The Club...it's in your blood man

[SerbianEagle]

I was eight years old. Old country still existed, league was incredibly strong and the big four were all capable of big things. Ultimately, only one of the big four managed something big, but they did it with style and class...except in the final where the only thing that mattered was to win. "...we can go out there, play our game and probably lose, or we can go out there and win. It's up you guys, your brought us here, you decide..."

The rest is history, it was likely one of the more boring Champions League, or Champions Cup if you will, finals ever played, but when you get to that stage you don't want to lose. Who wants to lose a final? Nobody remembers teams that lose...unless you're a fan of the "other" team whose stadium is within walking distance and who've always been the second club in the city...Their fans tend to celebrate their loss against Real Madrid in 1966...they had a lead, they were champions of europe for a few minutes...according to them...

Anyway, I was eight and my dad was making damn sure I'd be red and white forever.

"I can't take you to the game against Bayern...it's too much money, but you'll see them practice."

That I did...An eight year old standing 10 feet away from Darko Pancev, Dejan Savicevic, Robert Prosinecki, Vladimir Jugovic, Sinisa Mihajlovic...

Funny thing though, my favorite was a player no longer on the team...Piksi Stojkovic and I was pissed I didn't see him. What could a kid possibly know about football transfers. My "other" favorite was Mitar Mrkela. He was also not there. I settled for a photo op with Miha. A few years later, as the country crumbled, that photo did too...it was lost along with the house and my only memory of meeting these great players was gone with..the fire, not the wind.

Stojanovic penalty save on Amoros was something I always tried to recreate as a kid, and from that day on, I was always in goal. Hell, even my hair style had to be like Stevan Stojanovic. Two decades later, I bought him a coffee at the stadium lounge bar. He had no idea who I was and I just told him "Thank you for the save". He knew, nodded, smiled and thanked me for the coffee. It's the least I could do truly. Being a goalkeeper is a thankless job. Most remember the goal he let in against Bayern and that goal defined his career later. No disrespect, but Antwerp was not the caliber of club where a European Champion transfers, but he did...The only thing I remember was the save on Amoros.

Prior to the end of that years domestic season, the club was in talks with Jokanovic, Suker and Boksic...that team would have been unstoppable, but fear not, men in suits took care of that. Why be together and big, when you can be separate and small? 

These old communist pieces of...cake made sure their immediate family members ended up with companies in their name. Who cares whether they were in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia...where ever the f***, as long as it wasn't Yugoslavia.

As went the country, so did the club. Dinamo and Hajduk were replaced by clubs that played in second divisions years prior and their stadiums resembled ruins, but we were now Serbian, or Croatia, or Macedonia. So long as we were not Yugoslavia. May they all rot in depths of hell if it exists.

Dinamo even lost their name for a while, renamed into HASK Gradjanski at first and then into Croatia Zagreb secondly before finally becoming Dinamo again after the old army general turned country president died. It was too Yugo like...

Back in Serbia, one club was being favoured over European and, at this time, World Club Champs. They now had a chance to make their Partizan into a force...because they could beat up on a 3rd division side by a score of 7-0

Transfer money that came as a result of Mihajlovic, Savicevic, Prosinecki, Jugovic etc...was confiscated by the government to help with "running the country"...Only it didn't. That very money was used to build "Zemunelo" and was a direct present to Partizan from Mirko Marjanovic and Slobodan Milosevic. The old communists would not let a rebel team, people's team, be the top team in the country. They were going to make their pet into the most powerful team in the newly created new Yugoslavia...

 

[SerbianEagle]

Before moving forward, this is how it looked at the end of 1990/91 season domestically. Yugoslavian League was at that time very unique, because if scores were level at 90 minutes, there was a penalty shootout to determine the winner. I never did understand it, but unsurprisingly, that rule was put in place because of the government's pet team who loved nothing more than fixing a match. Tradition they keep to this day.

