Mohammed Abu Fani's first outing in Serbian league football could scarcely have gone better. The Israel midfielder played every minute of Crvena Zvezda's 5-0 demolition of Mačva Šabac on Friday night, as the champions opened their SuperLiga title defence in front of 11,254 spectators at the Rajko Mitić Stadium in Belgrade.
The contest was settled long before halftime. Bruno Duarte opened the scoring in the seventh minute, Rade Krunić headed in a second on 18, and an own goal from Mačva's Issa Kone made it 3-0 at the break. Vasilije Kostov completed the rout with a second-half brace, converting from close range three minutes after the restart and adding a fifth with eight minutes to play.
Abu Fani, stationed alongside Krunić at the base of a 4-2-3-1, was woven into the early surge. Red Star's own match report credited him with the cross that found Duarte for the opener, while B92's account placed his delivery at the start of the move that produced Krunić's header instead. The bookkeeping differs, but every version has the newcomer's touches running through the first-half blitz.
He also drew a save with a 66th-minute strike from distance, turned behind for a corner, and released Nair Tiknizyan down the left with one raking diagonal.
Just as telling was what happened around him. With European qualifying on the horizon, Red Star rotated heavily once the result was safe, making five changes between the 62nd and 75th minutes. Abu Fani was not among those withdrawn, completing the full match in his first competitive league outing for his new club.
The 28-year-old arrived in Belgrade in June from Ferencváros, for a fee Serbian outlets put at around one million euros on a three-year contract — a move widely reported to have been championed by head coach Dejan Stanković. In Budapest he won two Hungarian championships and this year's Hungarian Cup, having left Israel in 2023 as a title winner with Maccabi Haifa after coming through the ranks at Hapoel Hadera.
For Red Star, chasing what Serbian media bill as a tenth successive championship, the evening amounted to a controlled tune-up before Champions League qualifying begins. For Abu Fani, going the distance on opening night reads as an early statement of trust from his new employers — and a promising sign for Israeli supporters tracking his path towards continental football this autumn.
Stanković used his post-match remarks to spell out the licence he has handed his new midfielder. He said he had known precisely what Abu Fani could and could not yet give him — the Israeli is still working back to full fitness — but stressed what he does bring: making the players around him feel good, driving the game, and operating like a classic playmaker.
"Even if he loses the ball, he has my blessing," Stanković said, adding that nothing turns into a drama because he knows Abu Fani will come back and demand the next ball. He called him a very easy player to work with. Red Star now turn to Tuesday's Champions League second qualifying round tie against Larne of Northern Ireland.
