The one who was one of the best free kick takers in the history of football has died at the age of 53, a victim of leukemia that he had suffered since 2019
Football is mourning the death at the age of 53 of the Serbian coach and former player Sinisa Mihajlovic, one of the best free-kick takers that can be remembered during his time as a player. The one who was Bologna’s coach until last September has died a victim of leukemia that he had suffered for a few years.
Born in 1969 in the current Croatian city of Vukovar, then Yugoslavia, and the son of a mixed marriage formed by Bogdan, a Bosnian Serb truck driver, and Viktorija, a Croatian worker in the shoe industry, Mihajlovic began playing for the Borovo and the Vojvodina. He rose to fame in his early twenties, during his time at Red Star Belgrade (1990-92), with whom he won the European Cup in 1991 along with players like Robert Prosinecki, Dejan Savicevic and Darko Pancev.
Member of that golden generation of Yugoslav football that emerged just as the country was entering its final disintegration, with the terrible wars in the former Yugoslavia (1991-95), the conflict marked his career, which from 1992 until 2006, the year of his retirement, he spent entirely in the Italian ‘calcio’, where he went through the ranks of Roma (1992-94), Sampdoria (1994-98), Lazio (1998-2004) and Inter Milan (2004-06). .
Free kicks were Mihajlovic’s specialty. /
In Italy, the mecca of football in the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century, his game evolved from the initial roles of attacking midfielder or winger to full-back and mainly central defense positions. He continued to carve out a truly luxurious track record, with two Serie A titles, four Coppa Italia trophies and a European Cup Winners’ Cup and a European Super Cup with that Lazio at the end of the nineties that broke the market and lived its golden stage of the hand of the Swedish coach Sven-Göran Eriksson.
A hit of time
Owner of one of the best strikes in the history of soccer, through his left foot he combined the power in the shot with the variability of the pitches. Throughout his career he even managed three free-kick goals in the same game, in a duel played with Lazio against Sampdoria at the Olímpico in the transalpine capital in December 1998.
Despite his mixed background, Mihajlovic has lived marked by the horrors of war ever since his childhood home was destroyed by Croatian forces. He chose the selection of the FR Yugoslavia, later Serbia and Montenegro and currently Serbia. With the ‘plavi’ team he played in the World Cup in France in 1998, including a free-kick against Iran, and the Euro Cup in 2000.
Already as a coach, his career on the bench also had a clear Italian colour. He started as an assistant at Inter after hanging up his boots, and later led Bologna, Catania, Fiorentina, the Serbian national team, Sampdoria, Milan, Torino, Sporting de Portugal and finally Bologna again as the main coach. , where he was dismissed last September due to a poor start to the season.
After being diagnosed with leukemia in July 2019, on October 29 of that same year he received a bone marrow transplant at the Sant’Orsola hospital in Bologna and despite the illness he continued to work as coach of the Italian team, his last contribution to football, which is mourning his premature goodbye.