 1.Crvena zvezda Beograd    36  25  6  5  88-35  54
 2.Dinamo Zagreb            36  20 10  6  72-36  46
 3.Partizan Beograd         36  18  8 10  62-36  41
 4.Borac Banja Luka         36  14 11 11  42-38  35
 5.Proleter Zrenjanin       36  17  4 15  50-49  35
 6.Hajduk Split             36  15  9 12  49-38  33
 7.Vojvodina Novi Sad       36  14  9 13  47-52  33
 8.Rad Beograd              36  14  7 15  42-34  32
 9.NK Osijek                36  14  6 16  52-57  32
10.Radnicki Nis             36  14  5 17  35-49  32
11.FK Sarajevo              36  13 10 13  37-48  31
12.Velez Mostar             36  12 10 14  54-55  30
13.FK Zemun                 36  12 10 14  40-53  30
14.Olimpija Ljubljana       36  14  3 19  41-59  30
15.NK Rijeka                36  13 10 13  33-25  29
16.Zeljeznicar Sarajevo     36  11 13 12  35-41  29
17.Buducnost Titograd       36  13  6 17  43-48  28
18.Sloboda Tuzla            36  11  7 18  36-56  23
19.Spartak Subotica         36   1 10 25  25-74   4

Pretty comfortable league win for Zvezda that year. My favorite memory, besides 29.05.1991, was the absolute dismantling of Partizan. 3-0 in 30 minutes and then toying with them the rest of the way. They were powerless. 

On the flip side, Hajduk was always a tough opponent and the only team from the old country who has a winning record against Zvezda. Speaking of Hajduk...

Final [May 8, at JNA Stadium, Beograd; att: 7,000]
Hajduk Split              1-0   Crvena zvezda     
  [Boksic 66]
  [Hajduk: Mihacic, Hadzibdic, Kovac (Osibov 70), Stimac, Setinov, Bilic,
           Kozniku (Jelicic 80), Mise, Boksic, Vucevic, Jami.
   Crvena zvezda: Stojanovic, Radinovic (Stosic 82), Marovic, Jugovic,
                  Belodedici, Najdoski, Prosinecki, Mihajlovic, Pancev,
                  Savicevic, Binic.
   Ref: Adem Fazlagic (Capljina)]

Like I said, always a tough opponent and they left with bragging rights secured in their pockets. 

As a kid, I was upset but dad said "..we'll get them next year...". Little did he know, or maybe he did. Interestingly, Hajduk was a team he secretly liked. Zvezda he loved, Hajduk he liked especially because they had a habit of beating Dinamo and Partizan.

 

Cherry on top of our proverbial cake

Final, Stadio San Nicola, Bari, 29 May 1991, att 56000

Red Star (Belgrade)      (0) 0  Olympique Marseille      (0) 0
after extra time, Red Star won 5-3 on penalties

Red Star (Belgrade) (coach Petrovic)
    Stojanovic; Belodedici, Najdoski, Sabanadzovic, Jugovic, Marovic,
    Mihaijlovic; Binic, Savicevic (Stosic 84), Prosinecki; Pancev
Olympique Marseille (trainer Goethals)
    Olmeta; Amoros, Boli, Mozer, Di Meco (Stojkovic 112); Fournier (Vercruysse 75),
    Germain, Casoni, Pele; Papin, Waddle
Referee: Lanese (Italy)

Penalty shoot-out
    Red Star: Prosinecki, Binic, Belodedici, Mihajlovic and Pancev scored
    Marseille: Amoros (shot saved), Casoni, Papin and Mozer scored

Following this season, everything would be so so different, but one step at a time...

[mark wilson27]

Cracking start to your story,looking forward to more from you

[SerbianEagle]

1991/92 season started with home games being anything but...a team with no home is like a bird without wings; you can't fly...you can try but eventually you hit the ground...hard.

Still, on the pitch, and pitch was the only place where you could still find some level of normalcy, even though it was a highly irregular normal, Zvezda had a good team. I was totally bummed about some big names leaving and others not coming in as was expected, namely Boksic, Suker...etc.  

I do remember that September evening in 1991 and the weird feeling watching them play a "home" game in Szeged, Hungary. Szeged was chosen for a couple of reasons. One, it was close and two, there was already a large Serbian community in the city. Actually, not only Serbian, as Zvezda then had a following that went beyond borders.

