At the turn of the century, in the season 1999/2000, Crvena zvezda won the 21st title of the National Champion. The team coached by Slavoljub Muslin ended the season in superiority, after gaining the other national trophy as well – the FR Yugoslavia Cup. So basically, after five years, the Double Cup arrived at Marakana once again.
The generation led by the captain Goran Bunjčević, accomplished great success and a true endeavor. The title was celebrated in fantastic atmosphere. It’d been a really long time, probably since 1991 and the historic triumph in Bari, that Marakana hadn’t seen such a joyful celebration. The fans ran into the field after the match with Sartid to celebrate with the players. Bunjevčević, Lerinc, Pjanović, Dudić and the others were taken out of the pitch on shoulders. They became Crvena zvezda’s heroes!
- I can stop playing now! I have experienced what few players get to experience in the course of their careers. I have only seen this in films – stated Leo Lerinc, overwhelmed.
In this Championship Partizan and the other rivals didn’t stand a chance against way superior Crvena zvezda, who had secured the title a round before last. In the 40 games played in the Championship, Crvena zvezda won 33, drew 6 and was defeated only once, in the autumn session, by Partizan. In the spring session, the Crvena zvezda team defeated all the opponents in a fantastic series, and they only showed exhaustion against Zemun at their own Marakana. But after this small failure the red and white team didn’t despair; on the contrary, they gathered together even more and they managed to win 17 games in a row.
Before the beginning of the Championship they planned to win the title, which had been long coming, at the very Marakana. Not everything went as planned, though. After the fourth round the coach changed and instead of Miloljub Ostojić, Slavoljub Muslin took the lead. At the end of the autumn session, Crvena zvezda was 6 points short of the leader, Obilić, and four points short of Partizan. But the head club staff Dragan Džajić and Vladimir Cvetković, together with the coach Muslin, tried to get the teams’ spirits up. They knew exactly what had to be done, and the advantage Obilić and Partizan had started melting away...In the 32nd round, the red and white team took the lead after defeating Čukarički and they remained on top of the table to the end.
Crvena zvezda ended the Championship with 105 points and they were the first club in the history of National Championships who got a three-digit-number of points. The defense was outstanding, and on average our goal got hit 0.46 times per game, which exceeded Partizan’s 1991/1992 season defense statistics (0.54)
Roster:
Milenko Aćimović 21-4, Srđan Bajčetić 23-1, Nikoslav Bjegović 12, Branko Bošković 31-9, Goran Bunjevčević 40-7, Milivoje Vitakić 19, Ivan Vukomanović 23, Blaže Georgioski 25-3, Stevo Glogovac 24, Jovan Gojković 30-7, Ivan Gvozdenović 34-2, Ivan Dudić 38, Goran Drulić 6-1, Dejan Ilić 32-2, Branko Jelić 18-7, Aleksandar Kocić 39-18 received goals, Nenad Lalatović 14, Leo Lerinc 25-2, Marjan Marković 8-2, Dragan Mićić 7, Nenad Miljković 3-1, Vladislav Mirković 14-3, Miodrag Pantelić 19-6, Dejan Pešić 1-1, Mihajlo Pjanović 27-22, Dragan Stevanović 15-6, Boban Stojanović 7, Dalibor Škorić 2.
Coach:
Slavoljub Muslin