They arethe most successful club from theBalkans andSoutheast Europe, being the only club to have won both theEuropean Cup andIntercontinental Cup, having done so in 1991, and only the second team fromEastern Europe to win the European Cup. With 36 national championships, 29 national cups, 2 national supercups, 2 national champions leagues and one league cup between Serbian and Yugoslav competitions, Red Star was the most successful club in Yugoslavia and finished first in theYugoslav First League all-time table, and is the most successful club in Serbia.
According to 2008 polls, Red Star Belgrade is the most popular football club in Serbia, with 48% of the population supporting them.[2] They have many supporters in other former Yugoslav republics and among theSerbian diaspora. Their main rivals are fellow Belgrade sidePartizan. The championship matches between these two clubs are known as theEternal derby.
In February 1945, duringWorld 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 SportsMitra Mitrović-Djilas signed the decree dissolving formally all pre-war clubs on the territory ofSocialist Republic of Serbia. The clubs were dissolved because during theGerman occupation, there was an attempt to organize the league so all the clubs were labelledcollaborators byJosip Broz Tito'scommunist 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 ofSerbian 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.
After the 1970s, historical matches againstUdo Lattek'sBarcelona followed during the1982–83 European Cup Winners' Cup. In both matches, Barcelona were the better team and Red Star was eliminated. Remarkably, when Barça'sDiego Maradona scored his second goal in front of approximately 100,000 spectators at theMarakana, 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 in1977,Miloš Šestić. Zec similarly repeated the club's triumph from his previous mandate by winning thechampionship immediately upon his arrival. Zec would later leave the club in a controversialŠajber's case-style scandal which was the result of irregularities in the1985–86 season.
After Zec left in 1986, there were great changes in the club. The management of the club, run byDragan Džajić andVladimir 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 whomDragan Stojković andBorislav Cvetković stood out. In the first season that started with penalty points, Red Star focused on the European Cup and achieving good results. In 1986, a five-year plan was developed by the club and Prof. Dr Veljko Aleksić with the only goal being to win the European Cup.[9] All that was planned was finally achieved. On the club's birthday in1987, 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 the1991 European Cup Final, played inBari, Italy.
Red Star coachLjupko Petrović brought the team to Italy a week before the final in order to peacefully prepare the players for a forthcoming encounter withMarseille. 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 andRaymond 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, andDarko 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 theStadio San Nicola and millions of them all over Yugoslavia and the world celebrated the greatest joy in Red Star's history.[10] Red Star went unbeaten at the1990–91 European Cup in Bari and the1991 Intercontinental Cup inTokyo.
In 1992, the club was weakened by the departure of numerous players from the champions generation (new players were added, such asDejan Petković andAnto 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 inSzeged,Budapest andSofia 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 the1991–92 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 behindSampdoria. In domestic competition, main rivalsHajduk Split andDinamo Zagreb left the league, just as all the other clubs fromCroatia,Macedonia andSlovenia did, and the championship in Yugoslavia that was cut in size was played on the edge of observance of regulations around the beginning of theBosnian War. At the end of May, theUnited Nations had the country undersanctions and dislodged Yugoslav football from the international scene. TheBreakup of Yugoslavia, theYugoslav Wars, the inflation and the UN sanctions have hit Red Star hard. In the period between May 1992 and May 2000, only onechampionship victory was celebrated at the Marakana. However, they did manage to win fivecups, along with several glorious European performances, including the famed1996 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup showdown against Barcelona side which featuredRonaldo andHristo Stoichkov.
Dejan Stanković was the youngest captain ever in Red Star's history.
Immediately after theNATO bombing of Yugoslavia ended, Red Star won the17th cup in its history by winning 4–2 againstPartizan. Two seasons later, the club returned to the European spotlight by making it to the2001–02 UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds, where Red Star was eliminated byBayer Leverkusen (0–0 and 0–3), which would later be a finalist in the Champions League that year.Slavoljub Muslin left the bench in September 2001, after which Red Star's subsequent seasons became more volatile.
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 the2014–15 UEFA Champions League for which they qualified by winning the Serbian SuperLiga. The UEFA Club Financial Control Body found 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.[11] Rivals Partizan took Red Star's place in the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round.
After ten years of waiting, Red Star qualified for the2017–18 UEFA Europa League group stage. Red Star progressed through fourqualifying rounds and reached theknockout phase of the tournament, becoming the first team in competition's history to reach the knockout phase after starting their season in the first qualifying round.[12] Although Red Star played in the group stage of the first edition in which groups format was introduced in the European Cup,1991–92 European Cup, the designation "Champions League" was only adopted a season later in which Yugoslav clubs were already banned from participating in. Thus, when Red Star eliminatedRed Bull Salzburg in the2018–19 UEFA Champions League play-off round, and qualified for theUEFA Champions League group stage, it meant that Red Star competed for the first time since the new format was introduced.[13] Red Star became the first Serbian team to win a match in the UEFA Champions League when they defeated Liverpool.[14]
On 14 May 2019, the 1946 People's Republic of Serbia League title was officially recognized by the Serbian FA, meaning that Red Star's triumph in the2018–19 Serbian SuperLiga was their 30th national championship. Red Star reached theUEFA Champions League group stage for the second successive season after eliminatingSūduva,HJK Helsinki,Copenhagen andYoung Boys. On 5 November 2019, cable television channel Zvezda TV started airing.
