The FC Željezničar from Sarajevo won the first championship title in the season 1971/1972. Back then, the players selected by Milan Ribar reached the top of the exceptionally strong Yugoslav league.
In the end, the Blues from Grbavica had 21 victories, nine rummies and four defeats. With 51 points they ended on the leading position before Crvena zvezda that had two points less. Of course, this generation will be forever remembered as the brightest in the long history of the club. Besides that, the Blues then became the seventh club to win the title in the former state. Apart from the “great four”, others who made it were Sarajevo, Vojvodina and Željezničar. Until 1992, when this league stopped being played, that did not change.
Members of the mentioned generation of the Blues were Slobodan Janjuš, Dragan Kojović, Velija Bećirspahić, Blagoje Bratić, Josip Katalinski, Enver Hadžiabdić, Branimir Jelušić, Božidar Janković, Josip Bukal, Edin Sprečo, Avdija Deraković, Slobodan Kojović, Fahrija Hrvat, Džemaludin Šerbo, Nusret Kadrić, Hajrudin Saračević, Miloš Radović and Željko Rodić.
Many people considered this team the vanguards of the “total” football which appeared around that time on the world fields. A large number of national team players in all generation was a proof to quality work and the title won in 1972 was a crown to a long term hard work.
The long-time footballer of Željezničar and the former coach of the B&H national team Mišo Smajlović said that this generation left a significant trace. He also highlighted that in football there comes a generation that simply has a high quality.
“That generation has ‘something’. All came well together and the intended goal was achieved. I think that this success should be mentioned forever, although I wasn’t a part of this generation,” Smajlović concluded.
(Source: klix.ba)
