The current Serbian national team is a team that was born a few years ago. We have known it since it appeared in the 2006 World Cup. Before this team was formed, Yugoslavia was the team that defended that geographical area and later, before the independence of Montenegro, the team was called Serbia and Montenegro. Here we leave you the 10 things that perhaps you did not know about this selection.
The game reached the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia at the end of the 19th century and from the 1920s it began to suffer from the war conflicts that took place in that area of Europe. Despite that, it became the most popular sport by a wide margin.
The rivalry between Serbia and Croatia was already palpable in the early days of the old federation. Yugoslavia reached the quarter-finals of the 1930 World Cup, but did so without Croatian players, who boycotted the team in the final phase to protest the establishment of the new federation’s headquarters in the Serbian capital, Belgrade.
The former Yugoslavia team was nicknamed “Plavni” (Blue) because of the color of the jersey. However, Serbia decided to change its colors after Montenegro’s decision to become independent and become red. The team asked the fans for a new nickname. A Serbian radio station proposed “Beli Orlovi” (White Eagles), after the double-headed eagle on the Serbian national flag.
The best Yugoslav player was Red Star left winger Dragan Dzajic. Debuting with the national team at the age of 18, he achieved the national record of 85 international appearances and scored 23 goals. Pelé said: “He is a magician. What a pity that he is not Brazilian.”
Slobodan Santrac was the first coach of the “new” Yugoslavia. He was also the longest in charge, between 1994 and 1998, and won 26 of his 43 games as manager.
1 Stjepan Bobek 38 (63)
2 Milan Galic 37 (51)
= Savo Milosevic 37 (102)
Stjepas Bobek was the top scorer for the former Yugoslavia. He scored 38 times in 63 matches between 1946 and 1856.
Dragan Stojkovic was a great figure for Yugoslavia in his time as a footballer, especially in the 1990 World Cup in Italy. He also had experience as a manager and in 2021 he became the technical director. At Qatar 2022 he will seek to take his team as far as possible.
As Yugoslavia played the first World Cup in 1930 and stood out with good performances, such as fourth place in 1962 and the quarterfinals in 1990. Since the disintegration it has been very irregular and never got past the group stage…
Although he still has the nickname of “promising striker”, he is already one of the most valued attackers in European football. At just 22 years old, he stood out at Fiorentina and went on to Juventus. In the national team he also already demonstrated his hierarchy.
With Dragan Stojković as coach, the Balkan team proposes an offensive game, trying to have possession of the ball, patient but with moments of verticality. He plays with a line of three with a lot of dynamics. Above is a team with a lot of gunpowder. Vlahovic, Mitrovic and Tadic are the three strikers who will take care of the attack at Qatar 2022.
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