Crvena zvezda - Portdadown 4:0 (Tanjga, Stosic, Mihajlovic(2))

The game counted, but man, the difference in class was obvious. First round, first leg was just a formality and the second leg was another 4-0 scoreline with Pancev getting on the score sheet. Yes, Pancev was still here. He had a few more goals to score in the red and white jersey.

Second round saw Zvezda drawn against Cypriot champions Apollon from Limassol. How did that turn out? Well, good 'ol Szeged was starting to feel homey 

Crvena zvezda - Apollon 3:1 (Pancev, Lukic, Savicevic)

Apollon was a tough nut to crack for a while there. Game was mostly played in their half, but they defended with numbers and managed to sneak one in on the counter- attack. Quality of Zvezda players shone through in the end with two unanswered second half goals to seal the deal. A pleasant November evening met the teams for the return leg that ended up being a formality with a fairly easy 2-0 win for Zvezda. Things were about to get real however...

We got ourselves quite a tough group that featured Sampdoria, Anderlecht and Panathinaikos. Remeber though, this is 1991 - I promise you, these were tough teams to beat.

This was the first iteration of the Champions League - despite what fans of a different Belgrade team might suggest. See, they still think that having a lead in a final counts as being winners...for a few minutes. Let's leave them to their dreams. We'll return to reality.

To advance from this group, we'd need a full Marakana, and that we simply did not have. Why? Oh, the politicians wanted their five min...err years of fame. They got it, and more. 

Match day 1: 

Sampdoria - Crvena zvezda 2:0 

Fancy a trip to Italy to face a side that has the likes of Pagliuca, Vialli, Vierchovod, Lombardo, Lanna, Mancini...Yep, Zvezda didn't either. First European loss in over a year.

Match day 2: 

Crvena zvezda - Anderlecht 3:2 (Ratkovic, Ivic, Pancev)

It was good bye Szeged and hello Budapest, as this game was played in the capital of Hungary. Helluva game. I remember it, somehow I watched it with my gramps. Oh I didn't mention? He attended the first ever Zvezda game in history (under the name of Crvena zvezda, but that's a side story for another day, just ask Dinamo Zagreb). Anderlecht had Luc Nilis, Nii Lamptey, Oliveira, Bosman, Boffin...a tough tough team

Match day 3: 

PAO - Crvena zvezda 0:2 (Pancev(2)) 

Olympic Stadium in Athens had over 60,000 fans in the stands, mostly pro Panathinaikos. Adding to the toughness of this match was the fact Greeks decided to make life difficult for Pancev, with him being from Macedonia, and well Greece also having a Macedonia. Darko decided to reply on the football pitch and that he did. A very solid away game and a 2-0 win to take home to Belg...um Buda...err Sofia...Yes, making the rounds aren't we

Match day 4: 

Crvena zvezda - PAO 1:0 (Mihajlovic) 

Balgarska Armiya stadion was the host, with 25,000 people showing up to watch the, still, Champions of Europe. One nil and away we go.

Match day 5: 

Crvena zvezda - Sampdoria 1:3 (Mihajlovic) 

Unlucky, tired and sick of what was happening back home, the champs bow out of Europe with a loss to Sampdoria. A game still left to play against Anderlecht, but we had to have this one and did not. It started well enough with a trademark Mihajlovic free kick from the next area code that beat Pagliuca, but that was all she wrote. The fat lady sang, call it what you wish, history books have it as a loss to eventual finalist.

Match day 6: 

Anderlecht - Crvena zvezda 3:2 (Pancev, Cula) 

Mostly empty stadium in Brussels with hardly 7000 people in the stands waved good-bye to Zvezda...and boy, if only they knew...

There is a game missing here, and it does not involve European competition...partizan fans may wanna skip the next post. Their team never played and thus, never had a lead...

[SerbianEagle]

December 8 1991 - The Day We Climb Mt.Ev...Fuji

What little was known about South American champions Colo-Colo of Chile was gathered through various journalists. Scouting trip to South America was expensive and not only that, a logistical nightmare. 

