Jagodina

Beginnings of FK Jagodina (1906–1939)

It was 1906, when Sreten Adžić, today one of the most famous educators of Serbia and former student of the Universities of Vienna and Leipzig, brought the first football from Vienna to Jagodina. As the founder and director of the first male teachers school in the city, he saw in football the educational value of the physical, social and emotional development, as well as the opportunity for development of the youthful mind, with the goal of ethical virtues to maintain.

Over the years, football received more attention from the population and became very popular in the region, so that few months after the end of World War I, more precisely in 1919, the first football club was founded, after initiative of Milan Trifunović and several former Serbian soldiers, and the new club was named JSK Zora.

The first match was organized by Josip Baner, the brother of Franc Baner, who brought the second ball to Jagodina. He had the idea when he returned home from Skopje, and the club played against a combined team of SK Jugoslavija and BSK Belgrade, which they won the match surprising by 6–0 in front of 200 spectators.

In 1921, JSK Zora was disbanded and a new club, named SK Sparta, was formed, but in the same year the club was banned and changed its name in JSK Budućnost, which played in the league system of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1923, the club won the League of the Šumadija region, which corresponded to the third national tier. In the meantime, several teams were formed, but were later dissolved and their players formed in 1935 the football club JSK.

During the World War II (1939–1947)

During the World War II, the JSK was one of the strongest clubs in the country, but the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was attacked and occupied by the Axis powers. The region around Jagodina was under Nazi German military occupation by the Wehrmacht, but despite all difficulties, the JSK accomplishes major results in the national competition, in which could not every club participate for different reasons.

So in 1943, where JSK played 45 matches of which were won 32, and achieved the top position of the regional league of Morava Banovina. In the qualifications for the Serbian League, the club defeat Šumadija Kragujevac, however, the following season was postponed and never played. Its last match in this period was played on 25 May 1944, when they won SK Karađorđe from neighboring city Paraćin by 1–0.

On 9 May 1945, the day of the German Instrument of Surrender, which marked the end of the World War II, a new sports club, named SD Polet, was founded and competed in the league of Morava county. In 1946, the club was renamed to FK Nikčević, after Radislav Nikčević, a Serbian resistance fighter from Jagodina who was captured during the war by German soldiers and killed during a liberation struggle. Posthumously he received the title of People's Hero of Yugoslavia and 1951 from President Josip Broz Tito the Order of the People's Hero.

Name changes and club-merger (1947–1962)

In 1947, the FK Nikčević reached the 1/16 finals of the Yugoslav Cup. In 1949, the club renamed again its name, this time to FK Sloga, and competed in the league of Kragujevac. Among the club management belonged then Mile Milovanović, Dušan Stojković and Ljubiša Milosavljević. In 1951, the club was renamed in FK Mladost. 1953 was Rale Ristić the club president and Ostoja Simić the head coach of the team, which met during the Yugoslav Cup the defending champion Partizan Belgrade. Already in 1954, the club received the name FK Morava, named after the Morava, the longest river in Serbia, and on its shores also Jagodina is located.

1957 reached the club for the first time the Yugoslav Second League, specifically the IV Zona, then the second league consisted of five minor leagues. The captain of this generation was Dimitrije Milosavljević. During this same period, other football clubs were formed in Jagodina, including the FK Mladi Radnik in 1948, which was renamed 1952 in FK Jedinstvo. In the same year Jedinstvo won under coach Budimir Milivojević the City Cup, called Liberation of Svetozarevo, than the city bore during the Socialist Yugoslavia the name Svetozarevo after Svetozar Marković. In the finals they defeated previously Morava 3–2.

In 1952, also the FK Svetozarevo was established and soon the club was renamed to OFK Kablovi, after the local cable factory. In 1958 the city received its own stadium, the Jagodina City Stadium, which was built in the very south of the city, near the hill Đurđevo brdo, which offered 20,000 spectators at the time and was used by several Jagodina football clubs.

