Red Star Agree Albert Rijera, Debut Set for Plzen
The Executive Board accepted Dejan Stankovic's resignation, and on Wednesday evening the club agreed a two-year deal with Albert Rijera. The new coach's name must reach UEFA by Friday midnight.
Part of the crowd whistled at Dejan Stankovic as he walked off the Marakana pitch after being sent off. Less than a day later, Red Star had called an emergency session of its Executive Board, and by Wednesday evening it already had a completely new name on the bench: Albert Rijera is coming to Belgrade.
The session started at noon on Wednesday, August 12. The head coach’s resignation was formally accepted, and the club was left without its entire coaching staff, since the whole technical department resigned along with him. The decision came right after elimination by Hapoel Be’er Sheva in the third round of Champions League qualifying.
Management, led by CEO Zvezdan Terzic, reached an agreement with the Spaniard on Wednesday evening. The contract runs for two seasons, financial terms were not disclosed, and the talks dragged on precisely because of money. Rijera was expected to fly into Belgrade on Thursday, Friday at the latest, to sign the contract and be presented at Rajko Mitic stadium.
The numbers from Stankovic’s second spell were not bad: 24 wins, 3 draws and 5 losses. He fell after a two-legged tie Red Star lost 0:3 on aggregate, including a 0:2 home defeat in the second leg, and only after he himself had been sent off. Both goals conceded that night came after his red card.
Why does the deadline expire Friday at midnight?
Because UEFA requires a coach’s name before the European season resumes, and Red Star drop out of Champions League qualifying into the Europa League playoff round. The first leg of that round is set for Thursday, August 20, against Czech side Viktoria Plzen, so the club has no room to push the decision into next week.
Terzic addressed that deadline when he spoke to reporters after the Executive Board session.
By Friday midnight we have an obligation to UEFA to submit the name of the new coach. We have been in negotiations since last night, since Stankovic resigned.
At the same press conference, he revealed how many names had been in the running, though not which ones. He said the club had spoken with two of three candidates and that he would prefer a domestic coach, adding that Serbia has not had a coach of that caliber in a long time. The only alternative candidate named in Serbian media was Radomir Kokovic, coach of Pancevo’s Zeleznicar.
Asked directly about Rijera, the CEO declined to answer: “You know it has never been Red Star’s style to talk about things that haven’t been finalized. I won’t answer this question and put myself in a weak negotiating position.”
First foreign coach since Bahar
Rijera is not a new name for Red Star. The club wanted him last winter too, when Vladan Milojevic left the bench, but the Spaniard chose the Bundesliga at the time. He lasted 104 days at Eintracht Frankfurt and left before the season ended, and before that he managed Slovenian side Celje, where he was dominant in the domestic league.
If everything goes as agreed, this will be Red Star’s first foreign coach since Barak Bahar in 2023. Over the past nine years, only Bahar, Milojevic and Stankovic have held the job.
What comes next
Rijera’s first match will be the Europa League playoff against Plzen, at Marakana. Because of the situation at the club, the away trip to Zeleznicar in round five of the Superliga, originally scheduled for Saturday at 8 p.m., has been postponed, giving the new coach a full week without a competitive match.
Seven days is not much for a coach who has not even seen his team play live, and Terzic himself admitted Red Star looked helpless against Hapoel. Rijera will not have the luxury of introducing his ideas gradually: whatever he cannot change by August 20 will be on display on the pitch against Plzen.