Still, a win and you get to call yourself World Club Champions. Who would say no to that? Cautious optimism best describes the atmosphere around the stadium those days, and leading up to the long trip to Japan. None of the players have ever gone before so the excitement was there. Play well and you could win yourself a car too...a brand new Toyota. Pretty cool. Title sponsor was going all out. After all, this was the Toyota Cup....

Zvezda went into this game with a squad of fifteen players.

GK: Milojevic, Lekovic

DF: Belodedic, Najdoski, Radinovic, Vasilijevic, Nedeljkovic, Tanjga

MF: Stosic, Jugovic, Ratkovic, Savicevic,Mihajlovic

CF: Pancev, Ivic

Before the game, Vladica Popovic, the coach, was debating who to start in goal, more experienced but never quite reached his potential Lekovic, or the young Milojevic, who three short years ago was thrown into the fire against FC Koln and didn't quite fare that great.

Did he make the right choice?

FK Crvena zvezda - Colo Colo 3:0 (Jugovic (2), Pancev)

When Jugovic scored in the 19th minute of the game many of the concerns seem to have disappeared but when is anything in life as easy as it could be? Let me help you....never

One of the most experienced of the bunch, Savicevic, go himself sent of just before half-time and suddenly everything was up in the air.

Could the great dribbler cost his team this most important of all games?

Young Vladimir Jugovic took things into his hands, or feet as the case may be and the rest became history. He scored one in the 52nd minute of the game and then assisted to Darko Pancev in minute 77 to wrap up the game and deliver Zvezda fans their second international trophy in six months.

If the political situation in the country, or the former country was not as bad as it was, there would still be so much to look forward to. End of this great generation could be felt in the crisp December air...

[SerbianEagle]

Domestically, the 1991/92 season turned out to be all sorts of strange. From defaulted games, to government taking money from the club to "help run the country", but really using that money to buy players for the other Belgrade team and to build them a youth academy.

Mirko Marjanovic was a powerful man. His ego was hurt on more than one occasion when top players chose Zvezda over his pet project, Partizan. With complete chaos in the country now, he saw his chance to turn the tables. As an aside, both Savicevic and Pancev, when they chose Zvezda over Partizan, were immediately served with a notice to serve their one year in the army. Players who chose Partizan never had to deal with that problem. This is how powerful politically Partizan was throughout the years, but because the country itself was still strong, the play on pitch, mostly, dictated the end result.

There is still the title from 1986 that Zvezda won fair and square however Partizan is counting as their own...but that's a story for another time.

Instead of likes of Suker and Boksic, we ended up getting Ilija Ivic, Miroslav Tanjga, Miroslav Ratkovic...good players but clearly not the same level.

Partizan meanwhile got to keep Predrag Mijatovic and that made even the 1991/92 season very close.

                            Pd  Wi D+ D-  L  GF GA Pts 
 1.Crvena zvezda Beograd    33  23  4  1  5  77-24  50
 2.Partizan Beograd         33  21  4  6  2  59-18  46
 3.Vojvodina Novi Sad       33  19  4  1  9  45-31  42
 4.OFK Beograd              33  19  3  5  6  62-36  41
 5.Proleter Zrenjanin       33  16  3  1 13  41-43  35
 6.Vardar Skopje            33  15  4  2 12  50-34  34
 7.Rad Beograd              33  14  1  2 16  48-43  29
 8.Borac Banja Luka         33  11  6  4 12  24-32  28
 9.FK Sarajevo              32  12  3  3 14  33-45  27 [*]
10.FK Zemun                 33  12  2  5 14  44-43  26
11.Radnicki Nis             33  12  2  3 16  37-45  26
12.Buducnost Titograd       33  10  3  5 15  30-32  23
13.Sutjeska Niksic          33  11  1  5 16  40-47  23
14.Velez Mostar             32  10  3  2 17  34-53  23 [*]
15.Pelister Bitola          33   9  2  1 21  30-57  20
16.Spartak Subotica         33   7  3  6 17  24-49  17
17.Sloboda Tuzla            31   7  2  1 21  21-61  16 [*]
18.Zeljeznicar Sarajevo     17   6  3  0  8  18-24  15 [*]

With a lot of factors against the team, Zvezda still won the title, albeit it was close. Games against Partizan were ties, with Zvezda getting the penalty point in the first derby of the season while the second ended up 0-0. 

