Savić Dušan

Born June 1, 1955 in Uba.

The celebrated center forward of the Red Star from the seventies, is the only football player from the former Yugoslavia who was inspired by rockers and directors of contemporary urban films.

He made his first football steps in Jedinstvo from Ub, and later people from Zvezda noticed his talent, unlike his eternal rival from Humska, so Dule became an express member of Zvezda’s youth school.

He played for the first team of the red and whites from 1973 to 1982. He played 258 competitive matches and scored 149 goals (a total of 410 matches and 266 goals counting all matches). He is the third scorer in the history of the club in terms of the number of goals in competitive matches (149), the second in terms of the number of goals in the championship (119) and the third in terms of the number of goals in Eurocups (20). He won two championship titles in 1977 and 1980 and one Cup in 1982. He missed winning the title in the 1980/81 season due to the army, so he did not record a place in the championship. He was twice the league’s top scorer in the 1974/75 (20 goals) and 1978/79 (24 goals) seasons.

He made his debut for Zvezda at the end of the 1973/74 season, when he scored six goals in nine games. Already in the 1974/75 season, he was the first scorer of the club and the championship of Yugoslavia with 20 goals (he shared the first place with Boško Đorđević from Partizan). He scored three times in the victory against Olimpija (4: 1), and he also scored important goals in triumphs over Zagreb’s Dinamo (3: 2) and Partizan (3: 1). That season, he scored three goals in the Cup Winners’ Cup, one each against PAOK (2: 0), Avenir (6: 1) and Ferencvaros (1: 2), and the red and whites reached the semifinals, which is the best the result of the club in this competition, which ceased to exist in 1999. Dule Savić scored a total of 23 goals in all competitions in the 1974/75 season and was convincingly the team’s top scorer.

The following season, he had a weaker performance, because in 19 league matches, he beat the opposing goalkeepers nine times, three times against Buducnost (4: 0), and once against Partizan (4: 1). He won the first championship title with the red and whites, and the first trophy in general, in the 1976/77 season, when he was the team’s second scorer (behind Zoran Filipović) with 15 goals in 25 championship matches. It is interesting that he scored the first goal in that championship season only in the 11th round against Zagreb (2: 2), and in the second part of the season he was in great shape. In five consecutive matches, he joined the scorers, and in the last round against Sarajevo’s Željezničar, he scored as many as four goals in a 5: 2 victory.

The 1977/78 championship ended with six goals in 16 matches, and for the second time he became the league’s top scorer in the 1978/79 season, when he scored as many as 24 goals in 30 games (again four in an identical 5: 2 victory against Željezničar, and two in the eternal derby for a 3-0 victory against a regular customer). However, that season passed in the sign of Zvezda’s campaign until the UEFA Cup final, and Dule Savić played all 12 matches on that road, as much as the goalkeeper Aleksandar Stojanović. The two of them are the club’s record holders in the number of matches in one season in European cups.

The goal scorer of the red and whites scored five goals in the UEFA Cup that season. He hit the net of Dinamo in East Berlin (2: 5) in the first round and in the return match in Belgrade (4: 1), then became famous with a goal against Arsenal (1: 1) at Highbury in the 87th minute to advance to the quarterfinals, where he was great with a goal from a free kick, he knocked down West Bromwich Albion in Belgrade (1: 0), and in the semifinals he was the scorer of the winning goal against Hertha Berlin (1: 0). The head-scoring master scored a total of 33 goals in all competitions that season, but did not reach the trophy, which he corrected in the 1979/80 championship season, when he led the Red Star to the Yugoslav title with 11 goals in the championship. scored 14 goals, but the matches against Željezničar and Osijek were registered with official results in favor of Zvezda, so his goals from those matches were not included in the official statistics). The victory in Split against Hajduk of 3: 1 stood out, where the red and whites rarely managed to celebrate, and Dule Savić scored two goals in that match.

He missed the next season because of the army, and Zvezda managed to defend the trophy without him, with Zdravko Borovnica, who played in the attack and was the first scorer of the red and whites in the championship season, even though he was a defender until then. Dule returned to the team in the 1981/82 season, when he was once again the team’s top scorer with 16 league goals in 30 games, while he participated in winning the Cup with five goals in four matches, including two of his goals against Zagreb’s Dinamo in the final. for a 4: 2 victory and winning the national cup after an 11-year break. In the same season, he scored four goals in the Champions Cup – the most in the team. He scored twice against Hibernians from Malta (8: 1), and once against Banjica from Ostrava (3: 0) and Anderlecht (1: 2), since Zvezda was eliminated in the quarterfinals. He also played masterfully in the autumn half-season of 1982, when he scored 13 goals in 15 games, which was enough to be the best scorer of Zvezda at the end of the 1982/83 season, and he led the list of the best goal scorers in the championship for a long time. although he already played extensively for Sporting Gijon, where he continued his career in 1983.

In the 1983/84 season, he played for French Lille and scored 12 goals in 36 league matches. the following season he was even more successful and in 34 games he scored 13 times. A new page in Savić’s rich career since 1985 was Cannes. Already in the first season in the jersey of this club, he scored 15 goals in 31 championship games. He also had a notable effect in the 1987/88 season, when he beat the opposing goalkeepers 11 times in 30 matches, and in the Kana jersey he finished his football career in 1989.

He played 12 games for the national team of Yugoslavia and scored four goals. He made his debut on May 31, 1975 against the Netherlands, when he scored a 3-0 victory. The last match for the national team was played on October 13, 1982 against Norway in the qualifications for the European Championship, when he scored the only goal for Yugoslavia in the 1: 3 defeat. If he was to the taste of the then selectors, it is certain that he would have played far more matches, because he deserved it in terms of quality, but then the rules of assembling the national team according to the national key prevailed, so that each republic would have a player in the selection.

Later, he was the sports director of the Red Star, and his son Vujadin also played for the first team of the red and whites a few seasons ago. Dule Savić was a favorite of Zvezda fans due to his fighting spirit, aggression and goal-scoring skills. The rock group “Dirty Inspector Blaž and the Beaks” also has a song about the legendary Red Star shooter, and he also appeared in the movie “Lightning”, where he played himself in one scene.

He is married to TV journalist Marina Rajević Savić, author and host of the show “While Angels Sleep”. Dušan and Marina Savić have two sons, Uroš and Vujadin.

Utakmice reprezentacije Jugoslavije u kojima je nastupao:

PU	31.05.1975	Jugoslavija	–	Holandija	3-0	(2-0)
KEP	04.06.1975	Švedska	–	Jugoslavija	1-2	(1-1)
PU	18.02.1976	Tunis	–	Jugoslavija	2-1	(2-1)
KSP	08.05.1977	Jugoslavija	–	Rumunija	0-2	(0-2)
PU	26.06.1977	Brazil	–	Jugoslavija	0-0	(0-0)
PU	03.07.1977	Argentina	–	Jugoslavija	1-0	(1-0)
KEP	04.10.1978	Jugoslavija	–	Španija	1-2	(1-2)
BK	15.11.1978	Jugoslavija	–	Grčka	4-1	(1-1)
KEP	01.04.1979	Kipar	–	Jugoslavija	0-3	(0-1)
PU	16.09.1979	Jugoslavija	–	Argentina	4-2	(1-0)
KEP	14.11.1979	Jugoslavija	–	Kipar	5-0	(1-0)
KEP	13.10.1982	Norveška	–	Jugoslavija	3-1	(1-0)