Course 90-91. The European Cup celebrates 36 years of life. The advanced Yugoslav school, good physique, better technique and remarkable psychological preparation, resisted continental competitions. Partizan had lost the 1966 European Cup final to Real Madrid yeyé and Red Star had lost to Borussia de Moenchen gladbach in the 79th UEFA Cup final.
Founded in 1945, the Fudbalski club Crvena Zverda Beograd, the Red Star, began its journey in the tournament 12 years later (56-57). He reached the semifinals, where he was defeated by Fiorentina, who was the subsequent victim of Real Madrid in the final. This record has just been surpassed by Leipzig, who have been planted in the semifinals with 11 years of existence. In the following edition, his path was truncated in the quarterfinals by Manchester United. It was the last team to face the Busby Babes before the Munich plane crash, where the English expedition made a stop after having played in Belgrade (3-3).
In 1971 he returned to qualify for the semifinals. They fall to Panathinaikos, led by Puskas, for the double value of the goals. The Greeks would later lose the final at Wembley to Cruyff's Ajax. At the end of the 80s, with their legendary player, the far left Dragan Dzajic, as technical secretary, the Red Star began to form a great team. In 1987 Prosinecki and Sabanadzovic arrive; in 88, Pancev and Najdoski; in 89, Savicevic, Belodedici and Jugovic, and in 90 a young Mihajlovic. All of them, with the veteran Stojanovic in goal, form the basis of the team that, after winning the League and the Cup in their country in 1990, assaults the European Cup against all odds.
An unexpected champion who cannot be haggled over merits. He reached the 1991 final undefeated: five wins and three draws. Successively eliminated Grasshopper, Glasgow Rangers, Dinamo Dresden and Bayern Munich itself in the semifinals. The Yugoslavs won the first match at the Olympic Games (1-2) and survived at home with a final goal from Augenthaler's own goal (89 ′). In the final, Olympique de Marseille awaited him, a great favorite after having eliminated Milan de Sacchi, twice European champion, in the quarter-finals.
As the date of the Bari final approached, May 29, political tension grew in Yugoslavia and there was a pre-war atmosphere that was not exactly conducive to playing a football match of such significance. The template was a mosaic of the situation in the country. The eleven of that final consisted of a Kosovar Serb player (Stojanovic); three Montenegrins (Sabanadzovic, born in Bosnia Herzegovina, Marovic and Savicevic); two Macedonians (Najdoski and Pancev); a Croatian Serb (Mihajlovic); a Croat (Prosinecki); two Serbs (Jugovic and Binic) and a Romanian, the only non-Yugoslav (Belodedici), who had been European champion with Steaua in 1986. All led by a globetrotting Serb, Ljubovic Petrovic.
It was not a good final, but they gave a reply to a rival full of internationals: Papin, Ballon d'Or that year, Amorós, Bolí, the Brazilian Mozer, the Englishman Waddle, the Ghanaian Pelé. The match reached penalties after 0-0 and there the Red Star's success was complete (victory by 5-3). Prosinecki, Binic, Belodedici, Mihaljovic and Pancev scored. Amorós failed the first French. The Red Star became the eighteenth champion of the competition and Yugoslavia, which was about to disintegrate as such, the ninth country to do so.
His sporting future is marked by the political situation that worsens as of the summer. He has to defend the title and everything is inconvenient. The team disintegrates along with the country. He loses five starters in the final: Prosinecki (Real Madrid), Stojanovic, Sabanadzovic, Marovic and Binic. The coach leaves for Espanyol. Worse, he is forced to play every home game outside of Belgrade. The war does not give truce.
It is the last edition of the European Cup as it was understood then. A competition model is released with a final league of eight clubs divided into two groups. The two champions would contest the final. After the sanction for the Heysel incidents, an English team, Arsenal, returns to the competition.
Diaspora of players
Red Star play the first two heats, against Portadown and Apollon, in Szeged, the closest Hungarian city to home (163 kilometers). But in the league he looks for stadiums with greater capacity. Against Anderlecht, at the Honved stadium in Budapest, 368 kilometers away, and against Panathinaikos and Sampdoria, at CSKA in Sofia, more than 700.
Despite the casualties and playing in exile, the team competes. They won the Intercontinental Cup in December after defeating Colo Colo (3-0) and finished second in their group in the European Cup, penalized by the last defeat at home against the Italians. It is two points away from repeating the final. He would have faced Cruyff's Barcelona at Wembley. That is the beginning of the end. The season ends and the diaspora multiplies: Savicevic (Milan), Pancev (Inter), Jugovic (Sampdoria), Mihajlovic (Rome), Belodedici (Valencia), Stosic (Mallorca), Najdoski (Valladolid), Lukic (Atlético), Ratkovic (Celta)… and so on up to a total of 22 players.
- Return to the cursed house by Béla Guttmann
- The tragedy of the 'Busby Babes'
Emilio Soriano Aladrén (Zaragoza, 74 years old), one of the best Spanish referees in history with great international prestige, led the Red Star in two matches of those two European Cups. His memory works: “In 90-91, when they were champions, I led them in the Dresden match. I had to suspend him in the 75th minute due to serious incidents by the German public. It was not for a sports issue. They were political questions. The Red Star won 1-2 and began to throw the cobblestones of the stands onto the field. I called the party delegate, the president of the Dutch Federation, Van Praag, and we suspended him by mutual agreement. They won the game to the Yugoslavs 0-3. So they were one of the best teams that I have seen playing soccer. Great individual technique ”.
The following season, he whistled one of the games in the desert. “It was in Sofia against Panathinaikos. There were hardly any Yugoslav fans in the stands. Prosinecki was gone, for example. They had to win because they were playing the possibility of being in the final. They won. They no longer had so much superiority over their opponents ”.
From then until 2018, 26 years later, the Red Star did not play a European Cup match again. An uprooting much longer than that caused then by the Balkan War and that destroyed the more than possibly the best team (and last champion) of the East in history.