Politics and war were still involved in the outcome. Bosnian teams, except Borac Banja Luka abandoned the league with six rounds to go. Games against those teams were registered as 3-0 wins. As per usual, Partizan profited more than most as they had more games against those teams than, say Zvezda did.

Title in hand however and Champions League football next season, right?

...

[SerbianEagle]

Have you ever seen a club completely change their players in-between two seasons? This was the period between 1991/92 and 1992/93 season was like for Zvezda. Granted, much of that was due to war and inability to play any European games as all teams from the new incarnation of Yugoslavia were suspended. To survive, all remaining players from the all conquering team of the 1990-1992 period were now gone.

Quote

 

Dejan Savicevic was at AC Milan 

Sinisa Mihajlovic was at Roma

Darko Pancev was at Internazionale

Miodrag Belodedic was at Valencia

 

and on it went...

A head spinning 18 players were either sold or loaned to other clubs during this time. 

Some clubs tried to not even pay for players however after an official UEFA intervention, Roma paid for Mihajlovic in full.

 

Most notable transfers in, and all these were from domestic clubs were:

Quote

 

Dejan Petkovic from Radnicki Nis

Anto Drobnjak from Buducnost Podgorica

Predrag Djordjevic from Spartak Subotica

 

Heading into the season Milan Zivadinovic took charge as manager of the team. For all intents and purposes, a manager who knew his chance of winning anything this year was slim to none. Nonetheless, with all the challenges off the pitch, to even be playing any games at all was seen as a positive and as such the season got under way...and finished as expected.

Final table showed as follows:

 1.Partizan Beograd         36  31  3  2 103-20  65
 2.Crvena zvezda Beograd    36  19 13  4  70-25  51
 3.Vojvodina Novi Sad       36  19  8  9  72-47  46
 4.FK Zemun                 36  16  8 12  62-48  40
 5.Rad Beograd              36  13 13 10  47-35  39
 6.Napredak Krusevac        36  13 12 11  44-58  38
 7.Radnicki Nis             36  15  7 14  40-36  37
 8.Hajduk Kula              36  12 12 12  34-35  36
 9.Proleter Zrenjanin       36  15  6 15  43-45  36
10.Buducnost Titograd       36  14  8 14  44-48  36
---------------------------------------------------
11.OFK Beograd              36   9 17 10  38-54  35
12.FK Becej                 36  12  9 15  49-45  33
13.Mogren Budva             36  12  7 17  46-52  31
14.OFK Kikinda              36  11  9 16  39-58  31
15.Radnicki Novi Beograd    36  11  7 18  45-62  29
16.Sutjeska Niksic          36  11  7 18  46-67  29
17.Spartak Subotica         36   7 12 17  32-58  26
18.FK Pristina              36   7  9 20  32-64  23
19.Borac Banja Luka         36   6 11 19  35-64  23

Way behind Partizan, who managed to keep most of their core from last season. The way they won some of their games was questionable to say the least and flat out ridiculous in others. Still season was done and for the first time in four seasons Zvezda were not the champions.

Back then, the cup meant something and...

Cup Final:
Partizan 1-0 0-1 Crvena zvezda (Crvena zvezda 5-4 on pen)

Partizan was such a heavy favorite that Zvezda even started some younger players and only lost the first leg by a goal to nil. They got serious in the second leg and won it on penalties. After winning the Champions Cup, Intercontinental Cup as well as domestic titles over the last few years, this seemed minor, but with Partizan being such a heavy favorite backed by the leading government types, it was a great David vs. Goliath moment.

Simeunovic, the goalkeeper, saved a Mijatovic penalty and then scored the winning penalty. 

[EvilDave]

This is a superb opening, and I'm really looking forward to what you've got in store for us here. Anything with historical or Eastern European ties gets my vote, and this is very well written. Welcome to FMS, and keep up the excellent work!

[mortiis7]

where did u get your database? can u share it please?

[SerbianEagle]

1993/94 brought about a lot of changes, mainly with league structure and rules. Clubs had to deal a with a 1/A and 1/B top division which mean that after the first half of the season bottom four teams from 1/A division went down and top four teams from 1/B division went up to 1/A. Confused? Yeah, so is everyone else...

