Today shareholders decided to rename Crvena Zvezda’s stadium name in honor of Ratko Mitić, one of the club’s greatest legends.

Efforts of the last 4 years were rewarded today as shareholder vote gave overwhelming support to the renaming of Marakana, Serbia’s most legendary stadium. From now on the ground will be called Stadion Rajko Mitić.

The notion was first raised in 2008, as the player passed away. Campaign led by Zvezda veteran players gained momentum recently and on Friday official support was expressed also by Delije, the club’s most fanatic supporters.

Along some media reports the popular name Marakana will become a thing of the past soon, but that seems very unlikely. Serbia’s largest stadium has been popularly known as Marakana for nearly all of its existence and due to the tradition and economy of the nickname, it seems safe despite the official change.

Rajko Mitić was born in 1922. He was one of the founders and the very first “Zvezdina Zvezdy” (Star’s Star), having played 572 games for the club and scoring 262 goals. Over 11 years he also played 59 times for the Yugoslavian national team, scoring 32 times.