In Memoriam - Blagoje Mitic

Blagoje Mitić was born on March 7, 1941 in Belgrade, at the dawn of war and occupation. He grew up in Zvezdara, and started playing football at an early age. He was discovered by a Chinese talent scout, who brought him to Red Star. He appeared in all the pioneer and youth teams of Red Star, and played in a very talented generation that included: Korolija, Popović, Arsić, Vranić, Obradović, Čubrilo, Jakšić (son of Milovan Jakšić El Grande), Hutalarević, Tošić, Anđelić... Blaža Mitić was the only one from the aforementioned generation to become the first team member of our club as a star child.

He had his dream debut for the first team at the age of 18 in a friendly match against the club of the same name from Bor on October 25, 1959 (1:3), when Blaža Mitić was the best player of the match and scored all three goals. In a competitive match, he made his debut in the Yugoslav Cup against his eternal rival on December 2, 1959, and the result was 2:2 (penalties 3:4).

Blaža Mitić played the game of his life in the 32nd league derby at the JNA stadium, when Red Star defeated the favored eternal rival 1:2. According to the evaluations of all reporters (although Bora Kostić was the scorer of both goals), the best player in the derby was exactly Blagoje Mitić. The reporters characterized that he should have received an "Oscar" for the play shown, and that on that day he reminded them of the best days and performances of Tchaikovsky and Đajić together.

He played his farewell match for Crvena zvezda on October 18, 1964, in a match in honor of the liberation of Belgrade, against OFK Belgrade (0:1). He played two games for the Youth National Team of Yugoslavia (1958).

With Red Star, he won two championships - 1959/60 and 1963/64 and played a total of 95 games, in which he scored eight goals. In his career, despite being an uncompromising and sharp half, he did not earn a single yellow or red card. After Crvena zvezda, he played for Radnički from Niš, Dutch William II, OFK Belgrade (with Milutinović and Šekularec) and Voždovac, where he ended his playing career. After finishing playing football, he coached many lower-class clubs in Belgrade. He got a job at GIK "Trudbenik", where he worked as a sports officer, manager of the stadium and coach of FC Trudbenik. He occasionally came to the Crvena Zvezda stadium, followed the games and socialized with his teammates in the veteran section of FC Crvena Zvezda.

FC Crvena zvezda expresses its deepest condolences to the Mitic family.