Football is a kind of sport bringing trophies, and the most popular one in this area as well as everywhere else in the world. Since the moment when the first ball had rolled in these parts of the country, it was obvious that no one could stop this “contagion”. Pirot always had good football games and there were also good football players.

Before the Second World War, two football players from Pirot played for the Yugoslav national team. They were: Miroslav Paunovic “Paun” and Mahojlo Zivkovic “Badza”. They went off to Belgrade and played for “Yugoslavia” and “Jedinstvo “, which were, together with “BSK”, the most popular clubs those days. Then, in 1945, football club “Radnicki” was established and it soon became trade-mark of our town. From 1969 club “Radnicki” was taking a competition with several pauses in the second national league and was always present among ten best clubs in the country at so-called “Eternal list”. One of the most meritorious people for this rise of “Radnicki” was, surely, Dragan Nikolic. This exceptional sportsman and a great football admirer was in charge of “The White Lads” at the moments of their greatest success. The leadership of the club proclaimed him a lifelong honorary president in order to express gratitude. Three times, “The White lads” almost entered the first national league in 1975/76; 1976/77 and 1995/96.   At that time, “Radnicki” played third; the first national league could enter only the outstanding clubs, such as: FC “Vardar”, Skopje, FYR Macedonia, FC “Pristina”, Pristina, Kosovo and Metohia, Serbia and FC “Napredak”, Krusevac, Serbia. In the largest competition, Yugoslav Championship in 1975/76 they entered the quarter-final where FC “Dinamo”, Zagreb, Croatia, beat them. Before that, in the eighth finals, “The White lads” beat “ Crvena Zvezda”, Belgrade with 4:2. Other games to remember were played with “Sloboda” , Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Velez”, Mostar, B&H, “Hajduk”, Split, Croatia. FC “Radnicki” took part in competition at two tournaments in Spain, and played with Bulgarian and Guinea national teams and many other foreign teams. Frequent quests in Pirot were “Crvena Zvezda” and “Partizan”, both from Belgrade.

Maybe the most significant fact is that many great individuals were members of this club. Jovan Andelkovic “Cikan”, Jovan “Loki” Stankovic and Rade Minic played for national team, as well. Also, deceased Andelkovic played for FC ”Radnicki”, Nis and FC “Crvena Zveda”, Belgrade. Manic and Stankovic are distinguished players outside this country. Jovan “Loki” Stankovic went off to Belgrade and played for “Red Star” and “Radnicki”, New Belgrade, then for Spanish FC “Maiorka” and FC “Olimpic”, Marsei. Presently, he is in Spain, once again playing for FC “Atletiko” Madrid. As a member of our national team, he played at European Championship in Belgium and the Netherlands in 2000. Playing for “Majorka”, he played in the final game at KPK in 1999, where FC “Lacio” Rome beat them 2:1. After his experience with FC “Radnicki” Pirot and FC ”Radnicki” Nis,  Manic went off to the Far East to play for Korean team at first, luckily, winning the “golden spikes” as the best goal-getter of Asia. Consequently, he settled down in Japan in “J” league. Some other football players originated from Pirot, who played abroad: Bozidar Mijalkovic, Radovan Andjelkovic, Miroljub Djordjevic, Dragan Veljkovic, Aleksandar Panajotovic, Slavoljub Pavlovic, Slobodan Djosev, Bogoljub Panic, Desimir Krstic, Bratislav Mijalkovic… The last one of them played for FC ”Partizan”, Belgrade and Italian FC ”Perudja”, after successful career in FC ”Radnicki”. There is also one interesting detail about him and that is that he is football player from this town with the greatest number of “eternal derby” (7). Miroljub Djordjevic gave his best for FC ”Radnicki”. He played at 408 official games and shot 150 goals. No one will ever be expected to achieve it again. In 1995, at 50^th anniversary of this club, he was proclaimed a best football player of all times. Having left Pirot, many players reached outstanding results. Some of them were: Marijan Zivkovic (Yugoslav champion with FC”Obilic”, Belgrade 1997), Milan Radovic (FC”Rijeka”, Croatia), Stevanovic, Ignjatovic, Mitic (FC”Radnicki”, Nis). We must not forget professor Mr. Zivorad Stankovic, being successful both as a player and as a coach. Twice, he took part in the competitions, playing with FC” Radnicki” as to enter the Second National League. He has played for “Radnicki” for 20 years. Moreover, he played more than eight hundred games in “White Suit”) together with Manic, Rancic, Jocic, Tosic, Pavlov, Stojanovic. In contrast, there are also many great players who came to Pirot to play football and started great careers here. Some of them are: Slobodan Janjus, Ljube Stevanovic, Milan Radovic, Mateja Kezman, Nenad Jestrovic, Vladimir Petkovic, Ivana Gvozdenovic. Additionally, some of the great experts who worked in Pirot were: Kalopezovic, Simic, Mitic, Mitrovic, Tomic. Nevertheless, the list of the distinguished ones is inexhaustible. Unfortunately, this survey is space-limited, so that attention cannot be paid fully to all those who really deserve it.