OFK Beograd
Full name | Omladinski fudbalski klub Beograd | ||
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Nickname(s) | Romantičari (The Romantics) Plavo-beli (The Blue-Whites) | ||
Founded | 6 July 1911 | (as Beogradski sport klub)||
Ground | Omladinski stadion | ||
Capacity | 15,000 | ||
Chairman | Momčilo Minić | ||
Head coach | Simo Krunić | ||
League | Serbian First League | ||
2022–23 | Serbian League Belgrade, 1st (promoted) | ||
Website | Club website | ||
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OFK Beograd (Serbian Cyrillic: ОФК Београд – Омладински фудбалски клуб Београд, English: Belgrade Youth Football Club) is a Serbian professional football club based in Belgrade, more precisely in Karaburma, an urban neighborhood of the municipality of Palilula. It is part of the OSD Beograd sport society.
All up, the club has won 5 national championships, in the following seasons: 1930–31, 1932–33, 1934–35, 1935–36, and 1938–39; the club won these titles under their old name of BSK (Beogradski Sport Klub).[1] The club has been cup winners five times also, winning in the following seasons: 1934, 1953, 1955, 1961–62, and 1965–66.
The club has also recorded significant results in European competition, reaching the 1962–63 European Cup Winners' Cup semi-finals where they lost to Tottenham Hotspur. They reached the 1972–73 UEFA Cup quarter-finals where they lost to FC Twente.
History
The beginning
The club was founded in 1945 as Metalac but it is considered to be the successor of BSK one of the most prominent football clubs in Kingdom of Serbia and later Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It was also the most successful club between 1923 and 1941, with five national champion titles. BSK played its first game on 13 October 1911 against Šumadija from Kragujevac and won 8–1.
In 1945, after
The golden era
A two-decade-long "Golden Era" began when the club won the Yugoslav Cup in 1953. Three other Yugoslav Cup wins followed, in 1955 and the 1961–62 and 1965–66 seasons. The club was the Yugoslav First League runner-up twice, in 1954–55 and in 1965–66. In the meantime, the club had changed its name once again. In 1957, the club was named OFK Beograd, once again in an attempt to attract spectators to the stadium, especially younger ones who often opted for either Red Star or Partizan. In that time, the players played elegant football and therefore got the nickname of "Romantičari".
The 1960s and the first half of the 1970s were years of European glory. OFK Beograd had participated eight times in European competitions. Their biggest success came in the
The silent fall
The Romantičari were not able to take advantage of their success on the domestic and European scene. After several successful seasons, a sudden fall occurred. During the 1980s, the club often changed leagues from the First Division to the Second.
Modern era
In the summer of
The club was back on the European stage in 2004. They started playing in the second round of the Intertoto Cup and eliminated
In 2005, the club entered the
OFK Beograd were relegated from the Serbian SuperLiga after finishing fifteenth in the 2015–16 season. The next season saw relegation from the 2016–17 Serbian First League after finishing bottom of the table. The club played in the Serbian League Belgrade in the 2017–18 season (their first season in the Serbian third tier), finishing in second place behind Žarkovo who were promoted to the Serbian second tier.
In November 2018 the "Klub prijatelja OFK Beograda" was formed (trans. "Club of Friends of OFK Beograd") with the goal of saving the club from becoming extinct and helping the club through its most difficult times. The KPO is made up of loyal fans who want to see OFK return to its former glories competing at the very top of the first tier of Serbian football.
In their second year in the Serbian third division, OFK finished in fifth position on 46 points, with Grafičar being promoted to the second division. OFK did however manage to win the Belgrade Cup.
In the 2019–20 season, OFK commenced their third successive season in the Serbian third tier with hiring former accomplished player
Honours
Domestic
League
- Yugoslav First League
- Yugoslav Second League
- Winners (3): 1958/59 (East), 1984-85 (East)
- Winners (3): 1958/59 (East),
Cups
- Yugoslav Cup
- Serbia and Montenegro Cup
- Runners-up: 2005–06
European
- UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
- Semi-finals: 1962–63
- UEFA Cup
- Quarter-finals: 1972–73
- Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
- Semi-finals: 1958–60
Unofficial
- Serbian Championship
- Serbian League (top level between 1940 and 1944)
- People's Republic of Serbia League (Belgrade championship)
- Winners: 1945
European competitions
Before UEFA was founded (in 1954), OFK Beograd, under the name of Beogradski Sport Klub (BSK), participated in Mitropa Cup, the first really international European football competition. The club competed for five seasons without a big success, usually stopped by teams from Hungary, the major football power at the time. In UEFA competitions, OFK Beograd played 16 seasons, the biggest success being reaching the semifinals of the 1962–63 European Cup Winners' Cup.
