Red Star Belgrade

FK Crvena zvezda
Full name Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda
Nickname(s) Zvezda, Crveno-beli, Delije
Founded March 4, 1945
Ground Stadion Crvena Zvezda,
Belgrade
(Capacity: 54,000)
Chairman Flag of Serbia Dobrivoje Tanasijević
Manager Flag of the Republic of Macedonia Čedomir Janevski
League Serbian Superliga
2007-08 2nd
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
Home colours
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
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Away colours
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
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Third colours

Red Star Belgrade (Serbian: Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда Београд, Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda Beograd) is a football club from Belgrade, Serbia. The club is sometimes known worldwide by translations of its Serbian name, FK Crvena zvezda.[1] They are the only Serbian club to have won a UEFA competition, having been victorious in the 1991 European Cup final.

According to recent polls, Red Star is the most popular football club in Serbia, with nearly 50% of the population supporting the club.[2][3] Their main rivals are fellow Belgrade side, FK Partizan.

Contents

History

Red Star was formed on 4 March 1945.[4] In the beginning it was a Youth Physical Culture Society with seven sports sections - athletics, rowing, basketball, volleyball, football, chess and swimming. On that day the very first football match was played. Red Star played against a team of the First Battalion of the Second Brigade of KNOJ. Red Star won 3:2 (2:0). Two goals were scored by Tomašević and one by Pečenčić. Seven days later Red Star played a Team of British Army Mission representatives and won 12:0 (5:0). During 1945 Red Star football club played no less than 36 matches. They won 30, drew 5, and lost only one match (against Romania in Timişoara on 23 September 1945 - 1:2 (0:2)).

On 12 October 1946 Red Star Youth Physical Culture Society merged with a similar society called Student (in fact Student was absorbed into Red Star), and the number of sports sections in the Red Star sport society increased. In 1948 sports sections within Red Star were transformed into clubs, and Youth Physical Culture Society Red Star became Sport Society Red Star. From 1949 all of the clubs were functioning more-less as separate entities (decentralized).

During the 1950s Red Star made several tours of South America; they represented Yugoslavia at the Rio Cup in 1951, but lost all three matches against Juventus, Nice and Palmeiras in São Paulo. Following the cup, they played Santos. In 1955 they returned to the continent, playing 11 matches in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. They returned again in the winter of 1961-62, playing another 10 matches in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Uruguay.

Red Star played a peripheral role in a tragedy of football history. In 1958, Manchester United played at Red Star in a European Cup fixture. The plane that carried the team back to England crashed in Munich, shortly after refuelling. Eight united players were among the dead. Manager Matt Busby and several other players were injured. The incident would forever be known as the Munich air disaster.

Red Star is the only Serbian club that has won a UEFA competition, winning the 1991 European Cup in Bari, Italy. The same year in Tokyo, Japan the club won the Intercontinental Cup. Red Star lost the European Super Cup finals that year to the Cup Winners' Cup champion, Manchester United. The club also made the final of the UEFA Cup in 1979, losing to Borussia Mönchengladbach. Red Star also has won a record 25 national league titles.

In January 2008 Red Star took part in the First Channel Cup in Israel, finishing bottom of their group.

Stadium

Main article: Stadion Crvena Zvezda

Red Star's home ground is the Stadion Crvena Zvezda. It has a capacity of 55,000 and is the largest stadium in Serbia. Due to the former capacity of over 100,000 the stadium is commonly referred to as Marakana after the famous Brazilian stadium. It was opened in 1963 after construction which had started three years earlier.

In 2008 the club announced the reconstruction of the pitch in the stadium. Under-soil grass heaters will be installed and new modern turf will replace the current playing surface. The training pitch will also be renovated by laying down synthetic turf and installing new lighting equipment.

Club culture

Supporters of the various Red Star sports teams are known as Delije (Serbian: Делије). A rough English translation might be "courageous and brave young men" or simply "The Heroes". They are generally concentrated in the North Stand of the Stadion Crvena Zvezda. The Srbija do Tokija (lit. Serbia to Tokyo) chant originated with Red Star supporters following their victory in the 1991 Intercontinental Cup in Tokyo. It was later adopted by Serbian paramilitaries during the various Yugoslavian wars of the 1990s. The Delije were involved in the notorious Dinamo Zagreb-Red Star Belgrade riot in 1990, which highlighted the ethnic tensions in Yugoslavia at the time.

Red Star's main rivals are fellow Belgrade club, FK Partizan. Matches between the two are known as the "Eternal Derby" (Serbian: вечити дерби, Večiti derbi). The record attendance for a Red Star-Partizan match is around 108,000, the lowest 8,000 for a Yugoslav Cup semi-final in 2005. In league matches, the derby has been played 133 times; Red Star winning on 57 occasions and Partizan 34 times. In cup games, Red Star have won 17 of the 31 fixtures, Partizan 10.

