360 DAYS THE FALL OF YUGOSLAVIA
Stevan Stojanovic needs no reminder for the date of Yugoslavia’s greatest footballing triumph. “May 29, 1991,” he states, speaking to FourFourTwo from Belgrade. “For the past 30 years, people here haven’t stopped talking to me about it.”
Stojanovic ended that evening as Red Star Belgrade’s goalkeeping hero in the European Cup final, after they defeated Marseille 5-3 on penalties at the Stadio San Nicola in Bari. As captain, he became the only man ever to lift the trophy for a Yugoslav club.
“Velibor Vasovic lifted it as captain of Ajax [in 1971] but this was different,” he explains, the emotions flooding back. “We came from our country, from our streets. That night in the hotel, a man walked up to me. I never found out who he was, but he said, ‘You have no idea what you’ve just done, what kind of achievement this is’. I was young and wasn’t really thinking about things like that. But that old man was right. As time passed, we all realised what we did. That was the greatest success of Yugoslav football.”
Such was the talent in Yugoslavia during that period, more success surely would have followed. Four years earlier, Zvonimir Boban, Robert Prosinecki, Davor Suker and Predrag Mijatovic had helped the nation’s under-20s to become world champions. When Red Star won the European Cup in 1991, Yugoslavia’s senior team were already well on course to qualify for Euro 92, at eventual winners Denmark’s expense.
But in the space of 368 days, everything collapsed. By May 31, 1992,