UEFA competitions summary
OFK Beograd | Seasons | P | W | D | L | F | A | Match Pts%W | Ties P | Ties W | Ties L | Ties %W | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Representing Serbia | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 50.00 | 2 | - | 2 | - | |
Representing Yugoslavia | 8 | 38 | 14 | 7 | 17 | 64 | 69 | 46.05 | 18 | 10 | 8 | 55.56 | |
Total | 10 | 42 | 16 | 7 | 19 | 68 | 76 | 46.43 | 20 | 10 | 10 | 50.00 |
Youth system
OFK Beograd's youth system has a reputation as one of the best in the history of Serbian football. In its 107 years of existence, it produced and promoted hundreds of players who played not just for the club, but for the national team as well. Among these players are the likes of Josip Skoblar, Spasoje Samardžić, Ilija Petković, Slobodan Santrač, Dragoslav Stepanović, Mitar Mrkela, Saša Ćurčić, Duško Tošić, Branislav Ivanović, Aleksandar Kolarov, and many others.
Since OFK Beograd's existence, attention was always turned to the younger categories of players. Recently, the club has built a new private training center, comprising eight playing fields along with training equipment with the newest technology.
A youth school was created with 150 players born between 1996 and 1999.[citation needed] There are also seven competitive teams for which more than 170 players are playing. The youth system compromises around 20 highly qualified coaches who are all specialized in certain areas of the game. Most of the coaches are former players who spent years at the club and who also went through the same youth system. Several physios are also present and are equipped with the newest technology for their work.
Rivals
OFK's biggest rivals are FK Rad from the Belgrade suburb of Banjica. It is known as the small Belgrade derby. In the mid-2000s in a game between the two clubs in the last game of the season OFK scored a last minute equalizer against Rad meaning Rad were relegated for the first time in almost twenty-five years. In the following season when OFK were playing in the Intertoto Cup Rad fans threw a number of flares from outside the stadium forcing UEFA to award the game 3–0 against OFK even though OFK won the game 6–1 against Estonian club Narva Trans.
Other rivals to a much lesser degree include Crvena Zvezda and FK Partizan.
After being relegated to Serbian League Belgrade OFK had a bitter rivalry with FK Zemun.
Supporters
OFK Beograd's fans are commonly known as Plava Unija (The Blue Union) since 1994. When Beogradski Sportski Klub (BSK) was founded in 1911, the club which dominated the fields of the
An organized group appeared for the first time in 1984 under the name of "Blue Thunders". The group lived under that name until 1990. When they were influenced by the rise of nationalism in
OFK Beograd's fans have been known to be resistant of past regimes. In the 1990s, Milicionar, a pro-regime police-backed team, entered the first division. When OFK Beograd first played against them, the OFK fans reacted with creation of a banner which bore the message "Goal Against the Regime." Among other things, members of Plava Unija also reinstated the old ex-Yugoslav firms habit of finding local home crews when their team was on away matches, no matter which Serbian town or city was in question.
Plava Unija fostered a friendship with
Team kits
The Official team kit is currently produced by Spanish sports apparel company Joma.