In addition to their rivalries, Red Star have two friendship clubs, Olympiacos of Greece and Spartak Moscow of Russia. The fans of the three teams have been dubbed "Orthodox Brothers".

Honours

Season-by-season record

Main article: Red Star Belgrade seasons

European Competitions

Red Star is the most successful team from Serbia (and Yugoslavia); it competed in Europe 46 times, once becoming European Champions (90/91). Other notable results include UEFA cup final (78/79), two European Champions Cup semifinals (56/57, 70/71), one Cup Winners’ Cup semifinal (74/75), and one UEFA cup semifinal (61/62).

European Results Analysis

Red Star Belgrade Seasons P W D L F A Match %W Ties P Ties W Ties L Ties %W
Representing Serbia Flag of Serbia 2 8 3 3 2 9 8 37.50 4 2 2 50.00
Representing FR Yugoslavia Flag of Serbia and Montenegro 12 72 28 20 24 112 85 38.89 34 19 15 55.88
Representing SFR Yugoslavia Flag of Yugoslavia 33 177 88 30 59 344 234 49.72 85 54 31 63.53
Total 46 255 119 51 85 460 322 46.67 122 75 47 61.48

Current squad

As of August 24, 2008

No. Position Player
2 Flag of Serbia MF Nikola Lazetić
4 Flag of Serbia MF Dragomir Vukobratović
5 Flag of Serbia MF Nikola Trajković
6 Flag of Canada DF Dejan Jaković
7 Flag of Serbia MF Nenad Milijaš (captain)
8 Flag of Serbia MF Ognjen Koroman
9 Flag of Brazil FW Edgar
10 Flag of Montenegro MF Igor Burzanović
11 Flag of the Republic of Macedonia FW Ivan Tričkovski
12 Flag of Serbia GK Saša Radivojević
14 Flag of Serbia DF Nenad Tomović
16 Flag of Serbia DF Nino Pekarić
17 Flag of Brazil FW Cléo
18 Flag of Poland DF Grzegorz Bronowicki
19 Flag of Azerbaijan FW Branimir Subašić
No. Position Player
20 Flag of Serbia DF Marjan Marković
21 Flag of Senegal DF Ibrahima Gueye
22 Flag of Serbia GK Saša Stamenković
23 Flag of Serbia FW Slavko Perović
24 Flag of Serbia DF Pavle Ninkov
25 Flag of Serbia MF Marko Blažić
26 Flag of Switzerland MF Boban Maksimović
28 Flag of Serbia DF Vukašin Dević
29 Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo FW Ibrahim Somé
30 Flag of Serbia MF Nemanja Nikolić
32 Flag of Serbia MF Vladimir Bogdanović
33 Flag of Montenegro GK Boban Bajković
42 Flag of Serbia DF Nikola Mijailović
55 Flag of Serbia DF Nikola Petković

Notable players

The Stars of Red Star

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

Though it may sound strange, none of the players that have won the only European Champion title for the club is titled Star of Red Star. In fact, no new "stars" have been added to the list since Dragan Stojković was given the title in 1990. In his recent statement, Stojković, then the club's president, said that the tradition of naming the club's stars was going to be continued, probably by naming Dejan Savićević the sixth "star", although there were opinions that the entire 1991 generation should be named the sixth star. Ironically, Stojković himself missed the opportunity to be part of the historical 1991 cup since he moved to Olympique de Marseille, the same team that was beaten by Red Star at the 1991 final.

The 1991 European Champions Generation

Goalkeepers:

  • Milić Jovanović
  • Željko Kaluđerović
  • Stevan Stojanović (captain)
 

Defenders:

  • Miodrag Belodedici
  • Slobodan Marović
  • Ivica Momčilović
  • Ilija Najdoski
  • Duško Radinović
  • Refik Šabanadžović
  • Goran Vasilijević
 

Midfielders:

  • Vladimir Jugović
  • Siniša Mihajlović
  • Robert Prosinečki
  • Dejan Savićević
  • Vlada Stošić
  • Rade Tošić
 

Strikers:

  • Dragiša Binić
  • Vladan Lukić
  • Darko Pančev[5]

