Greenhorns of this year’s cups: four years after promotion from the second league, Bačka Topola played for the Champions League

It was unusual to see Bačka Topola instead of Partizan Belgrade in the Champions League preliminaries. The Serbian no-name team made it to the Serbian league for the first time only four years ago and finished in the top 4 in their first season after that success. Now the Europa League group awaits them.

Bačka Topola was founded in 1913 in the area of the then Austria-Hungary. The first sponsor of the club was the Beer Karoly brewery, which also brought the first football to the town.

As in the previous part of our series on Zrinjski Mostar, the end of the First World War marked a change. The territory fell to Yugoslavia and Mostar wandered into the fourth highest league. For many years, the coach operated on a rather amateur level.

Through the years in the lower competitions, we’ll go back to 2003. At that time Topola suffered financial problems that forced the club to cancel the A-team and play only in the youth categories.

The situation was solved by joining another Serbian team. After the reunification with FK Bajša, Topola had to start in the fifth highest competition, but even this did not break them. Bačka gradually worked its way up.

In 2013, the club celebrated its centenary with a friendly against Partizan Belgrade. When it lost 1: 4, it certainly had no idea that ten seasons later it would leave the famous Serbian club behind in the table and play Champions League qualification instead.

In the 2016/17 season Bačka jumped to the second league, two seasons later they celebrated their historic promotion to the top flight. She graced her debut season in the top flight with a fourth place finish and promotion to the Conference Preliminary Round.

While then Topola was eliminated in the second preliminary round on penalties against FCSB, this year they were assured of at least the Europa League thanks to their second place finish. They were eliminated from the Champions League after a 1:7 aggregate loss to the experienced Portuguese Braga.

Their debut in the cups will be held at the 2021 stadium, which is a UEFA Category 3 stadium, i.e. eligible for international matches.

And if things go well against Freiburg, West Ham and Olympiakos, maybe someone will fly out like the offspring of Dusan Tadic did years ago.

Source: TSC Bačka Topola