# 1938–39 Yugoslav Football Championship

The 1938–39 Yugoslav Football Championship, officially called State Championship (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: Državno prvenstvo; Serbian Cyrillic: Државно првенство) was the 16th season of the main association football competition in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
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 HAŠK, who finished fifth. First place was won by BSK from Belgrade, who won their fifth Yugoslav title with 5 points ahead of runners-up Građanski 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 Lešnik, then a 24-year-old seasoned forward for Građanski 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 1938–39 season. The previous season's last place finisher, HŠK 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 – Zagreb, Split, Ljubljana, and Banja Luka federations; won by Slavija Varaždin
* Zone II – Osijek, Subotica, Belgrade, Petrovgrad, and Novi Sad federations; won by Sparta Zemun
* Zone III – Skopje, Cetinje, Sarajevo, Niš, and Kragujevac federations; won by Građanski Skopje
As of April 1939 and end of season
| Team | City | Managers | Ground |
| BASK | Belgrade | Milutin Ivković | |
| BSK | Beograd | István Mészáros | |
| Građanski | Zagreb | Márton Bukovi | Stadion Građanskog |
| SK Gragjanski | Skopje | Dušan Marković | |
| Hajduk | Split | Illés Spitz | Stari plac |
| HAŠK | Zagreb | Zoltán Opata | Stadion HAŠK |
| SK Jedinstvo | Belgrade | Branislav Sekulić | Stadion Jedinstva |
| SK Jugoslavija | Belgrade | Gyula Feldmann | Stadion Jugoslavije |
| SK Ljubljana | Ljubljana | Nedeljko Buljević | Stadion ob Tyrševi cesti |
| Slavija | Sarajevo | | |
| Slavija | Varaždin | Karl Mütsch | |
| SK Zemun | Zemun | Hans Šnajder | |

### Managerial changes during season

* BSK – Sándor Nemes replaced by István Mészáros
* Gragjanski – Vladimir Kujundžić replaced by Dušan Marković
* SK Zemun – Adolf Engel replaced by Hans Šnajder

## League

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GAv | Pts |
| 1 | BSK (C) | 22 | 17 | 3 | 2 | 67 | 14 | 4.786 | 37 |
| 2 | Građanski 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 | HAŠK | 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 | Građanski 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

| Home \ Away | BAS | BSK | GRS | GRZ | HAJ | HŠK | JED | JUG | LJU | SLS | SLV | SPZ |
| BASK | | 0–5 | 6–2 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 1–4 | 3–2 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 3–1 | 0–1 |
| BSK | 2–0 | | 3–1 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 2–2 | 4–0 | 1–2 | 5–0 | 4–1 | 9–0 | 4–0 |
| Građanski Skopje | 1–0 | 1–2 | | 1–4 | 2–5 | 3–5 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 4–1 | 2–1 | 1–1 |
| Građanski Zagreb | 2–2 | 1–2 | 2–1 | | 3–0 | 1–1 | 5–0 | 1–1 | 6–0 | 6–0 | 3–1 | 4–0 |
| Hajduk Split | 3–0 | 2–2 | 4–1 | 0–1 | | 3–1 | 3–2 | 3–0 | 4–0 | 2–2 | 5–1 | 6–0 |
| HAŠK | 1–1 | 0–1 | 8–0 | 0–1 | 1–2 | | 1–5 | 3–0 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 2–0 |
| SK Jedinstvo | 3–3 | 0–4 | 1–2 | 0–2 | 1–1 | 2–1 | | 1–2 | 4–1 | 2–2 | 1–0 | 3–0 |
| SK Jugoslavija | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 0–2 | 0–1 | | 2–0 | 3–0 | 0–0 | 7–0 |
| SK Ljubljana | 2–0 | 1–2 | 1–2 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 0–0 | | 0–0 | 3–1 | 3–2 |
| Slavija Sarajevo | 3–0 | 1–2 | 3–2 | 2–1 | 1–2 | 1–2 | 3–1 | 2–4 | 2–0 | | 3–1 | 3–1 |
| Slavija Varaždin | 0–0 | 0–5 | 2–0 | 2–4 | 1–1 | 1–2 | 1–3 | 3–4 | 3–1 | 2–1 | | 2–3 |
| Sparta Zemun | 0–1 | 0–5 | 4–1 | 0–3 | 3–3 | 1–5 | 1–0 | 0–3 | 2–3 | 1–1 | 1–0 | |

## Winning squad

Champions:
BSK Beograd (manager: Sándor Nemes; then István Mészáros)
* GK – Anton Puhar (15)
* GK – Srđan Mrkušić (7)
* DF – Ernest Dubac (19/2)
* DF – Đorđe Stojiljković (19/0)
* DF – Predrag Radovanović (3/0)
* DF – Jovan Beleslin (2/0)
* DF – Milorad Rančić (2/0)
* MF – Gustav Lechner (22/0)
* MF – Prvoslav Dragićević (15/0)
* MF – Bruno Knežević (7/0)
* MF – Ivan Stevović (5/0)
* FW – Svetislav Glišović (22/11)
* FW – Đorđe Vujadinović (21/12)
* FW – Petar Manola (16/0)
* FW – Svetislav Valjarević (15/10)
* FW – Vojin Božović (14/9)
* FW – Dobrivoje Zečević (13/9)
* FW – Ján Podhradský (12/9)
* FW – Milorad Nikolić (10/4)
* FW – Blagoje Marjanović (3/0)

## Top scorers

Final goalscoring position, number of goals, player/players and club.
* 22 goals – August Lešnik (Građanski Zagreb)
* 19 goals – Frane Matošić (Hajduk Split)
* 15 goals – Aleksandar Petrović (Jugoslavija)
* 13 goals – Jozo Matošić (Hajduk Split), Ratko Kacian (HAŠK), Manojlo Živković (Jedinstvo)
* 12 goals – Đorđe Vujadinović (BSK)
* 11 goals – Svetislav Glišović (BSK), Milan Rajlić (Slavija Sarajevo), Slavko Pavletić (Slavija Varaždin)