Former men's national association football team representing Yugoslavia
This article is about the 1920–92 team representing the SFR Yugoslavia and its predecessor states. For the team representing the union of Serbia and Montenegro after the breakup of Yugoslavia, seeFederal Republic of Yugoslavia national football team.
Although the team mainly represented the pre-warKingdom of Yugoslavia and the post-warSFR Yugoslavia, various iterations of the state were formally constituted in football, including the:
In 1929, the country was renamed to Yugoslavia and the football association becameFudbalski savez Jugoslavije and ordered to move its headquarters from Zagreb toBelgrade. The national team participated at the1930 FIFA World Cup, finishing in fourth place. In its first ever World Cup match inMontevideo'sParque Central, Yugoslavia managed a famous 2–1 win versus mighty Brazil, with the following starting eleven representing the country:Milovan Jakšić,Branislav Sekulić,Aleksandar Tirnanić,Milutin Ivković,Ivica Bek,Momčilo Đokić,Blagoje Marjanović,Milorad Arsenijević,Đorđe Vujadinović,Dragoslav Mihajlović, andLjubiša Stefanović. The team was the youngest squad at the inaugural World Cup at an average age of just under 22 years old, and became quite popular among the Uruguayan public, who dubbed them "Los Ichachos". The national team consisted of players based in Serbian football clubs, while the Zagreb Subassociation forbid players from Croatian clubs, some of whom were regulars in the national team until then, to play in the World Cup due to the relocation of football association's headquarters from Zagreb to Belgrade.[6]
The federation and football overall was disrupted byWorld War II. After the war, a socialist federation was formed and the football federation reconstituted. It was one of the founding members of theUEFA in 1954.
Yugoslavia began theirfootball campaign by defeatingLuxembourg 6–1, with five different players scoring the goals. In the quarter-finals and the semi-finals, they would take outTurkey and Great Britain by the same score of 3–1. In the final though, they would lose toSweden.
Having a team with many players from the 1948 generation, Yugoslavia was a formidable side at the1952 Summer Olympics and finished as runners-up behind the famous "Golden Team" representingHungary. Against the USSR, Yugoslavia was 5–1 up with 15 minutes of their first round match to go. The Yugoslavs, understandably, put their feet up.Arthur Ellis, the match referee, recorded what happened next in his book,The Final Whistle (London, 1963): "The USSR forced the most honourable draw ever recorded! [Vsevolod]Bobrov, their captain, scored a magnificent hat-trick. After the USSR had reduced the lead to 5–2, he, almost single-handed, took the score to 5–5, scoring his third in the last minute. For once, use of the word sensational was justified." Although Bobrov's early goal in their replay presaged a miraculous recovery, Yugoslavia recovered sufficiently to put out their opponents easily in the second half.
In 1976, Yugoslavia organized theEuropean Championship played in Belgrade and Zagreb. The national team participated in eightWorld Cups and fourEuros, won the Olympic football tournament in 1960 at theSummer Games (they also finished second three times and third once), and developed a reputation for skillful and attacking football, leading them to be dubbed "the Brazilians of Europe".[7]
Dragan Džajić holds the record for the most national team caps at 85, between 1964 and 1979. The best scorer isStjepan Bobek with 38 goals, between 1946 and 1956.
With the end of the Cold War, democratic principles were introduced to the country which brought about the end of Titoist rule. In the subsequent atmosphere, national tensions were heightened. At theYugoslavia-Netherlands friendly in preparation for the 1990 World Cup, the Croatian crowd in Zagreb jeered the Yugoslav team and anthem and waved Dutch flags (owing to its resemblance to the Croatian tricolour). With thedissolution of Yugoslavia, the team split up and the remaining team of theFederal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) was banned from competing atEuro 92. The decision was made on 31 May 1992, just 10 days before the competition commenced.[8] They had finished top of their qualifying group, but were unable to play in the competition due toUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 757. Their place was taken byDenmark, who went on to win the competition.[9][10]
In 1992, Yugoslavia had also been drawn as the second seed inGroup 5 of the European Zone in the qualifying tournament for the1994 World Cup. FRY was barred from competing, rendering the group unusually weak.[13][14]
In 1994, when the boycott was lifted, the union of Serbia and Montenegro competed under the name "Yugoslavia", as theFederal Republic of Yugoslavia national football team. The Serbia and Montenegro national team continued under Yugoslavia's naming until 2003 when the country and team were renamedSerbia and Montenegro.
^Serbian:Фудбалска репрезентација Југославије,Fudbalska reprezentacija Jugoslavije;Croatian:Jugoslavenska nogometna reprezentacija;Slovene:Jugoslovanska nogometna reprezentanca;Macedonian:Фудбалска репрезентација на Југославија,romanized: Fudbalska reprezentacija na Jugoslavija
^1930 World Cup didn't feature a match for the third place. Retroactively, FIFA established rankings based on overall tournament record, placing Yugoslavia at the fourth place
^Yugoslavia earned 4th place below the loser of the other semi-final, the United States, because of a lower goal difference (0 to the United States' +1). No third place match was played.
^"Jugoslavija – Venecuela 10–0".Reprezentacija.rs (in Serbo-Croatian). 14 October 2009.Archived from the original on 26 February 2019. Retrieved25 February 2019.
For teams that have undergone name changes but no border alterations seehere For teams that have undergone border changes but no name alterations seehere