The idea is to make the games mean something and make everything more interesting. But how interesting can anything be when you have teams that have a pitch with no stands as their "stadium". How quickly things change...

For Zvezda, notable transfers in were:

Quote

 

Goran Djorovic from FK Pristina

Bratislav Zivkovic from FK Vojvodina

Marjan Zivkovic from FK Mogren Budva

 

Outgoing transfers included:

Quote

 

Predrag Djordjevic to Paniliakos in Greece

Ivica Momcilovic to AEL Limassol

Srdjan Pecelj to local lower league team Vozdovac

 

Milad Zivadinovic started the season as the manager.

Consensus was that Partizan would win the title and the only question on people's minds was by how many points. With the weird league rules, it would take some getting used to.

Zvezda once again saw the cup as the likeliest trophy to win...

Fall season ended with the team in 2nd place, behind, you guessed it, Partizan, although the difference was not quite as big as some predicted it....

 1.Partizan Beograd        18 11  6  1  37-18  28
 2.Crvena zvezda Beograd   18 10  5  5  38-16  25
 3.Vojvodina Novi Sad      18 10  4  4  34-18  24
 4.FK Zemun                18  8  2  8  16-20  18
 5.Proleter Zrenjanin      18  7  4  7  33-26  18
 6.Buducnost Podgorica     18  6  6  6  17-26  18
-------------------------------------------------
 7.Rad Beograd             18  7  3  8  16-19  17
 8.Radnicki Nis            18  6  3  9  20-31  15
 9.Hajduk Kula             18  3  4 11  17-28  10
10.Napredak Krusevac       18  2  3 13  16-42   7

Bottom 4 down to 1/B for spring season; they are replaced by
OFK Beograd, Spartak Subotica, Radnicki Novi Beograd and
FK Becej from 1/B fall season.

Zvezda were actually very much up to task and could have taken the title had the team not lost points against bottom half teams. 

Final table at seasons end looked like:

Cross-Table
                 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10
1.Partizan      xxx 1-0 2-1 3-0 4-0 2-0 1-0 7-0 7-0 5-0  18 13  3  2  44-10  42
2.Crvena zvezda 3-2 xxx 2-1 0-2 5-0 2-0 4-0 4-2 4-0 3-1  18 12  2  4  40-18  37
3.Vojvodina NS  1-0 1-1 xxx 3-2 1-1 5-0 4-0 0-0 2-0 4-2  18  8  5  5  29-19  31
4.OFK Beograd   1-1 1-4 2-1 xxx 1-1 1-1 3-0 3-0 1-0 1-0  18  7  3  8  21-26  24
5.Spartak Sub.  1-3 2-2 3-0 1-0 xxx 1-0 4-0 0-1 1-1 1-2  18  6  5  7  22-26  23
6.FK Zemun      1-1 0-2 1-2 2-0 2-1 xxx 4-2 2-0 0-0 4-1  18  6  3  9  19-25  23
7.Buducnost Pg. 1-2 2-0 1-1 3-2 3-2 1-0 xxx 1-1 5-1 1-0  18  7  2  9  21-33  23
8.Radnicki NB   1-2 1-2 0-0 1-0 0-0 3-1 3-0 xxx 2-0 0-4  18  5  5  8  15-28  19
9.Proleter Zr.  0-0 1-0 1-0 0-1 0-1 0-1 1-0 2-0 xxx 0-1  18  4  3 11   8-28  18
10.FK Becej     0-1 1-2 1-2 5-0 1-2 1-0 0-1 0-0 2-1 xxx  18  6  1 11  22-28  17

We were all hopeful of at least a cup win again to make the season at least half-tolerable. Well...

Cup semifinals:
Crvena zvezda    1-0 1-3 Partizan       (Partizan wins 3-2 on agg)
Spartak Subotica 2-1 1-1 Radnicki Nis   (Spartak 3-2 on agg)

Milan Simeunovic played the role of a hero in game one 1-0 win at Marakana, however all that was undone when he let in a 35 yard screamer from Dejan Curovic to make the score 3-1 and kiss away the chance to play Spartak and win another cup.

