Prishtina

The club was founded in 1922 under the name Kosovo. Later on their name changed to Proleter, Bashkimi, Kosova and finally Prishtina.

1922–1926: Beginnings of FC Prishtina (Football Club Kosovo)

Football began to be played and developed in Kosovo shortly after the end of the First World War, around 1919. Many demobilized Serbian soldiers, officers, and students returning from universities in France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, England, Budapest, and elsewhere brought with them an interest in the sport. One student from Samerslen College in Grenoble (France) is recorded as having brought the first football to Prishtina in 1919, a gift he had received from a doctor he had met there.

With the introduction of the first football in Prishtina, many young people began playing informally, though no organized structure existed at the time. Only friendly matches were played, primarily between school youth and the local military garrison.

As time passed, the need for a formally organized club grew stronger. In 1922, when Prishtina was a small town of roughly 16,000 inhabitants, local high school students took the initiative to form the first organized football club, named Kosovo. Although the club did not participate in official competitions due to not being registered with any sporting authority, it regularly played friendly matches. The team was composed mainly of high school students and was occasionally reinforced by soldiers from the Priština Garrison of the Yugoslav Royal Army.

These friendly matches were commonly played against other newly formed teams both within Kosovo and in nearby Macedonia.

In 1926, another football club was established in Prishtina: Građanski, which primarily gathered the town's artisan youth. Unlike Kosova, Građanski was financially stronger and more structurally consolidated. The club took advantage of this and succeeded in registering with the Banovina Skopje Football Sub-League, although detailed records of the level of competition are not available.

1939–1945: War years

In the beginning the club competed in Yugoslav lower leagues all the way until the beginning of World War II when the region was annexed to Albania. In 1942 Prishtina competed in the North group of the 1942 Albanian Championship finishing in fourth and bottom place of their group.

1945–1981: First success in Yugoslavian Football

After the end of the war the club returned to the Yugoslav league system and played for mostly in the Yugoslav Second League. FC Prishtina won in 1945 and 1946 they won the Kosovo Province Title and are the first Kosovar to do so but the success did not end there. In the 1947 season Prishtina wrote history for being one of the founder clubs in the new SFR Yugoslavia Cup in this Season. In their first ever Cup match they played against Goce Delcev from Prilep. Prishtina won this match with 1–0 and qualify for the next Round. In the second round Prishtina had a harder tie against Rabotnicki Skopje from the second League, but Prishtina did not give up and won this Match away in Skopje with 1–2 and became the first Albanian club to ever reach the round of 16 in a regional competition in their first ever Cup Season. In the round of 16 Prishtina had to play away against Partizan despite a good performance they lost this match 2–0.

Prishtina also were close to qualify for their first time in the Yugoslav First League in the season 1972–73 but they lost the playoffs games against NK Osijek from Croatia and could not Progress in the Main division. After losing in the home in Prishtina the leg with 1–2 and away with 0–1 in Osijek.

1981–1989: The Golden Generation

In the early 80s FC Prishtina stabilized and established its squad. The 1980–81 season was difficult both for Prishtina and for the entire population of Kosovo due to the contemporary political situation. In March 1981, Dimoski was replaced by another coach, Bela Palfi from Vojvodina, Hungary. He coached the team from March 1981 to July 1983. The team this season was forced to spend almost the entire spring season outside the city (in Kragujevac) due to the ban on sports activity in Kosovo. In the 1981-82 season Prishtina finished in 8th place, and in 1982-83 season, the white and blue team had finally started to make history. After 60 years, 20 of which were spent struggling in the Second League, a generation referred to as the Golden Generation was formed, drawing an average of 30,000 fans per match.

FC Prishtina competed for five consecutive seasons in their first Federal League. In their first year in the elite, they also played in the Central European Cup where they took second place among four teams. In the same year, two players from Prishtina, in the same match, make their debut for the then Yugoslav national team: the strikers: Fadil Vokrri and Zoran Batrović. At this time Prishtina was led by well-known Yugoslav football names. Fuad Muzurović had been the first Pristina coach to lead the team to be the best in its country and among the four or five strongest in Europe. Muzurović, later the coach of Bosnia and Herzegovina, had led the team from July 1983 to July 1984, returning in July 1985 and continuing to lead until August 1986.

After Muzurović first left the team, former Yugoslavian Vukašin Višnjevac took over the role. While he was a successful strategist, his team had mixed feelings about him and he only led Prishtna until November 1984.

For the next three months Albanian coach Ajet Shosholli led the team with some success. Shosholli was only the second Albanian coach, after Mensur Bajrami (January–April 1977), who had led the team. Meanwhile, the leaders of the club had been forced to find a famous coach and chose Miroslav Blažević. He helped Prishtna reach third place in "France '98", ensuring they remained in the First League. His position only lasted for two months, long enough for him to remain one of the most memorable of that time. Over the next three seasons Prishtina was led by well-known strategists of the time: Milovan Đorić from October 1986 – September 1987 and Josip Duvančić from September 1987 – June 1988, with whom eventually Prishtina fell out of the league. At this point the team had lost some of its stars, some now retired, while the tense political situation and the decline of interest of Kosovo's political and social structures had made Pristina no longer able to stay in the first federal League. With the relegation from the League, Prishtina brought together the next generation of talented people from Kosovo led by another well-known name in former Yugoslav football, Milan Živadinović, from July 1988 – March 1989. In the first season since leaving the First League, Prishtina fought valiantly but did not manage to climb back into the elite.