While the history books closed on Yugoslavia as a country in the early 1990’s, the national football team achieved quite a lot over the course of their existence throughout most of the 20th century, and they truly were one of the trailblazers of the early international football scene. The first team representing the country that at that time was called The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was admitted into FIFA in 1919 and the following year they participated in the 1920 Olympic Games, where they were absolutely pounded by Czechoslovakia 7-0, but they got their names in the history books nonetheless. The country was renamed to Yugoslavia in 1929 and their football association moved it’s headquarters to Belgrade. The following year, they made the journey to Brazil to become one of the very few European teams to participate in the 1930 FIFA World Cup, the tournaments inaugural edition.

Unlike every World Cup since, there was no qualification process for the 1930 tournament with participation being based upon which teams could be bothered travelling to Uruguay instead. Yugoslavia were doubtful about it at first, especially since the Croatians, unhappy with the relocation of the country's FA headquarters from Zagreb to Belgrade, had boycotted the national team and Alexander I, the King of Yugoslavia, wasn’t too keen on funding the journey. The solution was for the Belgrade FA officials, with the support of Romania’s King Carol, to round up only Serbian players from just two clubs, BSK and SK Jugoslavija, who were huge rivals, along with three Serbs playing in France. As a result, the team representing Yugoslavia was entirely made up of Serbs, including one of the biggest stars in Europe at the time, Blagoje Marjanovic. They climbed aboard the steamship Florida to undertake the three week voyage to South America, and with an average age of 21 years and 258 days, Yugoslavia were the youngest team at the World Cup.

Through their performances, they became one of the favorite teams among the local Uruguayans and earned the nickname “Los Ichachos” in reference to the fact that most of their names ended in the suffix “-ic”. The Yugoslavs were placed into group B with Bolivia and Brazil – one of the favorites. Given their performances in the previous two Olympic games where they were crushed 7-0 by Czechoslovakia in 1920 and by the same scoreline against Uruguay in 1924, the Yugoslav’s weren’t given much of a chance against the highly fancied Brazilians. But the crowd of 5,000 were shocked to see Yugoslavia 2-0 up at half time. Brazil clawed one back in the second half but it wasn’t enough, and they had to then rely on Bolivia, who had never won a game in their entire history, to miraculously defeat the Europeans in their meeting. When the teams lined up for the pre-match photo, the Bolivians unveiled shirts which each had a single, giant letter stitched onto the front. When the players took their positions for the photo, it should have spelled “VIVA URUGUAY” in honor of the hosts. Amusingly though, the stunt went wrong in that one player went missing for the photo, so the team spelled out ‘VIVA URUGAY’ instead. Only 800 spectators witnessed the occasion, although the photos survive to this day. Bolivia played well and had a number of goals disallowed, all in the first hour. In the end, Yugoslavia overwhelmed them and won 4-0, proceeding to the knockout stages.

Here, they faced none other than the hosts, Uruguay – their tormentors from the 1924 Olympics. With their work cut out for them, the Yugolsavs somehow went 1-0 up after 4 minutes but the South Americans over ran them, scoring three before the half and another three after for a 6-1 win. Despite this, Yugoslavia had reached fourth place in the first ever World Cup, a great achievement for such a minnow team. This result was unmatched by a Balkan team until 2018 when Croatia reached the final itself.

It has long been rumored that while in Montevideo, the Yugoslavian team became friends with the American team, who had also been eliminated at the same stage. As a result, both teams supposedly agreed to meet up for an unofficial third place playoff, which Yugoslavia won 4-1. If this is true, it means that they in fact finished in 3rd place, not 4th. If one looks at the Yugoslavian team photo prior to their match against Uruguay, one will spot a small boy standing front and centre. He was a mascot who traveled from Yugoslavia with the team and lived until the early 2000’s, and he is the source of this story. No one is certain if this match really ever happened, and it remains one of the great football mysteries. The match is, however, depicted in the 2014 Serbian movie See You in Montevideo, about the Yugoslavian team’s adventure to Uruguay for the 1930 World Cup.

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Achievements: 
FIFA World Cup – 4th (possibly 3rd) place x1

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Star player: Blagoje Majanovic, dob 9 September 1907, pob Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia, nickname: Mosa

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The son of a merchant and a housewife, Majanovic grew up on the outskirts of Belgrade. Little did his parents know that he would become one of the best footballers in Europe. He played for both SK Jugolavija and BSK, two great rivals, but it was with the latter that he enjoyed the most success, winning four league titles and finishing as the leagues top scorer on three occasions. In 566 appearances, Blagoje scored an astounding 575 goals. His debut for Yugoslavia came against Czechoslovakia in 1926. He scored twice in 5 minutes, but his team ultimately lost 6-2. He became an Olympian in 1928, travelling to Amsterdam to represent his country, and in 1930 he was a vital component of the Yugoslavian contingent at the first ever World Cup, in Uruguay. After the tournament, Majanovic became the first professional Yugoslavian footballer earning the equivalent of around $466 a month. Majanovic formed a famous partnership with Aleksandar Tirnanic for both club and country, one of the greatest partnerships in Yugoslavian football history. The pair played together incredibly well and showed immense understanding of each others play. Marjanovic was known to be extremely intelligent as a player, with excellent play both on and off the ball, and with quality and unpredictability in the penalty box. An accurate shooter, he could score from any position and was known for using more than his feet to achieve this, frequently converting with his head, chest, backheels and even his stomach. He was good in the air and had a powerful volley to boot. In addition, he was one of the countries best free kick takers. He scored several hatricks, most notably one against Brazil in a friendly game which Yugoslavia won 8-4. What a game that must have been. Austria manager Hugo Meisl lamented that he couldn’t put Majanovic on the Wunderteam’s forward line since he wasn’t Austrian. Majanovic was a superstar of the day with a playboy reputation, but this changed when he played against Hadjuk and met a Dalmatian girl who was a supporter of the club from Split. The pair married in 1938 to great fanfare and public interest. His final national team match was against Poland that year, in which he scored the only goal. When Germany invaded Yugoslavia in World War II, Majanovic was captured as a Yugoslav army truck driver and sent to a prison camp in the north of Germany. Despite the adversity, he frequently organised football games between the guards and prisoners. He returned briefly to professional football after the war before becoming a manager. In this role, he took over BSK, then Italy’s AC Torino and Calcio Catania before arriving at Probela Prilep back in Yugoslavia. In 1961, Majanovic suffered a stroke. His entire right side was paralysed and he lost his ability to speak all the way up his death in 1984.