Rajko Mitić (, ; 19 November 1922 – 29 March 2008) was a Serbian footballer, coach, executive and journalist. Mitić is considered one of the most important players in the history of Red Star Belgrade as he is the first out of only five players to have been awarded the Zvezdina zvezda. In December 2014, Red Star Stadium, the principal stadium in Serbia, was officially renamed after him. Playing career Club career Košutnjak and BSK Before becoming the first successful player of Red Star Belgrade, Mitić started his career in 1937 on the football fields of Košutnjak. In May 1938, he was transferred to BSK Belgrade where he played from 1938–1944. For BSK, he became a member of the junior team of the then-champion. Two years later, in 1940, he had his debut as a striker for the first team, where he scored two goals. The Second World War halted his football development, but he continued playing in 1944 for the engineer squadron under which he fought along with fellow future Yugoslav national team players Predrag Đajić and Jovan Jezerkić. Red Star Belgrade Short after Red Star Belgrade was founded on 4 March 1945, Mitić became the captain of the team, and wore the red and white uniform for fourteen seasons. In Red Star's uniform, he scored 262 goals in 572 matches in total. His popularity in the early fifties surpassed Belgrade and reached out to other cities and towns as well. As captain and leader of the team, he won five league titles (1951, 1953, 1956, 1957, and 1959) and four national cup titles (1948, 1949, 1950, and 1958). One of his fondest memories was the first championship title, won in a dramatic finish, when the first place Dinamo Zagreb lost their lead by slipping in the last three rounds. This allowed Red Star to win by a better goal ratio of 0.018 goals. He almost never missed a match, except in 1947, when he had to go to rehabilitation after a knee meniscus operation. As captain, he most frequently reminisced of Red Star's match on 7 April 1957 against Hajduk in Split, when he pulled the entire team off the pitch in the 71st minute (with the result at 1–1) after a stone thrown from a disgruntled Red Star fan in the stands hit Bora Kostić in the head. The disciplinary committee of the Football Association of Yugoslavia