Partizan BelgradeFK Partizan was founded on 4 October 1945 in Belgrade by young officers of the Yugoslav People’s Army, a few months after the end of the Second World War. The name referred to the partisans, the communist resistance movement of the war years. From the start, one word has defined its story: youth. In 1950 the club evolved from the army’s football section into an independent organisation within the sports society JSD Partizan. The first titles came quickly, as the club won the championship and the cup in 1947, but in its first fifteen years it collected only two league titles and four cups, which did not satisfy a club of such ambition.
In Europe, Partizan quickly wrote itself into history. On 4 September 1955 it played in the very first match of the European Cup, drawing 3–3 in Lisbon with Sporting. Miloš Milutinović scored the first goal in the competition. In the quarter-final of that edition the Belgrade side met Real Madrid, lost 4–0 in Madrid and won the return 3–0, going out 4–3 on aggregate but earning respect beyond Yugoslavia’s borders.
The breakthrough came in the 1960s, when the coach relied on talented youngsters from all over the country. The result was a team called “Partizan’s babies”, which won three consecutive Yugoslav championships, in 1961, 1962 and 1963, and four titles in total that decade. It produced, among others, Velibor Vasović, Fahrudin Jusufi and Milan Galić. The crowning moment was the 1965/66 European Cup. On the way to the final Partizan eliminated Nantes, Werder Bremen and Sparta Prague, and in the semi-final Manchester United: it won 2–0 in Belgrade and lost 0–1 at Old Trafford, going through 2–1 on aggregate.
The final was played on 11 May 1966 at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels. Partizan took the lead through a goal from Vasović in the 55th minute, but Real Madrid equalised in the 70th minute through Amancio, and six minutes later Fernando Serena scored the winner. The 2–1 defeat remains the club’s greatest achievement: Partizan became the first team from the Balkans and Eastern Europe to play in the final of the continent’s premier club competition.
In later decades the club added further chapters. In 1978 it won the Mitropa Cup, its first European trophy, and in 1989 it reached the quarter-finals of the Cup Winners’ Cup. In 2003/04 it became the first Serbian club in the Champions League group stage, after eliminating Newcastle United on penalties in qualifying. In the group it faced Real Madrid, FC Porto and Olympique de Marseille, and drew 0–0 at home with Real. Domestically Partizan has 27 league titles, won in the Yugoslav, Serbian-Montenegrin and Serbian leagues, and 16 national cups.
The tradition of youth has endured to this day. The CIES Football Observatory has ranked Partizan as Europe’s best training club, and in 2019 it reported 75 academy graduates playing in the top divisions of 31 European countries. Players who have left their mark include Stjepan Bobek, who with 425 goals remains the club’s record scorer, as well as Branko Zebec, Zlatko Čajkovski, Milutin Šoškić, Predrag Mijatović and Slaviša Jokanović.
Partizan is also its supporters, known as the Grobari (the gravediggers), and the great derby with Crvena zvezda, known as the “eternal derby”. Since the late 1940s the team has played its home matches at Partizan Stadium, known for decades as JNA Stadium after the army from which the club emerged. For Belgrade’s crowds the Black-and-Whites remain a symbol of pride, military roots and the courage to face the very best.