Coach: Ljupko Petrović

Other notable players

Flag of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia SFR Yugoslavia (1945-1992)
Flag of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia FR Yugoslavia/Serbia and Montenegro (1992-2006)
Flag of Serbia Serbia (2006-present)
  • Jovan "Kule" Aćimović
  • Vladimir Beara
  • Vladislav "Bleki" Bogićević
  • Goran Bunjevčević
  • Borislav Cvetković
  • Ratomir Dujković
  • Vladimir Durković
  • Predrag Đajić
  • Predrag Đorđević
  • Milovan Đorić
  • Boško Đurovski
  • Milko Đurovski
  • Zoran Filipović
  • Ilija Ivić
  • Boško Janković
  • Stanislav Karasi
  • Bora Kostić
  • Darko Kovačević
  • Nenad Kovačević
  • Zlatko Krmpotić
  • Vojin Lazarević
  • Ljubomir Lovrić
  • Živan Ljukovčan
  • Dušan Maravić
  • Zvonko Milojević
  • Dejan Milovanović
  • Mitar Mrkela
  • Srđan Mrkušić
  • Slavoljub Muslin
  • Tihomir Ognjanov
  • Perica Ognjenović
  • Stevan Ostojić
  • Marko Pantelić
  • Miroslav Pavlović
  • Dejan "Rambo" Petković
  • Vladica Popović
  • Predrag Radosavljević
  • Dušan Savić
  • Ljubiša Spajić
  • Branko Stanković
  • Dejan Stanković
  • Dejan Stefanović
  • Nikola Stipić
  • Aleksandar "Dika" Stojanović
  • Vladimir Stojković
  • Miloš Šestić
  • Ivan Toplak
  • Nemanja Vidić
  • Nikola Žigić
Flag of Colombia Colombia
  • Mauricio Molina
Flag of Ecuador Ecuador
  • Segundo Castillo
Flag of Portugal Portugal
  • João Lucas
Flag of Slovenia Slovenia
  • Milenko Ačimovič

Coaching history

For details see List of Red Star Belgrade football coaches

  • 1946-47 Svetozar Glišović
  • 1948-50 Aleksandar Tomašević
  • 1951/51 Ljubiša Broćić
  • 1952-53 Žarko Mihajlović
  • 1953/51 Bane Sekulić
  • 1953/51 Ljubiša Broćić
  • 1953-54 Boško Ralić
  • 1954-57 Milovan Ćirić
  • 1957-64 Miša Pavić
  • 1964-66 Ivan Toplak
  • 1966-74 Miljan Miljanić
  • 1974-75 Miljenko Mihić
  • 1975-76 Milovan Ćirić
  • 1976-78 Gojko Zec
  • 1978-81 Branko Stanković
  • 1981-83 Stevan Ostojić
  • 1983-86 Gojko Zec
  • 1986-88 Velibor Vasović
  • 1988-89 Branko Stanković
  • 1989-90 Dragoslav Šekularac
  • 1990-91 Ljupko Petrović
  • 1991-92 Vladica Popović
  • 1992-94 Milan Živadinović
  • 1994-96 Ljupko Petrović
  • 1996-97 Vladimir Petrović
  • 1997/51 Vojin Lazarević
  • 1997-99 Milorad Kosanović
  • 1998-99 Vojin Lazarević
  • 1999/51 Miloljub Ostojić
  • 2000-01 Slavoljub Muslin
  • 2001-03 Zoran Filipović
  • 2003-04 Slavoljub Muslin
  • 2004/51 Ljupko Petrović
  • 2004-05 Ratko Dostanić
  • 2005-06 Walter Zenga
  • 2006-07 Dušan Bajević
  • 2007/51 Boško Đurovski
  • 2007/51 Milorad Kosanović
  • 2007-08 Aleksandar Janković
  • 2008/51 Zdeněk Zeman
  • 2008-/5. Čedomir Janevski

Former Chairmen

Notes and references

  1. In recent times it has often been referred to as Red Star, although the official Serbian name is also quite popular nowadays, in German it is known as Roter Stern, in French as Etoile Rouge, in Spanish as Estrella Roja, in Italian as Stella Rossa etc.
  2. Zvezdaša više od Partizanovaca, retrieved from www.sport.novosti.co.yu, September 18 2007 (Serbian)
  3. Svaki drugi Srbin navija za Crvenu zvezdu retrieved from www.b92.net, March 18 2008 (Serbian)
  4. After the end of WW2 several of the pre-war clubs were dissolved because they had played matches during the war and were labelled collaborationists by the new communist authorities. Two of these clubs from Belgrade were Jugoslavija and BSK. Red Star was formed on the remains of Jugoslavija - they got Jugoslavija's stadium, offices, players, even red and white colours. However, Red Star considers itself to be a new club and not a successor to SK Jugoslavija. On the other hand, OFK Beograd, which was formed on the remains of BSK, claims continuity with BSK, and even tried to regain the name BSK in the mid-1950s (but this lasted for only a season).
  5. Macedonian striker, Darko Pančev was the most prolific goal scorer for Red Star, posting 94 goals in 91 games. He holds the record for the most goals per game in Red Star history. He was also awarded the Golden Boot award for his 1991 campaign, posting 34 goals in a single season, the most in Europe.

External links

Official
Supporters