substitutions, the team was handicapped and finally lost the match 2–0. He celebrated his 50th match with the national team during the 1954 World Cup against West Germany (who went on to become World Champion), but lost 2–0. He played his last match for the national team on 29 November 1957, in Bucharest against Romania, as a 35-year-old striker. The final score of the match was 1–1. Post-playing career, death and legacy He was part of the coaching staff at Red Star from 1960 until 1966 when he became a member of the national team selection committee which consisted of Mitić and Aleksandar Tirnanić, Miljan Miljanić, Vujadin Boškov and Branko Stanković. In 1967, he was promoted to head coach of the national team and he remained in that role until 1970. His biggest achievement as a coach was at the 1968 UEFA European Football Championship held in Italy, when the national team (led by Dragan Džajić) won the silver medal. When he retired in 1983, he applied himself actively as a volunteer in Red Star. He was a member of the team's leadership for a long time (including two mandates as vice president of the club). Even as an active player in the early fifties, he was a sportswriter for the daily newspaper Sport. Later on, for a long series of years until his retirement, he wrote for the weekly sports magazine Tempo. In a 2006 interview with Prvoslav Vujčić, fellow Red Star legend Dragoslav Šekularac was critical of Red Star's forgetting of Mitić in his later years. Mitic died on 29 March 2008, aged 85. He was interred in a family plot in the Belgrade New Cemetery on 2 April 2008. Until his death, he was active in the Council of Veterans together with the stars from his and later generations. Mitić is considered one of the most important players in the history of Red Star 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 Belgrade, was officially renamed after him. Career statistics See also Rajko Mitić Stadium References External links Reprezentacija.rs profile 1922 births 2008 deaths People from Bela Palanka Serbian footballers Association football forwards Serbian journalists Yugoslav First League players OFK Beograd players FK Partizan players Red Star Belgrade footballers Red Star Belgrade non-playing staff Yugoslav football managers Serbian