Its first matches were played against the club of the 8th Vienna Regiment, which Austrians called The 11 White Ones, and which was made up of members of Rapid and Wien Football Clubs from Vienna, who happened to be in Sarajevo on military service.
In summer of 1911, Sarajevo High School Club played its first match outside of BiH, when they faced off Hajduk from Split. To advertise this game, people from Split decided on their own to call the Sarajevo club Osman.
National clubs
On the eve of the fall of Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1913, politics got involved in football, so Osman seized to exist. New clubs were formed but were segregated according to the ethnicity of the players into a Serbian Sport Club Slavija, Croatian SAŠK, Bosniak Sarajevo Sport Club, and Jewish F.C. Barkohba.
In spite of this division, the railway workshop workers form the Workers Football Club Hajduk in 1912, and following the end of World War I, in September 1921 the railway workers create Football Club Željezničar or Željo as it is commonly known.
Mirroring the name of Moscow’s club, the communist government founded Football Club Torpedo in 1946. A year later, Torpedo changed its name to FC Sarajevo and with time it became the city’s new icon.
Stadiums in Sarajevo
Utilizing a collective volunteer action, Stadium Koševo was built in 1950, and in 1953 FC Željezničar got its stadium as well – Grbavica, where in 1954, the city’s first, of many derbies, was held.
During its long history, both of these teams have achieved great results such as Cup of former Yugoslavia, Championship of the Premier League of BiH, Cup of BiH, Super Cup of BiH…
Željo made its most significant international success in 1985 when it nearly reached the finals of UEFA Cup (Europe League today). In a glorious atmosphere on Grbavica Stadium that was played against the Hungarian Videoton, Željo was leading 2:0 up to the last minutes of the game, a score which guaranteed a passage to the finals and a face off with the great Real from Madrid. And then in the 87th minute of the game, in one of the club’s hardest moments, Videoton’s striker Cuhai scores a goal bursting Željo’s fans’ dreams into pieces.
On the other hand, FC Sarajevo fans are particularly proud of the club’s 1967 success and a match with the British champion Manchester United, when FC Sarajevo lost as an equal to one of the most glorious teams of all times.
Even though, Sarajevo derbies are not even the shadows of great ones played in the past, the face off of these two teams is still an exciting day for football fans. It is the time when the entire city breathes for football.
