, as such, should not have been granted a UEFA license by the Serbian FA. Rivals Partizan took Red Star's place in the UEFA Champions League.

Crest and colours

At the end of the World War II, several of pre-war Yugoslav clubs were dissolved because they had played matches during the war and were labelled collaborators by Marshal Tito's communist authorities. One of these clubs were SK Jugoslavija from Belgrade. Red Star was formed from the remains of Jugoslavija and they were given their red and white colours. The typical kit of Red Star is a shirt with red and white vertical stripes, and red or white shorts and socks. Sometimes used the club also an all-red one next to the all-white one. Red Star used also as away kit or third kit, an all-blue jersey, but very rarely, so that the club used all the colours of the Serbian flag. The crest is a red five-pointed star, white framed, on a red-white background. In addition, the whole crest is framed with gold colour. There are two golden stars on the top of their emblem, symbolizing the twenty titles won.

Stadium

Red Star's home ground is the Rajko Mitić Stadium (since 21 December 2014), formerly known as Red Star stadium. With seated capacity of 55,538, it is the largest stadium in Serbia and in the former Yugoslavia. The stadium was opened in 1963, and in the course of time and due to the fact that stadium's former capacity was about 110,000, it got the unofficial moniker "Marakana", after the large and famous Maracanã stadium in Brazil, and Belgrade's sold-out "Marakana" garnered the reputation of being a very tough ground for visiting teams to play in. During the mid-90s, in order to meet UEFA demands for spectators comfort and security, standing places at the stadium were completely done away with and seats were installed on all four stands. In the years, since the stadium's capacity was gradually decreased, followed different stadium modernisations. In 2008, the club reconstructed the stadium's pitch, under-soil grass heaters, improved drainage systems were installed and new modern turf replaced the old surface. The training pitch, located next to the stadium, was also renovated by laying down synthetic turf and installing new lighting equipment. In 2011, the stadium received also a new modern LED scoreboard. Today, the stadium has a central lodge, named 5 Zvezdinih Zvezda (English: 5 Star's of Red Star), which consist of five segments, each bears the name of one of Red Star's legendary players (Mitić, Šekularac, Džajić, Petrović, Stojković), two other VIP lounges and a special VIP gallery with over 450 seats. It has also a modern press box with a capacity of 344 seats including seven extra-comfortable seats, an extra media center, the Red Cafe and a restaurant. On the west stand of the stadium exist also an official Red Star shop along with a Delije shop. The playing field measures are 110 x 73 m, and is illuminated by 1,400 lux floodlights. According to the known German Web portal "Stadionwelt", Belgrade’s "Marakana" is in the top 50 football stadiums in Europe. In 2012, American Bleacher Report ranked the Red Star Stadium, especially if it’s sold out, as the among the most intimidating stadiums in the world.

History

Some of the most notable home-grown players are Dragan Džajić, officially the best player in the history of Serbia (the choice of the Football Association on the 50th anniversary of UEFA, known as the Golden Player), who achieved the 3rd place at the election for the European Footballer of the Year in 1968, then Dragoslav Šekularac – a runner-up with Yugoslavia at the 1960 European Football Championship, Vladimir Petrović "Pižon" – the fourth Star of Red Star, Vladimir Jugović – two times the European Cup winner (with Red Star & Juventus), as well as Nemanja Vidić, Dejan Stanković and Dušan Savić.

Other former home-grown players include Stanislav Karasi, Vladica Popović, Vladislav Bogićević, Boško and Milko Đurovski, Zoran Filipović, Ratomir Dujković, Ognjen Petrović, Stevan Stojanović (the goalkeeper of the European Cup winner 1991 generation) and Miloš Šestić. Further notable players from the last 25 years are Nemanja Vidić, Dejan Stanković, Perica Ognjenović, Nebojša Krupniković, Goran Drulić, Zoran Jovičić, Vladan Lukić, Goran Gavrančić, Nikola Lazetić, Marko Pantelić, Boško Janković, Dušan Basta, Nenad Tomović, Zvonko Milojević, Filip Đorđević, Vladimir Stojković, Dragan Mrđa, Dejan Milovanović and Vladimir Dišljenković.