In the2020–21 Serbian SuperLiga, Red Star set a world record for the number of points gained in a single season with 108 points.[15] Red Star won their eighth Serbian SuperLiga title in a row and completed their fifth consecutivedouble in the 2024–25 season.
Red Star adopted the iconic red and white vertical stripe jersey in 1950.
Red Star initially wore yellow shirts with a red star which were acquired fromFK Slavija (fromČubura). In 1946, the club switched to red shirts with white shorts and alternating red-white socks before adopting the signature red and white vertical striped shirts, with alternating white or red shorts and socks in 1950.[16][17][18][19] The red and white stripes have become indivisible to Red Star's image, conferring the popular nicknameCrveno-beli, "the red and white's" inSerbian. The club continued to wear the initial pre-stripe kit throughout its existence, but has generally declined in usage. During the 1950s and 1960s, the club also alternated between blue trunks, a long white V-neck on a red shirt, and a red shirt with thin white horizontal lines.[20][21][22]
Red Star have usually worn an all-white away kit, whilst also utilizing predominantly blue or red away or third kits, thereby incorporating theSerbian tricolour.[23][24][25] The club crest is a red five-pointed star, white framed, on a red-white background. In addition, the whole crest is framed in gold. There are three golden stars on the top of the club emblem, symbolizing the 30 titles won.[26]
Despite the club's overtlyCommunist name and imagery, Red Star Football Club has become a symbol in its own right. The "petokraka" from which the club's name derives has paradoxically become a symbol of the club itself, moving further away from its original association with thePartisans and theCommunist Party of Yugoslavia. Due to Red Star's popularity and sporting success, the club and its crest have become synonymous with broaderSerbian identity, and patriotism that echoes beyond the sporting landscape.[27][28][29]
Red Star's home ground is the Rajko Mitić Stadium (since 21 December 2014), formerly known as Red Star Stadium. With a seated capacity of 51,755 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 famousMaracanã Stadium inRio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Belgrade's sold-out Marakana garnered the reputation of being a very tough ground for visiting teams to play in. Some of the biggest football events have been held at this stadium, such as the European Cup final betweenAjax andJuventus in1973,UEFA European Championship final betweenWest Germany andCzechoslovakia in1976, and the first leg of the UEFA Cup final between Red Star and Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1979. During the mid-1990s, in order to meetUEFA 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 LEDscoreboard. Today, the stadium has a central lodge, named5 Zvezdinih Zvezda (English: 5 Stars 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 otherVIP 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 aDelije shop. The playing field measures are 110 × 73 m, and is illuminated by 1,400luxfloodlights. According to the known GermanWeb portal "Stadionwelt", Belgrade's"Marakana" is in the top 50 football stadiums in Europe.[30] In 2012, AmericanBleacher Report ranked the Red Star Stadium, especially if it is sold out, as among the most intimidating stadiums in the world.[31]
Red Star is the most popular football club inSerbia.[32][33] The club has fans and sympathisers throughout the whole country, but also throughout the regional and globalSerbian diaspora, making the club a symbol of Serbdom. Fan groups are widespread throughout Serbia andformer Yugoslav republics, and the club has the highest social media following amongst former Yugoslav football teams.[34] Traditionally, Red Star has been represented as the people's club, whilst always attracting support from all social classes, their fan base is not associated with any specific social group. Red StarultrasDelije espousepatriotic,nationalist andright-wing sentiments.[35][36]
The organized supporters of Red Star are known as Delije, roughly translated in English as the "Heroes", "Braves", "Hardman" or "Studs". The term derives from the plural of the singular form "Delija", inSerbian. Delije support all branches of the Red Star multi-sport society. They are one of the most famous supporter groups in the world, renowned for their passion and fanaticism.[37][38]
Delije section at Rajko Mitić Stadium.
