FK Rad - History

History

FK Rad was founded in 1958, entering competition in the lowest rank. The club was created by workers of the GRO Rad company.

From the start the club had two major local rivals: Banjica and Jajinci, these rivalries were the rivals of the company but quickly it passed to football. The following individuals are considered as club's founders: Petar Đerasimović, the first president, Radojica Tanasijević, the first general selector, Željko Marjanović, the first financial adviser, and Ljubomir Lazić, the first vice president. The players that have played in 1958 can feel like founders as well, FK Rad had a lot of young players that were schooled in the First league teams, some players would include: Lazar Slavković, Đurđe Ivković, Vladimir Acević, Teodor ušnjar, Milan Abramović, Brana Djaković, Aleksandar Banić, Živojin Rafailović, Aleksandar Andrejić, and a little later Sreten "Sele" Antić, Milan "Selja" Jovanović, and others. The first head coach was Nikola Marjanović. The parliament has given the club a pitch in the center of Banjica, a few concrete stands were made, and later locker rooms were added, as well as the restaurant. The club only gets better and year by year FK Rad keeps moving up the league. On the stadium there has always been 2,000 to 3,000 fans. FK Rad had a very good attack from counters and scored many goals that was that kept bringing fans to the stands. The club had a large following in the Banjica region, the fans followed their club away and home. FK Rad quickly got promoted to the Belgrade league. In the period from 1965 to 1969 a change of generations had taken place. At that time the leaders were Ljubomir Lazić and Radomir Antić, notable managers were Đorđević and Đurđević, leaders for the players were Ratomir Janković, Vlada Vlaović, Matović, Zoran Bulatović, Dutina, Čeh and others.

A few years later the club turns to change and the club colors are now different, youth school has received much pressure, the control on the players and much more.

The club's greatest success occurred in 1988–89 season when it finished the Yugoslav league competition in fourth spot, ahead of many richer clubs such as FK Partizan. This success qualified FK Rad for the UEFA Cup in the 1989–90 season, where it was eliminated 2–3 on aggregate in the first round by Olympiacos (Rad lost 0–2 in Athens after winning 2–1 on home ground).