Players
Current squad
- As of 19 February 2024
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Club officials
Coaching staff
Position | Name |
---|---|
Manager | Simo Krunić |
Assistant manager | Milan Smiljanić Đorđe Ivelja |
Fitness coach | Vlada Živanović |
Physiotherapist | Marko Igrutinović |
Goalkeeping coach | Rade Grahovac |
General director | Balša Terzić |
Sports director | Andrej Mrkela |
General secretary | Vladimir Rašić |
Club president | Momčilo Minić |
Vice-president | Stefan Babović Kostadin Terzić |
UEFA competitions
- Qualified for Europe in 14 seasons (2 in European Cup Winners' Cup, 9 in Europa League/UEFA Cup/Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, 3 in Intertoto Cup)
Season | Competition | Round | Country | Club | Home | Away | Aggregate |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1962–63 | UEFA Cup Winners' Cup | QR | Chemie Halle
|
2–0 | 3–3 | 5–3 | |
R1 | Portadown | 5–1 | 2–3 | 7–4 | |||
Quarter-final | Napoli
|
2–0 | 1–3 | 3–3 (3–1 Playoff) | |||
Semi-final | Tottenham Hotspur
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1–2 | 1–3 | 2–5 | |||
1963–64 | Inter-Cities Fairs Cup | R1 | Juventus
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2–1 | 1–2 | 3–3 (0–1 Playoff) | |
1964–65 | Inter-Cities Fairs Cup | R1 | Athletic Bilbao | 0–2 | 2–2 | 2–4 | |
1966–67 | UEFA Cup Winners' Cup | R1 | Spartak Moscow | 1–3 | 0–3 | 1–6 | |
1968–69 | Inter-Cities Fairs Cup | R1 | Rapid Bucureşti
|
6–1 | 1–3 | 7–4 | |
R2 | Bologna | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–1 | |||
R3 | Goztepe
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3–1 | 0–2 | 3–3 (a) | |||
1971–72 | UEFA Cup
|
R1 | Djurgården | 4–1 | 2–2 | 6–3 | |
R2 | FC Carl Zeiss Jena | 1–1 | 0–4 | 1–5 | |||
1972–73 | UEFA Cup
|
R1 | Dukla Prague | 3–1 | 2–2 | 5–3 | |
R2 | Feyenoord | 2–1 | 3–4 | 5–5 (a) | |||
R3 | Beroe Stara Zagora
|
0–0 | 3–1 | 3–1 | |||
Quarter-final | Twente | 3–2 | 0–2 | 3–4 | |||
1973–74 | UEFA Cup
|
R1 | Panathinaikos | 0–1 | 2–1 | 2–2 (a) | |
R2 | Dinamo Tbilisi | 1–5 | 0–3 | 1–8 | |||
2003–04 | Intertoto Cup
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R1 | Narva Trans
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6–1 | 5–3 | 11–4 | |
R2 | Slovácko | 3–3 | 0–1 | 3–4 | |||
2004–05 | Intertoto Cup
|
R2 | Dinaburg | 3–1 | 2–0 | 5–1 | |
R3 | Tampere United | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | |||
Semi-final | Atlético Madrid | 1–3 | 0–2 | 1–5 | |||
2005–06 | UEFA Cup
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QR2 | Lokomotiv Plovdiv
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2–1 | 0–1 | 2–2 (a) | |
2006–07 | UEFA Cup
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QR2 | Auxerre | 1–0 | 1–5 | 2–5 | |
2008–09 | Intertoto Cup
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R2 | Panionios | 1–0 | 1–3 | 2–3 | |
2010–11
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Europa League
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QR2 | Torpedo Zhodino | 2–2 | 1–0 | 3–2 | |
QR3 | Galatasaray
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1–5 | 2–2 | 3–7 |
Notable former players
- To appear in this section a player must have played at least one international match for their national team at any time.
