Hajduk SplitHajduk Split was founded not in Croatia but in Prague, on 13 February 1911, when a group of Split students studying there — including Fabijan Kaliterna, Vjekoslav Ivanišević, Lucijan Stella and Ivan Šakić — decided, after watching a match between Sparta and Slavia, to found a club back home. Their teacher Josip Barač suggested the name Hajduk, after the outlaws and rebels who resisted Ottoman rule in the Balkans. The club has played in white shirts with blue shorts ever since, earning the nickname Bili (the Whites).
In the era of Yugoslav football, Hajduk was one of the so-called Big Four, alongside Dinamo Zagreb, Red Star Belgrade and Partizan, winning nine Yugoslav championships and nine Yugoslav Cups, most of them during a golden run in the 1970s under coach Tomislav Ivić. Internationally, the club's best results remain three European Cup quarter-finals — in 1975–76, 1979–80 and 1994–95 — as well as a semi-final in the Cup Winners' Cup in 1972–73 and a UEFA Cup semi-final in 1983–84, when Hajduk fell just short of a European final.
Since Croatian independence, Hajduk has won six Croatian championships, all between 1992 and 2005, and several Croatian Cups, most recently in 2013; the club has not added a league title since, giving its long-running rivalry with Dinamo Zagreb — the Eternal Derby — an especially sharp edge in recent years.
What truly sets Hajduk apart, though, is its relationship with its supporters. Torcida, founded in Split on 28 October 1950 and named after the Brazilian fans of that year's World Cup, is recognised as the oldest organised supporters' group in Europe. Since 2008 Hajduk has operated as a joint-stock company; while the City of Split still holds the majority of shares, the supporters' association Naš Hajduk has steadily bought up stock on fans' behalf and now controls roughly a third of the club, under the slogan "Hajduk je naš" — "Hajduk is ours." Combined with a passionate following at the Poljud Stadium, this deep, community-rooted identity keeps Hajduk one of the most distinctive clubs in European football, even in years without silverware.