Miserable season was made worse when Partizan won the cup to make it a double...

Main players on the 1993/94 team:

Goalkeeper
		Zvonko Milojević	Serbia	Serbia	30/08/1971
		Milan Simeunović	Serbia	Serbia	14/05/1967
Defender
		Božidar Bandović	Serbia	Serbia	30/08/1969
		Miodrag Božović	Montenegro	Montenegro	22/06/1968
		Goran Đjorović	Serbia	Serbia	11/11/1971
		Aleksandar Kristić	Serbia	Serbia	05/10/1970
		Milan Lešnjak	Serbia	Serbia	09/09/1975
		Dejan Stefanović	Serbia	Serbia	28/10/1974
		Mitko Stojkovski	North Macedonia	North Macedonia	18/12/1972
		Risto Vidaković	Serbia	Serbia	05/01/1969
Midfielder
		Ivan Adžić	Serbia	Serbia	21/06/1973
		Dragan Glogovac	Bosnia-Herzegovina	Bosnia-Herzegovina	27/10/1967
		Nenad Maslovar	Serbia	Serbia	20/02/1967
		Dejan Petković	Serbia	Serbia	10/09/1972
		Jovan Stanković	Serbia	Serbia	04/03/1971
		Milos Svilar	Serbia	Serbia	06/07/1976
		Bratislav Živković	Serbia	Serbia	28/11/1970
Forward
		Saša Drakulić	Serbia	Serbia	28/08/1972
		Anto Drobnjak	Montenegro	Montenegro	21/09/1968
		Ilija Ivić	Serbia	Serbia	17/02/1971
		Darko Pivaljević	Serbia	Serbia	18/02/1975

 

[SerbianEagle]

1 hour ago, mortiis7 said:

where did u get your database? can u share it please?

This is all a buildup using historical info I either have written down or from other sources

[mortiis7]

oh i thought this is football manager story and that u are playing FM20

[SerbianEagle]

Legend Returns

Title win was deemed an absolute must as the preparations began for the new season in Yugoslavia. 1994/95 was going to be a huge test for everyone involved in the day to day running of the club. Belief was that Milan Zivadinovic was not good enough to lead the team back atop the Yugoslavian top division. Zvezda was still a big name club even if European competition was out of question due to the still ongoing war in the former country. Getting in a international name was not going to happen, so who do you look to?

Well, the guy that led Crvena zvezda to its highest achievements in history. After winning the Champions League in 1991 he left the team and went to manage Espanyol in Spain. Only staying for a year before making a very curious move to Penarol in Uruguay in 1992. 

His stay in Uruguay was not very long before moving to Greece and taking control of PAOK. Another curious move if one considers PAOK are huge rivals to Olympiacos and a friendly club to none other than Partizan. After a season and a half in Thesaloniki, he moved to Piraeus to manage Olympiacos. Trend of not staying long in one place continued before....

New coach for FK Crvena zvezda in the 1994/95 season would be Ljupko Petrovic..

Fans were ecstatic to see the club legend return and suddenly hopes of dethroning Partizan were starting to feel a little more real...

Team needed a shakeup and 1994/95 was a season with many, many transfer in and out.

The following players were brought in:

01/95	Montenegro	Žarko Dragaš	MF	FK Rudar Pljevlja FK Rudar Pljevlja
01/95	Bosnia	Srđan Pecelj	DF	FK Voždovac FK Voždovac
01/95	Serbia	Dražen Podunavac	DF	FH Hafnarfjörður FH Hafnarfjörður
01/95	Serbia	Zoran Riznić	MF	FK Rad Beograd FK Rad Beograd
01/95	Serbia	Pedrag Stanković	MF	FK Zemun FK Zemun
07/94	Serbia	Darko Kovačević	FW	Proleter Zrenjanin Proleter Zrenjanin
07/94	Serbia	Nebojša Krupniković	MF	Panionios GSS Panionios GSS
07/94	Serbia	Zoran Mašić	FW	OFK Beograd OFK Beograd
07/94	Serbia	Rade Mojović	GK	FK Obilić FK Obilić
07/94	Serbia	Marko Perović	MF	Vojvodina Vojvodina
07/94	Serbia	Branko Rašić	MF	Crvena Zvezda Crvena Zvezda [Youth]
07/94	Serbia	Nenad Sakić	DF	FK Napredak FK Napredak
07/94	Serbia	Aleksandar Šarić	GK	Crvena Zvezda Crvena Zvezda [Youth]
07/94	Serbia	Goran Stojiljković	FW	Radnički Niš Radnički Niš