- Yugoslavia
- Milorad Arsenijević
- August Bivec
- Radivoj Božić
- Vojin Božović
- Ljubiša Đorđević
- Milorad Dragićević
- Prvoslav Dragićević
- Ernest Dubac
- Franjo Glaser
- Svetislav Glišović
- Ivan Jazbinšek
- Bruno Knežević
- Andreja Kojić
- Gustav Lechner
- Petar Manola
- Blagoje Marjanović
- Milorad Mitrović
- Milorad Nikolić
- Branimir Porobić
- Predrag Radovanović
- Janko Rodin
- Nikola Simić
- Kuzman Sotirović
- Slavko Šurdonja
- Aleksandar Tirnanić
- Dragomir Tošić
- Svetislav Valjarević
- Đorđe Vujadinović
- Sava Antić
- Slobodan Batričević
- Petar Borota
- Srđan Čebinac
- Dragan Gugleta
- Stanoje Jocić
- Miodrag Jovanović
- Tomislav Kaloperović
- Srboljub Krivokuća
- Frane Matošić
- Miloš Milutinović
- Mitar Mrkela
- Srđan Mrkušić
- Ilija Petković
- Petar Radenković
- Spasoje Samardžić
- Slobodan Santrač
- Dragoslav Šekularac
- Vasilije Šijaković
- Josip Skoblar
- Dragoslav Stepanović
- Lazar Tasić
- Nikoslav Bjegović
- Saša Ćurčić
- Petar Divić
- Nenad Jestrović
- Đorđe Jokić
- Miloš Kolaković
- Aleksandar Kristić
- Nenad Lalatović
- Milan Obradović
- Dušan Petković
- Gordan Petrić
- Saša Petrović
- Mihajlo Pjanović
- Dejan Rađenović
- Saša Stevanović
- Boris Vasković
- Aleksandar Živković
- Serbia
- Nikola Aksentijević
- Stefan Babović
- Nikola Beljić
- Jovan Damjanović
- Aleksandar Ignjovski
- Radiša Ilić
- Branislav Ivanović
- Aleksandar Jevtić
- Andrija Kaluđerović
- Aleksandar Kolarov
- Ognjen Koroman
- Nenad Krstičić
- Milan Lukač
- Milovan Milović
- Aleksandar Paločević
- Slobodan Rajković
- Milan Rodić
- Bojan Šaranov
- Stefan Šćepović
- Vojislav Stanković
- Ivan Stevanović
- Duško Tošić
- Aleksandar Trišović
- Veseljko Trivunović
- Saša Zdjelar
- Armenia
- Australia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Cameroon
- Cyprus
- France
- Kazakhstan
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- North Macedonia
- Aleksandar Bajevski
- Filip Despotovski
- Boban Grnčarov
- Hristijan Kirovski
- Bojan Markoski
- Darko Micevski
- Angelko Panov
- Ostoja Stjepanović
- Malta
- Montenegro
- Vladan Adžić
- Marko Baša
- Dragan Bogavac
- Vladimir Božović
- Miodrag Džudović
- Petar Grbić
- Igor Ivanović
- Marko Janković
- Mladen Kašćelan
- Ivan Kecojević
- Nemanja Nikolić
- Mitar Novaković
- Milorad Peković
- Milan Purović
- Ivan Vuković
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Uganda
- United States
For the list of current and former players with Wikipedia article, please see: Category:OFK Beograd players.
Coaching history
Shirt sponsors and manufacturers
Period | Kit Manufacturer | Shirt Sponsor |
---|---|---|
2006–2010 | Joma | Citroën |
2010–2011 | Jako | Arena Sport |
2011 | None | |
2012 | FOX | |
2012–2013 | Onze | |
2014–present | DDOR |
References
- ^ "NAŠI TROFEJI! PET PUTA ŠAMPION DRŽAVE!;– OFK (NAŠI TROFEJI! PET PUTA ŠAMPION DRŽAVE!)". ofkbeograd.co.rs. Archived from the original on 6 November 2022. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
- ^ OFK Beograd – Torpedo Zhodino : 2–2 Archived 22 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine Match report from Scorespro.com
- ^ Torpedo Zhodino – OFK Beograd : 0–1 Archived 31 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine Match report from Scorespro.com
- ^ "OFK-Vesti". ofkbeograd.co.rs (in Serbian). Retrieved 31 July 2020.
- ^ Moscow fan club OFK Beograd Archived 14 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine official website (in Russian)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i BSK Beograd Archived 8 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine at exyufudbal.in.rs, retrieved 29-11-2015
- ^ Sándor Nemes, also named Alex Neufeld Archived 8 February 2023 at the Wayback Machine was often named Antal Nemes in Yugoslav press
- ^ IFFHS Archived 21 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine match report BSK-Ujpest (1939)
- ^ Mészáros István profile Archived 24 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine at magyarfutball.hu
- ^ Svetozar Popović profile Archived 8 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine at nogomet.lzmk.hr
External links
- Official website (in Serbian)
- Unofficial website (in Serbian)