Hardcore supporters began to emerge during the 1980s, with official inauguration taking place in 1989. Previously, Red Star fans were scattered amongst several organized fan groups within the north terrace of theRajko Mitić Stadium, colloquially known as "Marakana". Their style of support is greatly influenced byItalian andEnglish football culture of the 1980s. It includes the use of widespread choreography, flares, flags, banners, and boisterous cheering.[39] The word Delije is displayed (inCyrillic) on the north terrace seats of Rajko Mitić Stadium as a sign of appreciation, and fidelity between the club and supporters. Subgroups of Delije exist outside of Belgrade, along with cities across Serbia and all other ex-Yugoslav republics. Despite Red Star's broad fan base, Delije have developed an infamous reputation forhooliganism amongst some segments of its ultras, especially duringBelgrade derbies.[40][41]
Due to historically warmSerbo-Hellenic relations, Red Star's Delije ultras have developed a strong kinship with Olympiacos ultrasGate 7. The "Orthodox Brothers" friendship is based on mutualEastern Orthodox faith, a strong cultural marker amongst theSerbs andGreeks.[42] Both clubs also share the same colours, and are from the national capitals. They are also the most decorated football teams in their respective countries. The brotherhood has evolved to includeSpartak Moscow ultrasFratria, owing to strongRussophilia and a sharedSlavic heritage.[43][44]
Red Star's fiercest and long-standing city rival isFK Partizan, football section of the other large and popular multi-sports club in Serbia. The rivalry started immediately after the creation of the two clubs in 1945. Since then, both clubs have been dominant in domestic football. The match is particularly noted for the passion of the Red Star's supporters, calledDelije, and Partizan's supporters, theGrobari (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". Both sets of supporters sing passionate songs against their rivals, and the stadiums are known to bounce with the simultaneous jumping of the fans. The duel is regarded as one of thegreatest football rivalries in the world and the matches between these rivals have been labeled as theEternal derby. Given its widespread touch on the entirety of a major city, it is dubbed one of, along with theOld Firm, theRome derby and theIstanbul derby, the most heated rivalries in European football.[45] The biggest attendance for a Red Star – Partizan match was about 108,000 spectators at the Rajko Mitić Stadium.
Red Star is the most successful club from Serbia (and former Yugoslavia) in all European competitions, and the only club fromEastern Europe that has won both theEuropean Cup and theIntercontinental Cup. On 27 October 2017,FIFA officially recognized all winners of the Intercontinental Cup asclub world champions, in equal status to theFIFA Club World Cup. The club competed in 62 European seasons, and the most notable results are:
They are the only Serbian (and ex-Yugoslav) club, and only the second team fromEastern Europe, to have won the European Cup, having done so in1991, which was also the 100th UEFA competition 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 Southeast Europe to have won theIntercontinental Cup, also in1991. The Romanian football playerMiodrag Belodedici was the first ever Red Star player to have won the European Cup with two different teams,Steaua București and Red Star; curiously, both of the team's names mean "Star". Later, double winners were also Dejan Savićević (Red Star and Milan) and Vladimir Jugović (Red Star and Juventus).
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Since 2014, Red Star Belgrade have not issued thesquad number 26 in theSerbian SuperLiga. It wasretired in memory ofGoran Gogić, who died on 3 July 2015, aged 29.[57] Gogić had also been assigned with jersey 25 for the2014–15 season, which he had worn inJagodina previously.[58] Since then some of players, likeMarko Marinković andMilan Jevtović used to be registered for theUEFA competitions. Jevtović also made his debut for the club with 26 jersey in summer 2018, but later chose number 33 in the domestic competition.[59]
Red Star has almost a 50-year-long tradition of giving the title of theStar of [Red] Star orThe Star's 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:
Generation 1991 with 21 players was presented at the ceremony by president Svetozar Mijailović.[60]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
The general sponsor of Serbia's most popular football club has, since 2010, beenGazprom Neft, the majority shareholder in leading Serbian companyNaftna Industrija Srbije (NIS), and the most important foreign investor in the country. The club has won ten Serbian championship titles and six Serbian Cups in that time, as well as regularly competing in European championships. This cooperation, as well as supporting Gazprom Neft's brands, also involves collaborating in youth football together withFC Zenit Saint Petersburg, with the clubs exchanging youth players and holding friendly youth matches.
The club's name in Serbian is also the title of the 2013 Italian novelCrvena Zvezda by Enrico Varrecchione. Written in thealternate history genre, utilizing elements ofuchronia, its story is based on the premise of what if 9 November 1988 return leg of theEuropean Cup second round clash between Red Star andAC Milan hadn't been ordered abandoned by German refereeDieter Pauly in the 65th minute due to thick fog that night in Belgrade. Red Star were leading 1–0 after a goal byDejan Savićević and were also a man up due to Milan strikerPietro 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, eventuallywinning the European Cup — thus getting the coveted trophy again after twenty years, the club's first under its recently arrived owner, ambitious businessmanSilvio Berlusconi. In the novel's parallel universe, Red Star won 9 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 the1994 Italian general election.[61] 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 inPiedmont'sAlessandria province.[61]
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 forFulham but that did not fit the rhyme with played.[62]
A football club in Ecuador, in the city ofCuenca, created in 1961, is inspired in Red Star Belgrade. It is namedCDS Estrella Roja. Estrella Roja is the translation and the way Red Star is known in Spanish speaking countries. The club crest is even the same as the one Red Star had between 1995 and 2011.[66]
A junior football team called 'Lenadoon Red Star' played in WestBelfast,Northern Ireland, from 1972 to 1975 during the height ofThe Troubles. The team wrote to Red Star Belgrade in the early 1970s, asking if they could donate any kits to the young team, but Red Star Belgrade wrote back saying they couldn't afford to send over any kits.[67]
^House, Future Publishing Limited Quay; Ambury, The; Engl, Bath BA1 1UA All rights reserved; number 2008885, Wales company registration (1 March 2003)."Uncivil war: Why Partizan Belgrade vs Red Star is more than a game".FourFourTwo.Archived from the original on 22 April 2021. Retrieved14 September 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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