FK Rad


Fudbalski klub Rad is a professional Serbian football club based in Belgrade. The club's name translates as "work" or "labour" due to being formed by the construction company of the same name in 1958.
Rad does not have a large supporter base but it is known for a very loyal supporter base, they compete regularly in the top tier of Serbian club football.
There have been some very famous successful footballers to have played for Rad, such as : Miroslav Djukic who would go on to play two UEFA Champions League finals with Valencia CF, Ljubinko Drulovic who would go on to play for FC Porto and Benfica in Portugal,defender Zoran Mirković who would go on to play for Juventus, Filip Đorđević , Predrag Luka, Goran Bunjevčević who would go on to play for Tottenham FC, and Milos Dimitrijevic amongst others.
The club has somewhat of a negative reputation caused mainly by its supporters who are known as "United Force", they can often be compared to the Millwall FC of Serbian football. On a positive note " United Force" are known as one of the most loyal supporter groups in Serbia following the club in good numbers home or away.

History inSocialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia/Montenegro Period

Rad was founded in 1958 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, 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 Šušnjar, 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 had supporters in the Banjica region, which followed their club away and home. 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.
The club's greatest success occurred in 1988–89 season when it finished the Yugoslav First League competition in fourth spot, ahead of many richer clubs such as Partizan. This success qualified Rad for the UEFA Cup in the 1989–90 season, where it was eliminated 2–3 on aggregate in the first round by Olympiacos.

History in Independent Serbia/Modern Times

In 2011, Rad competed in the Europa League the club's second appearance in European competition and again the opponent was from Greece this time Olympiakos Volou. The first game played in Belgrade at the home ground of FK Obilic finished in a 0–1 loss for Rad, the second leg in Greece finished 1–1 with Nemanja Kojic scoring for Rad, which meant Rad where eliminated from the Europa League at the first hurdle, Rad's most successful manager who helped guide the club into European football Marko Nikolić would later go on to manage successfully across Europe especially in Hungary with Fehérvár FC and in Russia with FC Lokomotiv Moscow
In February 2017, a section of Rad supporters were accused of shouting racist abuse during a match against FK Partizan that reduced opposition player Everton Luiz to tears and resulted in confrontation between the opposing sides at the end of the match.
There are examples of Rad supporters been accepting and supportive of minority players, such as when Predrag Luka a Romani people born Serb, played successfully for the club over a period of years and became a fan favourite.

Name changes through history

The stadium of Rad is the King Petar I Stadium, commonly known as "Stadion na Banjici", which is located in the southern part of Belgrad's Banjica neighbourhood, and holds about 3,919 people. It was built in 1977, although its stand dates back to the pre-World War II period when it was used for military parades and other state celebrations during the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

Supporters & Rivalries

Rad's supporters group was founded in 1987 under the name United Force, a relatively small but strong and well organized group. They have a historic association with football hooliganism.
Their main rivalry is with OFK Beograd, the rivalry is known as " the small Belgrade derby"
They profess far-right ultra-nationalist views, making them very unpopular with Bosniak Muslim nationalist fans of Novi Pazar who express their own far right views at most games, although in a footballing sense this hasn't really been a rivalry as the clubs through their history have hardly played in the same league/divison. They also have a local rivalry with the Crvena Zvezda, Partizan, OFK Beograd-Voždovac alliance with whom they contest Belgrade derbies.

Honours

;Yugoslav Second League

Current squad

First team

For recent transfers, see List of Serbian football transfers summer 2019.

Technical staff

The club official website considers Duško Ajder and Dragan Kokotović as club's two major legends. Beside them, important players in different historical periods are considered Miodrag Vranješ, Ratomir Janković and Lazar Slavković.
Former players with senior national team appearances:
For the list of all current and former players with Wikipedia article, please see: :Category:FK Rad players.

Managers

The club's current manager is Marko Mićović, who was appointed in December 2019.

Kit manufacturers