1938–39 Yugoslav Football Championship
Football league season
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The 1938â39 Yugoslav Football Championship, officially called State Championship (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: Državno prvenstvo; Serbian Cyrillic: ÐÑжавно пÑвенÑÑво) was the 16th season of the main association football competition in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
| Season | 1938â39 |
|---|---|
| Dates | 7 August 1938 â 30 April 1939 |
| Champions | BSK (5th title) |
| Matches | 132 |
| Goals | 443 (3.36 per match) |
| Top goalscorer | August Lešnik (22) |
â 1937â38 1939â40 â | |
The championship was played in a round-robin league format, featuring 12 clubs which qualified either directly or through playoffs organized by various regional football associations. Five out of the previous six national champions took part in this season (with only Concordia Zagreb missing).
The defending champions were HAÅ K, who finished fifth. First place was won by BSK from Belgrade, who won their fifth Yugoslav title with 5 points ahead of runners-up GraÄanski Zagreb. This was BSK's fifth national title, having previously won four in the period from 1931 to 1936, and it proved to be their last before the outbreak of World War II.
Top scorer was August LeÅ¡nik, then a 24-year-old seasoned forward for GraÄanski Zagreb, who scored 22 goals in 19 appearances, including five in a home game against Slavija Sarajevo in April 1939.
Teams
The national league was expanded from 10 to 12 clubs for the 1938â39 season. The previous season's last place finisher, HÅ K Concordia, were relegated, while the other top nine clubs earned an automatic spot in this year's edition.
The remaining three spots were filled with winners of three zonal qualifying playoffs. At the time, football in Yugoslavia was governed by 14 regional sub-federations, usually centered around a major city and named after it. Most of these organized a local championship, with winners entering the qualifying playoff.
- Zone I â Zagreb, Split, Ljubljana, and Banja Luka federations; won by Slavija Varaždin
- Zone II â Osijek, Subotica, Belgrade, Petrovgrad, and Novi Sad federations; won by Sparta Zemun
- Zone III â Skopje, Cetinje, Sarajevo, NiÅ¡, and Kragujevac federations; won by GraÄanski Skopje
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As of April 1939 and end of season
| Team | City | Managers | Ground |
|---|---|---|---|
| BASK | Belgrade |  Milutin IvkoviÄ |
|
| BSK | Beograd |  István Mészáros |
|
| GraÄanski | Zagreb | Márton Bukovi |
Stadion GraÄanskog |
| SK Gragjanski | Skopje | DuÅ¡an MarkoviÄ |
|
| Hajduk | Split | Illés Spitz |
Stari plac |
| HAŠK | Zagreb | Zoltán Opata |
Stadion HAÅ K |
| SK Jedinstvo | Belgrade | Branislav SekuliÄ |
Stadion Jedinstva |
| SK Jugoslavija | Belgrade | Gyula Feldmann |
Stadion Jugoslavije |
| SK Ljubljana | Ljubljana | Nedeljko BuljeviÄ |
Stadion ob Tyrševi cesti |
| Slavija | Sarajevo | ||
| Slavija | Varaždin |  Karl Mütsch |
|
| SK Zemun | Zemun | Hans Å najder |
|
- Managerial changes during season
- BSK â Sándor Nemes replaced by István Mészáros
- Gragjanski â Vladimir KujundžiÄ replaced by DuÅ¡an MarkoviÄ
- SK Zemun â Adolf Engel replaced by Hans Å najder
League
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GAv | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BSK (C) | 22 | 17 | 3 | 2 | 67 | 14 | 4.786 | 37 |
| 2 | GraÄanski Zagreb | 22 | 14 | 4 | 4 | 53 | 17 | 3.118 | 32 |
| 3 | SK Jugoslavija | 22 | 12 | 4 | 6 | 37 | 24 | 1.542 | 28 |
| 4 | Hajduk Split | 22 | 11 | 5 | 6 | 51 | 30 | 1.700 | 27 |
| 5 | HAÅ K | 22 | 10 | 5 | 7 | 41 | 27 | 1.519 | 25 |
| 6 | SK Jedinstvo | 22 | 8 | 4 | 10 | 35 | 40 | 0.875 | 20 |
| 7 | Slavija Sarajevo | 22 | 7 | 5 | 10 | 34 | 43 | 0.791 | 19 |
| 8 | BASK | 22 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 27 | 36 | 0.750 | 19 |
| 9 | SK Ljubljana | 22 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 23 | 41 | 0.561 | 18 |
| 10 | GraÄanski Skopje | 22 | 7 | 2 | 13 | 31 | 57 | 0.544 | 16 |
| 11 | Sparta Zemun | 22 | 5 | 3 | 14 | 21 | 60 | 0.350 | 13 |
| 12 | Slavija Varaždin | 22 | 4 | 2 | 16 | 23 | 54 | 0.426 | 10 |
Results
Winning squad
Champions:
BSK Beograd (manager: Sándor Nemes; then István Mészáros)[1]
- GK â Anton Puhar (15)
- GK â SrÄan MrkuÅ¡iÄ (7)
- DF â Ernest Dubac (19/2)
- DF â ÄorÄe StojiljkoviÄ (19/0)
- DF â Predrag RadovanoviÄ (3/0)
- DF â Jovan Beleslin (2/0)
- DF â Milorad RanÄiÄ (2/0)
- MF â Gustav Lechner (22/0)
- MF â Prvoslav DragiÄeviÄ (15/0)
- MF â Bruno KneževiÄ (7/0)
- MF â Ivan StevoviÄ (5/0)
- FW â Svetislav GliÅ¡oviÄ (22/11)
- FW â ÄorÄe VujadinoviÄ (21/12)
- FW â Petar Manola (16/0)
- FW â Svetislav ValjareviÄ (15/10)
- FW â Vojin BožoviÄ (14/9)
- FW â Dobrivoje ZeÄeviÄ (13/9)
- FW â Ján Podhradský (12/9)
- FW â Milorad NikoliÄ (10/4)
- FW â Blagoje MarjanoviÄ (3/0)
Top scorers
Final goalscoring position, number of goals, player/players and club.[1]
- 22 goals â August LeÅ¡nik (GraÄanski Zagreb)
- 19 goals â Frane MatoÅ¡iÄ (Hajduk Split)
- 15 goals â Aleksandar PetroviÄ (Jugoslavija)
- 13 goals â Jozo MatoÅ¡iÄ (Hajduk Split), Ratko Kacian (HAÅ K), Manojlo ŽivkoviÄ (Jedinstvo)
- 12 goals â ÄorÄe VujadinoviÄ (BSK)
- 11 goals â Svetislav GliÅ¡oviÄ (BSK), Milan RajliÄ (Slavija Sarajevo), Slavko PavletiÄ (Slavija Varaždin)