The Only Way Is Youth - Red Star Belgrade

Red Star Belgrade have a very interesting story. Former European Cup winners in 1991 as well as Intercontinental Cup winners in the same year, the Serbian side were easily one of the best in European Football. They dominated domestically too, having won the Yugoslav First League nineteen times in the space of 41 years (1951-1992). After Yugoslavia broke up, Belgrade's dominance was fading. What had happened to this great side? They were falling.. and fast! They still remained a big side in Serbia however, winning the Serbian / Montenegro league in '95, '00, '01, '04 and '06. The league disbanded and Serbia had it's own league for the 2007/08 season, which Belgrade won in the debut season, however they went on a 7 year drought and failed to win it up and til the 2013/14 season. Despite winning the league, they will not feature in the Champions League, due to the huge financial problems growing. Rivals Partizan will replace them.

Belgrade have been left was little money, so the only way is to use the very successful Youth Academy. The academy has helped bring up the likes of Luka Jovic, who may be a key part to the squad for the 2014/15 season. In the past this academy has brought up players like Dragan Džaji? who is officially Serbia's best ever player (as voted by UEFA) and Dragoslav Šekularac who was a key part to Yugoslavia as they finished runners up in the European Champions in 1960. Other successful players include Nemanja Vidi?, Dejan Stankovi? and Dušan Savi?.

Red Star's home ground is the "Rajko Miti?" Stadium (since 21st December 2014.), formerly known as Red Star stadium. With a maximum capacity of about 60 000, of which 55,538 seats, 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 famous Maracanã stadium in Brazil, and Belgrade's sold-out "Marakana" garnered the reputation of being a very tough ground for visiting teams to play in. During the mid-90s, in order to meet UEFA 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 LED scoreboard. Today, the stadium has a central lodge, named 5 Zvezdinih Zvezda (English: 5 Star's of Red Star), which consist of five segments, each bears the name of one of Red Star's legendary players (Miti?, Šekularac, Džaji?, Petrovi?, Stojkovi?), two other VIP lounges and a special VIP gallery with over 450 seats. It has also 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 a Delije shop. The playing field measures are 110 x 73 m, and is illuminated at 1,400 lux floodlights.

At the end of the World War II, several of pre-war Yugoslav clubs were dissolved because they had played matches during the war and were labelled collaborators by Marshal Tito's communist authorities. One of these clubs were SK Jugoslavija also from Belgrade. Red Star was formed from the remains of Jugoslavija and they were given their red and white colours. The typical kit of Red Star is a shirt with red and white vertical stripes, and red or white shorts and socks. Sometimes used the club also an all-red one next to the all-white one. Red Star used also as away kit or third kit, an all-blue jersey, but very rarely, so that the club used all the colours of the Serbian flag. The crest is a red five-pointed star, white framed, on a red-white background. In addition, the whole crest is framed with gold colour. In two golden stars on the top of their emblem, symbolizing the twenty titles won. For the 2014/15 season, the club decided to go for the iconic striped kit, with a dark red away and a grey, with red outline third kit.

Nice start, good luck!

Getting a son will be the hardest thing here, but with persistence I'm sure you'll get there.

Good luck, will be following!

I wish you bad luck :). I'm Partizan fan

Really looking forward to this mate, and I don't often say that! Also hope you can keep this going for a long time because I know this can be a great story. Good luck my friend, I'll be following closely. Now...I'm off to go try Red Star out myself

Looks interesting, dude! I'm definitely gonna keep up with this! Good luck!

A great start to what could be an interesting story for us all to follow. Good luck.

The Red Star way, attacking, exciting Football. The way it's always been and the way it will stay! The tactic will be a 5-1-1-2-1, one CDM, one CM, a LAM and a RAM. We intend to be flexible while we play, to allow free movement around the pitch, as we have many young players with bundles of energy which can be used very effectively. Despite playing this way, we also expect to keep the ball and get as much possession as possible, as if the other team have less of the ball, the less chance they have of scoring. Going back to the tactics, but the players roles, a key position and role in the formation is the CM role, which is set Advanced playmaker, but on support as it allows him to stay in that middle most of the time, but get back and forward when he needs to. The LAM and RAM are both Wingers, as they can supply crosses for the striker (most likely to be Djordje Despotovic) who will be waiting to slot or head the ball into the net. The three centre backs all are set to defensive, while the full-backs are on support, to allow the same purpose as the CM. Finally the CDM is also set to defensive to help aid the back line. The picture below shows a image of the tactic to be used!