Finally it came on 14 October 1962 to a decisive merger of the clubs Morava, Jedinstvo and OFK Kablovi into one single club, today's FK Jagodina, which brought the end of a long era of name changes. Despite the turbulent history until then, the numerous name changes and the club fusion, the roots of the FK Jagodina are in 1919, the founding year of the JSK Zora, the very first football club in the city. Thus, even the FK Jagodina called officially 1919 as its founding year and is the successor of all of these clubs and continues their tradition.

Triste years, rise and establishment (1962–2008)

FK Jagodina did not record significant results in the following decades, and the club was located mainly in the fourth, and occasionally in the third stage of the Yugoslav football competition. After the dissolution of the Socialist Yugoslavia in 1992, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was established, which consisted of Serbia and Montenegro. The club achieved its major success since 1957, when they reached the second league, in 1993, when they promoted to the Second League of FR Yugoslavia, but they immediately relegated in the same season.

After a few setbacks, the club reached its new low point between 2002 and 2006, when they competed in the fourth-tier of the national football system. However, 2006 marked a turning point for FK Jagodina, because they were vice champions of the 2005–06 Pomoravlje-Timok Zone League and subsequently won the championship title of 2006–07 Serbian League East, one of the four sections of the Serbian League, the third national tier, and thus played next season in the Serbian First League. There the club succeeded immediately the vice championship of the 2007–08 Serbian First League and the attacker Igor Pavlović as top scorer with 17 goals played a major role. So, the FK Jagodina achieved three successive promotions, and returned in 2008 to the top flight, the Serbian SuperLiga, in which the club could also establish and it remained until nowadays.

Cup victory and Europe League (2008–2015)

Under head coach Simo Krunić, the 2011–12 SuperLiga season marked FK Jagodina's best season ever, finishing the season in fourth place, and thus booking a place in the 2012–13 Europa League. The first half of the next 2012–13 season the club achieved third place, making 2012 the most successful year in club's history to date, but the following season to exceed even the 2012 breakout year. Jagodina won the 2012–13 Serbian Cup, and it was the first major trophy in the club's history, with the losing opponent being a strong Vojvodina team. At the Partizan Stadium, where the final was played, the Blues defeated the favorites from Novi Sad 1–0. Milan Đurić scored the decisive goal with a penalty and shot FK Jagodina, in its first final, to its first Cup victory and biggest club success in almost a hundred years of club history. The penalty decision came as defender Đorđe Jokić handballed after a shot by Miloš Stojanović. Later, in the city center, the cup victory celebrations took place, which was attended also by Dragan Marković, the current president of the city council and party leader of United Serbia.

Something has happened, which the city of Jagodina has never experienced in its history, namely that the FK Jagodina won the Serbian Cup. Why do we have so much invested in the sport: We want that the role models of the young people are on the sports fields. And all this city carries, what relates to sports, I consider is not a bad investment. […] In this way, we will continue to dissuade young people from the bad way, as well as drugs and alcohol and provide them with conditions that allow them to participate in the sport.

— Dragan Marković, Current president of the city council and former mayor of Jagodina and supporters of the club, 10 May 2013

The winning team and the coach, Krunić, were driven on a Double-decker bus from the Jagodina City Stadium to the city center and were greeted by thousands of people who celebrated their team and the club's historic success. The celebrations were accompanied by Serbian Brass Music, music typical for this region. The season finished with FK Jagodina again in the fourth place, again reaching the 2013–14 Europa League. Miloš Stojanović, who scored 19 goals, was also the top scorer in the league. In the following Europa League season Jagodina lost to Rubin Kazan 2–3 and 0–1. The 2013–14 season finished under the direction of a new coach, Mladen Dodić, in third place, so far the highest placing in club's history, and booking another spot in the 2014–15 Europa League. The club again reached the Serbian Cup final against the same team as the year before, but this time Vojvodina won 2–0. At the end of the season, Jagodina's striker Aleksandar Pešić was the second highest scorer of the league.