Nikola Jelić is the new director of the Crvena zvezda Youth School

- It is a great honor and an even greater obligation to be the director of the Youth School of FC Crvena Zvezda. We know that our club has one of the largest fan armies in Europe and the region, so the responsibility is much greater. I would like to thank the management of Crvena zvezda for their trust, general director Zvezdan Tezić, president Svetozar Mijailović, sports director Mitro Mrkela, operational director Marko Petrović and technical director Marko Marin, who especially believe in my work. I hope that in the past period I managed to achieve everything that was planned, together with my closest collaborators, and that the crown of hard work came with the title of director of the football academy - Jelić pointed out.

The football manager, who has already achieved outstanding results in working with young players and coaches for eight years, emphasizes his desire for greater progress and development of the Crvena Zvezda Youth School.

- Crvena zvezda has to be in the ranks of the biggest European clubs organizationally and on the field. Regardless of infrastructure and other factors, including financial conditions, we have to compete with the best football academies, that's definitely the way we're going. We want the players to mature faster and to prepare for senior football as quickly as possible. If you work hard, diligently and hard, the results will come by themselves. It is not possible to select the best young lads and train them well without the results following it. Simply, that is the path we strive to follow - said the director of the Youth School of FC Crvena zvezda.

Nikola Jelić was born on December 9, 1976 in Belgrade. As a player, he performed in the youth center of Čukarički. He showed his desire for education after completing his junior internship, when he entered and then graduated from the Faculty of Sports and Physical Education, with a master's degree at the same university. He started working as a coach with younger categories in FC Kneževac in 1997, and three seasons later he was the founder of the Žarkovo football academy. Very successful work in our region took him abroad, where he spent five years in Russia as the deputy director of the Youth School in Krasnodar. After half a decade, he returned to Serbia and assumed the role of head coach in working with young players at FC Crvena zvezda. In an interval of eight years, he achieved top results and, together with his associates, produced numerous football talents, who played in the first team of our club.