In the 1938–39 Yugoslav Football Championship the league grew to 12 clubs and BASK finished in 8th place. In the last championship, before the Second World War, the 1939–40 season, two separate qualifying leagues were formed, the Serbian Football League and the Croato-Slovenian League, with 10 clubs each. The final phase of the championship was held with 6 clubs, the 3 the best clubs from each league, however BASK did not get the standing required for the finals as they finished in 9th place in the 1939–40 Serbian League. During the championships prior to the Second World War, BASK had brought out numerous notable players. In addition to the already mentioned Milovan Jakšić, dr Milutin Ivković and Branislav Hrnjiček, there were also Miodrag Ranojević, Stojan Popović, Miroslav Lukić, Đorđe Detlinger, Kolnago Ferante, Aleksandar Tomašević, Mladen Sarić and others. Among all these names, the name of Aleksandar Tomašević should be especially distinguished, because he was one of the main top scorers in the third decade, and in that regard also and the biggest rival of the famous Blagoje "Moša" Marjanović. Tomašević left a deep mark in Yugoslav football as a coach as well in the period after the war. He was the main coach of the three most successful Yugoslav clubs after the war: Partizan, Crvena Zvezda, Hajduk Split, and he was also the founder of Radnički Belgrade.