Steady start but unbeaten which is the main thing! It was a fairly good game vs Napredakbut we just couldn't finish and in the end deserved only a point. Next up was a great away game v Mladost, in which we stepped up and thrashed them, goals from Katai, Lazovic and Kovacevic x2 after this we never played like we did, a 1-1 drew to Radnicki 1923 the goal coming from a sweet strike from Gavric but we lacked end product after the goal and a 0-0, disappointing drew to Cukaricki left us in 6th in the table.


Player of the month goes to Milan Bosansic, who has been a key part to the midfield this month. He has already become a key member to the squad, after setting many moves up and winning the ball cleanly in positions where the opposition could have easily scored. A huge well done to Milan and hopefully he can keep it up!


Credit to Tallery and Toddzy for help with the graphics

Loving the gfx, I wonder who did them Great update mate good results, keep hold of Jovic he is a key man . GL

Nice start to the season good luck

I will be giving this story a follow

Really really lovely start mate. The style is really good, and the layout is superb. My only suggestion is write some newspaper style articles on transfers and things, and maybe talk about the matches in a bit more detail. Other than that, the potential here is high (just like Luka Jovic )

Luka Jovic, tipped to be one of future stars of World Football has come out and said to press, "Red Star have the squad and depth to succeed." Despite making no additions and seeing no departures in the Summer, Red Star are predicted highly and have made a unbeaten start to the season, after seeing one win and three draws, putting them in 6th and Jovic believes that this unbeaten run will give the squad confidence ahead of next months Eternal Derby.

"I'm happy with the manager, he has come in and already has a strong bond with the players. He has a desire to win and to take this club forward and to try and regain the history of this club. Players my age need time to grow and to get Football and he has strongly believed in me, giving me game-time to show what I can do and to bring out the best in me. He has done this to everyone too, not just me."

After being asked to comment on what Jovic quoted, manager Nenad Lalatovic said, "It is my job, I am paid to bring what I have to the table and to manage the squad effectively. I am pleased to see players speaking highly of me, it makes me feel good and makes me think that the respect for me is there. It's fantastic to see how Luka is progressing too, he has shown how good he is and I'm excited to see what the future holds."

A much better month and I'm glad to say we recorded some good results and carry on the unbeaten run! First a 1-1 v Borac and to be honest, they deserved the win. We defended fairly well, however they had many good chances but they couldn't beat the keeper. It was a entertaining game and we finally saw the Despotovic we wanted to see, not only scoring but also making some greats passes and chances. Next was a game we dominated a 5-0 v Beograd and as the scoreline suggests, it was all us. Again Despotovic preformed but we also saw winger, Gavric scoring two and Bosansic was there to wrap the game up. We were very unlucky not to score more too, as over 30 shots were recorded, however I'm still happy with the result! Moving onto the Cup game v Mladost The top division side gave us a tough game and we couldn't create anything. They failed to as well, it was a very boring game, unlike the previous. It ended up going to a shoot-out (no extra time in Serbia) and I feared the worst after Luka Jovic missed, however they also missed and we eventually managed to win 4-3 on pens! But to cap off the month we beat bottom of the table, Novi Pazar and as expected it was a routine win and it was great to see Despotovic scoring again! Lazovic and a Stevanovic O.G. sealed the win. At the end of the month, we stand in 3rd, 4 points behind top, Jagodina. Next month will be tough and with the Eternal Derby featuring in it, it will certainly be a great month ahead!

No doubt about it, Player of the month goes to Djordje Despotovic he was in brilliant form and was scoring for fun, but also creating chances. Being the only man up top can be difficult, but not for him! He is a tireless runner and never stops, he works hard for the team too and well done to him and let's hope he keeps it up!