During most of the 20th century, there was a large country in south-eastern Europe by the name of Yugoslavia. There were six Socialist Republics and two Socialist Autonomous Provinces that formed Yugloslavia: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia and Serbia. Today, these republics and provinces are independent nations with their own national football teams. But once upon a time, the greatest players from all these places played together under one flag, that of Yugloslavia. As a result, Yugoslavia was one of Europe’s strongest teams, and their heyday came in the 1950’s. It began though with the 1948 Olympic Games in London, were Yugoslavia obtained the silver medal. They bulldozed Luxemburg 6-1 with two goals coming from future World Cup star Zeljko Cajkovski, then defeated Turkey scoring half as many goals. Empire Stadium aka Wembley was the scene of the semi final where they defeated the host nation Great Britain 3-1. In the gold medal match, they couldn’t stand up against the potent attack of Gre-No-Li, losing by the same score.

 

Yugoslavia was the only iron curtain country that chose not to boycott the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, and they were seeded  in Group 1 along with the hosts after a gruelling qualification campaign. Yugoslavia were considered to be arguably the strongest European team in the tournament, and faced Switzerland in their opening match in Belo Horizonte. Kick off was delayed by 20 minutes when it turned out the corner flags were missing and towards the end of the game, which Yugloslavia won 3-0, officials decided to fire up the floodlights as dusk had begun to set in. This action was not sanctioned by FIFA and the game became the first World Cup match in which floodlights were used. Then it was off to Porto Alegre, where Yugloslavia brushed aside Mexico 4-0. Yugloslavia eventually went down to the hosts Brazil in front of 142,000 screaming Brazilians, a record attendance to a sporting event at the time, at the Maracana in a match in which Yugoslavia needed at least a draw and Brazil had to win in order to continue. Things went against the Europeans from the start when Mitic cut his head on a steel girder and needed treatment. The referee refused to hold the game up for him and Yugoslavia kicked off with 10 men. Brazil scored almost straight away, sending the crowd into raptures. Yugoslavia welcomed Mitic back to the field with a heavily bandaged head, but he was unable to help the team and the highly fancied Europeans crashed out of the tournament. The squad at this World Cup was composed of 8 Croatians, 12 Serbians and 1 Bosnian.

 

A bizarre event occurred at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki. Yugoslavia were 5-1 ahead of the Soviet Union with half an hour to go, when the Soviets mounted an incredible comeback to draw 5-5. Yugoslavia won the replay however which Moscow expected the Soviets to do. As a result, the loss was not reported in the Russian press until the death of Joseph Stalin the following year. The Yugoslavs comfortably beat Denmark in the quarter final  followed by West Germany in the semi, to set up a mouth-watering Hungary-Yugoslavia final. However, goals from Puskas and Czibor meant they had to settle for the silver.

 

The side did fairly well at the 1954 World Cup starting with a win over Switzerland and a draw against the powerful Brazilians even though they weren’t really trying since they were into the next round anyway. They were eventually knocked out by West Germany, who went on to win the tournament in the much lauded “Miracle of Bern”. In Australia, they ran rings around the United States, winning 9-1 at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic games. Sailors from HMS Newcastle vaulted the fence onto the pitch and exhorted the Americans to play with more grit before being peacefully escorted from the stadium. Yugoslavia then took down India (whose players refused to wear boots) 4-1 in the semi at the Melbourne Cricket Ground but once again missed out on the gold, losing by a goal to the Soviet Union. Yugoslavia made the knockout stages of the 1958 World Cup, but again fell short of glory with another loss to West Germany. They remain one of the greatest sides to never win any major honours, falling short of their potential every time.

Achievements: Olympic Games – Silver medal x2

Star player: Stejpan Bobek DoB 3 December 1923, Zagreb, Yugoslavia

Bobek was renowned for his vision, goalscoring ability and technique, and is one of Yugoslavias greatest ever players. Twice top scorer of the Yugoslav First League, he made 468 appearances for FK Partizan in which he scored 403 goals. In June 1946 against 14 Oktobar, he scored 9 goals in one match. Bobek was a feature of the 1950 and 1954 World Cups, as well as the 1948 and 1952 Olympic Games. In the latter, he scored 3 goals and his country won the silver medal. After his playing days, he had a long managerial career where he took over CWKS Warsaw, won three successive Yugoslav championships with Partizan, moved to Greece and led Panathinaikos and Olympiakos, guided Dynamo Zagreb and took the reigns at Vardar Skopje. In 1995, he was named Parizan Belgrade’s greatest player of all time. He died in August 2010.