History of Red Star Belgrade
[3] 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.
However, in the period from 1948 to 1950, the club scored a series of hat-trick triumphs in Yugoslav Cups, winning finals against city rival Partizan, Naša Krila of Zemun and Dinamo Zagreb.
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.
The end of the fifties was the first period of dominance of one club in the Yugoslav football scene, but by the beginning of the next decade the focus of events shifted to the other side of Topčider Hill, where Partizan was located.
Having come up through the club's youth system, Miljan Miljanić made a handful of appearances for Red Star's full squad during the early 1950s before unceremoniously ending his modest career as a footballer; however, it was decade and a half later, in the summer of 1966, once he went into coaching that he began finding success.
With players such as Ratomir Dujković, Milovan Đorić, Kiril Dojčinovski, Stanislav Karasi, Jovan Aćimović, Vojin Lazarević, Petar Krivokuća, Stevan Ostojić, and Branko Klenkovski, the 1967—1970 period marked the very first time Red Star managed to win three league titles consecutively, as well as two league-cup doubles.
In the first match, Red Star, roared on by a vociferous Belgrade crowd, beat the Greeks 4–1 in front of 100,000 spectators and looked to be in an unassailable position,[6] until they went down 3–0 in Athens and thus lost out on away goals and missed again the final.
During the eight years of Miljanić's leadership, seven times it was the top-scoring club in Yugoslavia (in 1972 Velež scored one goal more), and in the last two seasons Red Star won the league title first by 12, and then by 18 points advantage over its closest rivals in the table.
It was an introduction into the era of Branko Stanković, whose reign as head coach was to last four years and bring Red Star three trophies and the first great European final.
This game was played at the Rheinstadion in Düsseldorf, where Italian referee gave a questionable penalty to the Germans, and the Danish player Allan Simonsen sealed Red Star's fate.
Especially after Petrović and Savić had left during 1982/83 season, Šestić became a leader of the new generation, the players like Ivković, Elsner, Boško and Milko Đurovski, Musemić, Milovanović, Janjanin and Mrkela.
The end of the era of Gojko Zec coincided with the greatest scandal in the history of Yugoslav football, a Scheiber’s case, that made the country have two champions in two seasons.
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 1986, first step in the new direction was taken by fetching Borislav Cvetković, Milivoj Bračun and Slobodan Marović, as well as by bringing along one of the greatest Yugoslav football player ever - Dragan Stojković "Piksi" from Radnički Niš.
Milan was then the absolute power in football and the biggest challenge for the club, but at San Siro, Red Star shocked the Milanesi by a goal from Stojković and managed a well-deserved 1–1 draw.
[16] Even though the coaches switched each year, Red Star managed to maintain a game-style based on quick strikers and top quality midfielders and was almost excluded in its first attempt.
Šekularac's team was severely defeated and eliminated during the third round of the UEFA Cup against Littbarski's 1.FC Köln, thus learning a key lesson in competitive soccer - the hard way.
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 Olympique.
However, Prosinečki left the team right after winning the European Champion title (sold for €15 million to Real Madrid, one of the most expensive transfers at this time),[32] just as Stojanović, Marović, Šabanadžović and Binić did.
During the 1991 Intercontinental Cup final, Jugović, the youngest regular of the club, scores two goals at National Stadium and a brilliant play over the entire field brought him later the Toyota prize, which was intended for the best player of match.
In domestic competition, rival, Dinamo, 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, because, in April, the war broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The 14th cup arrived to the glass closet in 1995, and it was brought by another generation of great players, such as Dejan and Jovan Stanković, Kovačević, Ognjenović, Đorović, Stefanović, Sakić, Živković, Krupniković, Petković, Milojević and Stojkovski.
As the nineties were approaching their end, the 1998/99 championship was not finalized due to the Kosovo War, and Red Star finished at the third place, which was the club's only placement below the second position in the league in the previous 20 years.
[37] Red Star went on to finish the season in first place with a record of 33-6-1 (wins-ties-losses), with Goran Bunjevčević as captain and Mihajlo Pjanović as the team's top scorer as well as the second highest goalscorer in the league.
Many players contributed to these successes, some of them are Vidić, Ačimovič, Bunjevčević, Žigić, Bošković, Vitakić, Drulić, Kocić, Marković, Pjanović, Dišljenković, Dudić, Kovačević, Krivokapić, Perović, Mladenović and Milovanović.
Boško Gjurovski was picked as Bajević's replacement, but after Red Star lost against Levadia in a second qualifying round match on 8 August 2007, the club administration pressured him to leave after only five months.
On 30 October 2009, Serbia's state prosecutor Slobodan Radovanović pressed charges against Lukić for wearing a sweater with the lyrics of a song about hooliganism, and recommended that he no longer act as Red Star's president.
FC Köln, and BATE Borisov, Red Star finished second behind Arsenal, making the knockout stage of any UEFA competition for the first time after 25 years.
On 5 May 2019, Red Star beat Mladost Lučani 1–0, winning the league for the second consecutive season under coach Milojević and for the 29th time in club history.
[71] A few days later, the assembly of the Football Association of Serbia formally recognized Red Star's title of the 1946 federal Serbian league, which did not include teams from Vojvodina and was essentially a second tier behind Yugoslavia's premier championship at the time.