 

Two players expected to lead the team offensively were Darko Kovacevic and Nebojsa Krupnikovic. Darko Kovacevic was actually thought to be a Partizan player. Last gasp effort to bring him to the red and white half of Topcider was successful however and he joined the team prior to the start of the season.

Another two players were also looked at as crucial to dethroning Partizan. Both coming from the academy

Dejan Stankovic and Perica Ognjenovic.

Two notable players left the team. Top goal scorer from previous season Anto Drobnjak went to SC Bastia in France and Risto Vidakovic, a full-back went to Real Betis in Spain. Rest of the team was kept in place. 

Fall season saw mixed results:

 1.Vojvodina Novi Sad      18 11  5  2 34-18 27
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 2.Crvena zvezda Beograd   18 10  5  3 36-12 25   2 4-3 3
 3.Partizan Beograd        18 10  5  3 42-15 25   2 3-4 1
 4.Rad Beograd             18  6  7  5 16-16 19
 5.FK Zemun                18  7  4  7 18-27 18   4 6-2 6
 6.OFK Beograd             18  6  6  6 18-23 18   4 3-5 3
-----------------------------------------------
 7.Radnicki Nis            18  7  4  7 23-21 18   4 2-4 3
 8.Napredak Krusevac       18  5  3 10 16-34 13
 9.Rudar Plevlja           18  2  6 10 12-28 10
10.Spartak Subotica        18  2  3 13 12-33  7

Tied with Partizan and two points back of Vojvodina, there was a lot to play for come spring...and play they did.

 1.Crvena zvezda Beograd   18 14  3  1 63-17 42  (11)   Champions
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 2.Partizan Beograd        18 13  2  3 43-17 38  (10)
 3.Vojvodina Novi Sad      18 10  4  4 37-26 37  (13)
 4.FK Becej                18  7  4  7 17-27 26  ( 8)
 5.FK Zemun                18  6  5  7 24-25 24  ( 7)
 6.OFK Beograd             18  7  3  8 21-28 24  ( 7)
-----------------------------------------------
 7.Rad Beograd             18  4  6  8 22-38 22  ( 8)   Relegated
 8.Borac Cacak             18  3  6  9 15-28 19  ( 7)   Relegated
 9.Hajduk Kula             18  4  2 12 15-32 15  ( 5)   Relegated
10.Radnicki Novi Beograd   18  3  3 12 20-39 15  ( 6)   Relegated

Champions again four points clear of the biggest rivals Partizan.

Cup quarter-finals were a sight for sore eyes:

Quarter Finals
Crvena zvezda      2-0 3-3 Partizan Beograd  [5-3 agg]
FK Obilic          1-0 1-2 Borac Cacak       [2-2 agg, Obilic on away goals]
Rudar Plevlja      3-3 0-1 FK Becej          [3-4 agg]
Proleter Zrenjanin 3-0 3-1 Napredak Krusevac [6-1 agg]

To get Partizan that early, and to eliminate them before going on to win the cup was an amazing accomplishment for the team. After failing to win a trophy the year prior, league and cup double was secured.

Quote

Final: Crvena zvezda 4-0 0-0 FK Obilic [4-0 agg]

Keep an eye on Obilic.

A team led by a very Intelligent, but also crude and absolutely vicious person.... 

[tenthreeleader]

16 hours ago, SerbianEagle said:

A team led by a very Intelligent, but also crude and absolutely vicious person.... 

I don't know about anyone else, but this got my attention.

[mortiis7]

On 16/09/2020 at 22:51, tenthreeleader said:

I don't know about anyone else, but this got my attention.

yeah...vicious war criminal