Former Red Star & Real Madrid football coach legend Miljan Miljanić, was also a member of Red Star’s football youth school.

Supporters

The organized supporters of Red Star are known as Delije, the plural of the singular form Delija, which in Serbian generally signifies a courageous, brave, strong or even handsome young man. A rough English translation might be simply "Hardman" or "Studs". The name Delije first began to be used by hardcore Red Star supporters during the late 1980s, with official inauguration taking place in 1989. Up to that point, the Red Star fans were scattered amongst several organized fan groups that shared in the north stand of Red Star's stadium. The Delije are today one of the most famous supporter groups in the world, who support all clubs in the Red Star multi-sport club. Their style of supporting includes the use of large and small flags, displaying of banners and especially the creation of colorful and large choreographies, noisy and constant cheering and other supporters stuff. The acoustic support is often coordinated by a so-called "Vođa" (Serbian: leader) by a megaphone and accompanied by drums. Subgroups of Delije exist outside of Belgrade as well, in cities across Serbia and all other ex-Yugoslav republics. As a sign of appreciation, Red Star painted in the late 1990s, the word Delije in block letters across their stadium's north stand.

Since the mid-1980s the supporters maintain brotherhood relations with Olympiacos CFP ultras – a friendship based on common Orthodox faith and same club colours. Since the mid-2000s FC Spartak Moscow fans are also included in this friendship.

The Eternal derby

Red Star’s fiercest and long standing city rival is FK Partizan, the other large and popular sport society in Serbia. They also have many supporters in all other former Yugoslavian republics and also in the Yugoslavian diaspora. The rivalry started immediately after the creation of the two clubs in 1945. Red Star was founded with close ties to the Interior ministry and Partizan as the football section of the Yugoslav People's Army. Since then, both clubs have been dominant in domestic football. The match is particularly noted for the passion of the Red Star’s supporters, called Delije, and Partizan’s supporters, the Grobari (English: Gravediggers or Undertakers). The stands of both teams feature fireworks, coloured confetti, flags, rolls of paper, torches, smoke, drums, giant posters and choreographies, used to create visual grandeur and apply psychological pressure on the visiting teams, hence the slogan "Welcome to Hellgrade". Some fans also sometimes use trumpets, similar to the supporters in South America. This creates for the region a typical and distinctive Balkan Brass Band atmosphere. Both sets of supporters sing passionate songs against their rivals, and the stadiums are known to bounce with the simultaneous jumping of the fans. There are many derbies in world football but very few compare to this, it is more than just game and has a deeper meaning. The duel is regarded as one of the greatest football rivalries in the world and the matches between these rivals have been labeled as the Eternal derby. Given its widespread touch on the entirety of a major city, it's dubbed one of, along with the Old Firm, the Rome derby and the Istanbul derby, the most heated rivalries in European football. In 2009, British Daily Mail ranked the Eternal derby 4th among the 10 greatest football rivalries of all time. The biggest attendance for a Red Star – Partizan match was about 108,000 spectators at the Red Star Stadium.

Honours and achievements

Red Star has won 2 international trophies, 2 regional, and 51 domestic making them the most successful football club in Serbia and former Yugoslavia.

Domestic

National Championships – 27 (record)

National Cups – 24 (record)

International

Red Star is the most successful club from Serbia (and former Yugoslavia) in all European competitions, and the only club from Eastern Europe that has won both UEFA Champions League and Intercontinental Cup. The club competed in 50 European seasons, and the most notable results are:

International titles – 4

Friendly Tournaments – 17

Domestic

Yugoslav First League top scorers

Serbia and Montenegro First League top scorers

Serbian SuperLiga top scorers

Serbian SuperLiga Footballer of the Year

International

Club records

Dragan Džajić is Red Star’s record appearance holder, with 615 matches. The goal-scoring record-holder is also Dragan Džajić, with 370 goals. Numerous Red Star’s players were in the Yugoslavian national team and Rajko Mitić, Dragoslav Šekularac, Dragan Džajić, Branko Stanković, Vladimir Durković, Vladica Popović, Jovan Aćimović, Vladimir Petrović, Tomislav Ivković, Dušan Savić, Miloš Šestić, Dragan Stojković and Dejan Savićević (a former player A.C. Milan ) are among them. Dragan Džajić played 85 matches for the Yugoslavian national football team, a national record. Red Star holds records such as to be only the second foreign team that could beat Liverpool on the Anfield Road (after Ferencváros in the 1967–68 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup), which was also the only defeat of Liverpool at home in the European Cup history in the whole 20th century (during 1973–74 European Cup). Red Star was also the first team that could beat Bayern Munich on the Olympic Stadium in its long UEFA competition history (during the 1990–91 European Cup). They are the only Serbian (and ex-Yugoslav) club, and only the second team from this southern corner of Europe and Eastern Europe, to have ever won the European Cup, having done in 1991, which was also the 100th UEFA competing final. Red Star is among the nine clubs, which have ever won the European Cup unbeaten. They are also the only team from the Balkans and Eastern Europe to have ever won the Intercontinental Cup, which it won also in 1991. Red Star is the most successful club from the Balkans and Eastern Europe, being the only club to win both UEFA Champions League and Intercontinental Cup. The Romanian football player Miodrag Belodedici was the first ever Red Star player to have won the European Cup with two different teams, Steaua and Red Star, and very curious both of the team's names mean "Star". Later, the double winners were also Dejan Savićević (Red Star and AC Milan) and Vladimir Jugović (Red Star and Juventus)

Top 10 scorers of all time

Last updated on: 7 September 2014

Top 10 most appearances of all time

Last updated on: 25 October 2013

Club all-time European record

UEFA Ranking

Best results in European competitions

Biggest win in UEFA competition:

First team

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Players with multiple nationalities

B List

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Other

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

For recent transfers, see List of Serbian football transfers winter 2016–17. For summer transfers, see List of Serbian football transfers summer 2016.

Retired number(s)

12 – Delije (the 12th Man)

Coaching history

For details see List of Red Star Belgrade football coaches

Stars of Red Star

Red Star has almost a 50-year-long tradition of giving the title of the Star of Red Star (Serbian: Звездина звезда / Zvezdina zvezda) to the players that had a major impact on the club's history and have made the name of the club famous around the globe. So far, five players and the entire 1991 team were officially given the title. They are:

The 1991 European and World Champions Generation

Coach:

Goalkeepers:

Defenders:

Midfielders:

Strikers:

More notable players

In popular culture

The club's name in Serbian is also the title of the 2013 Italian novel Crvena Zvezda by Enrico Varrecchione. Written in the alternate history genre, utilizing elements of uchronia, its story is based on the premise of what if the 9 November 1988 return leg of the European Cup second round clash between Red Star and AC Milan hadn't been ordered abandoned by German referee Dieter Pauly in the 65th minute due to thick fog that night in Belgrade. Red Star were leading 1–0 after a goal by Dejan Savićević and were also a man up due to Milan striker Pietro Paolo Virdis receiving a red card. After abandonment, UEFA cancelled the match and ordered it replayed in full the next day. This time it finished 1–1 and went to penalties (the first leg in Milan also ended 1–1) where Milan won and went through to the quarter-finals, eventually winning the European Cup — thus getting the coveted trophy again after twenty years, the club's first under its recently arrived owner, ambitious businessman Silvio Berlusconi. In the novel's parallel universe, Red Star won the 8 November 1988 match in Belgrade and eliminated AC Milan, which thus never won its 1989 European Cup, meaning that Berlusconi's ultimate entry into Italian politics had a much weaker background push, which adversely affected his performance at the 1994 Italian general election. The novel also follows the fate of Red Star's fictional striker, loosely based on Savićević, Jovan Eldzic who scored the famous goal in the fog and later went on to transfer to AC Milan where he achieved more accolades, eventually taking Italian citizenship, remaining living in Italy upon retiring from football before entering politics and running for mayor of a small town in Piedmont's Alessandria province.

Billy Bragg's 1991 UK top thirty hit song "Sexuality" contains the lyric "I had an uncle who once played for Red Star Belgrade." When interviewed many years later Bragg was asked if this was true, to which he replied that his uncle actually played for Fulham but that did not fit the rhyme with played.

Two non-related bands, one of them from Great Yarmouth, Great Britain, and the other one from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, shared the name Red Star Belgrade.