Yugoslavia and Serbia-Montenegro period[edit]

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 4 March. Previously, as of December 1944, all pre-war
Serbian clubs were abolished, and on 5 May 1945, communist Secretary of Sports Mitra Mitrović-
Djilas signed the decree dissolving formally all pre-war clubs on the territory of Socialist Republic of
Serbia. The clubs were dissolved because during the German occupation, there was an attempt to
organize the league so all the clubs were labelled collaborators by Josip Broz
Tito's communist regime.
The name Red Star was assigned after a long discussion. Other ideas shortlisted by the delegates
included "People's Star", "Blue Star", "Proleter", "Stalin", "Lenin", etc.[3] The initial vice presidents of
the Sport Society – Zoran Žujović and Slobodan Ćosić – were the ones who assigned it. [4] Red Star
was soon adopted as a symbol of Serbian nationalism within Yugoslavia and a sporting institution
which remains the country's most popular to this day. [5] 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. In the first fifteen years of existence,
Red Star won one Serbian championship, six Yugoslav championships, five Yugoslav Cups,
one Danube Cup and reached the semi-finals of the 1956–57 European Cup. Some of the greatest
players during this period were Kosta Tomašević, Branko Stanković, Rajko Mitić, Vladimir
Beara, Bora Kostić, Vladica Popović, Vladimir Durković and Dragoslav Šekularac. 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. Manchester
United, managed by Matt Busby defeated Red Star 2–1 in the first leg in England before drawing 3–
3 with them in Yugoslavia in the return match on 5 February at JNA Stadium.[6] The second leg is
notable for being the last match played by the Busby Babes: on the return flight to England the
following day, the plane crashed in Munich, resulting in the deaths of 23 people, including eight
Manchester United players.

Stojanović

Jurišić

Miletović

Jovanović

Jovin

Milovanović

Muslin
 Petrović (C)

Blagojević

Savić

Milosavljević
Red Star's starting lineup against Borussia in Düsseldorf, 1979 UEFA Cup Final. (coach: Branko Stanković).

During the Miljan Miljanić era, Red Star won four Yugoslav championships, three Yugoslav cups, two
Yugoslav supercups, one Yugoslav league cup, one Mitropa Cup and reached the semi-finals of
the 1970–71 European Cup. A new generation of players emerged under Miljanić's guidance, led
by Dragan Džajić and Jovan Aćimović. Red Star eliminated Liverpool in the second round of
the 1973–74 European Cup and Real Madrid in the quarter-finals of the 1974–75 European Cup
Winners' Cup. Branko Stanković, whose reign as head coach was to last four years, brought Red
Star three trophies and the first great European final. After eliminating teams like Arsenal, West
Bromwich Albion and Hertha BSC, Red Star made for the first time the UEFA Cup final. There, Red
Star met Borussia Mönchengladbach, who played five European finals from 1973 to 1980. The
Germans fell behind one goal from Miloš Šestić, but Ivan 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 Alberto Michelotti 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.[7]
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 Diego Maradona scored his second goal in front of
approximately 100,000 spectators at the Marakana, the Belgrade audience were so excited about
the goal that even the loyal Belgrade fans applauded Maradona. [8] 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 club's triumph from his previous mandate by winning
the championship immediately upon his arrival. Zec would later leave the club in a
controversial Šajber's case-style scandal which was the result of irregularities in the 1985–86
season.

Stojanović (C)

Najdoski

Belodedici

Šabanadžović

Marović

Jugović
 Mihajlović

Binić

Savićević

Prosinečki

Pančev
Red Star's starting lineup against Marseille in 1991 European Cup Final. (coach: Ljupko Petrović).

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 the
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, played in Bari, Italy.
Red Star coach Ljupko Petrović brought the team to Italy a week before the final 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 Raymond Goethals opted for defence and the match settled down into a war of attrition. After a
120-minute match and only few chances on both sides, the match was decided following the penalty
shootout. After several minutes of stressful penalties, one of Marseille's players, Manuel Amoros,
missed a penalty, and Darko Pančev converted his penalty to bring 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. Twenty-thousand Red Star fans at the Stadio
San Nicola and millions of them all over Yugoslavia and the world celebrated the greatest joy in Red
Star's history.[9] Red Star went unbeaten at the 1990–91 European Cup in Bari and the 1991
Intercontinental Cup in Tokyo.
In 1992, the club was weakened by the departure of numerous players from the champions
generation (new players were added, such as Dejan Petković and Anto Drobnjak). The success in
the previous season caught the attention of European giants which rushed making lucrative offers to
sign Red Star's best players. In addition, Red Star had to defend the continental trophy playing its
home games in Szeged, Budapest and Sofia due to the war in former Yugoslavia, thereby reducing
their chances of defending their title. UEFA changed the format of the competition that year and
the 1991–92 European Cup was the first to be played in a format with two groups each having four
teams. Despite the disadvantage of playing its home games abroad, Red Star still did well and
finished second in the group behind Sampdoria. In domestic competition, main rivals Hajduk
Split and Dinamo Zagreb left the league, just as all the other clubs
from Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia did, and the championship in 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 United Nations had the country under sanctions and dislodged Yugoslav football
from the international scene. The Breakup of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav Wars, 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 the 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 Barcelona side which featured Ronaldo and Hristo Stoichkov.