BarcelonaThe former football player and until a few months ago coach of Bologna, Sinisa Mihajlovic, has died of leukemia at the age of 53. Known for his free kicks and his controversial political views, which became very radicalized after the Balkan War, Mihajlovic had been fighting this disease for three years. Two weeks ago he was still able to leave the hospital to surprise Zdenek Zeman, one of his former coaches, who was presenting a book, but in recent days his condition had worsened.
His family has made the death public with a statement. Considered one of the best players to emerge from the former Yugoslavia, Mihajlovic spent much of his career in Italy, where he stayed to continue training. He had previously been European champion with Red Star Belgrade in 1991.
Mihajlovic was a person marked by the Balkan War. Although he had both Serbian and Croatian blood, the war had radicalized him. Born in Vukovar, a Croatian city with a significant presence of Serbs, he was the son of a Serbian father and a Croatian mother. When the war broke out, Croatian militiamen burned down the house of the Mihajlovics in the town of Borovo, where they lived. Then he was already playing in Serbia. He had started at a local club before leaving at the age of 17 for Vojvodina Nova Sad, where he would surprise by winning the Yugoslav league in 1989. He then left for Red Star Belgrade, who were building a team with championship aspirations of Europe When he was in Belgrade he received a call in the middle of the war: they were Serbian militiamen who had occupied Vukovar and had a Croatian prisoner whom they wanted to execute, but he said he was Mihajlovic’s uncle and as proof he gave them his phone. Mihajlovic asked them not to kill him, but he never wanted to see his uncle again, as he had demanded his mother divorce his father because he was a Serb.
dangerous friendships
Converted to a fervent Serbian nationalist, Mihajlovic would frequent the circles of Zeljko Raznatovic, the head of the radical fans of Red Star Belgrade and a war criminal. Raznatovic, known as Arkan, was a criminal who stole cars in Germany and Belgium until he returned to Yugoslavia, where he recruited youths at the Red Star stadium to form a paramilitary group that would commit crimes against humanity in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Raznatovic, who would later go on to make Serbian club Obilic, with bad skills, a league champion, was killed by organized crime and Mihajlovic attended his funeral. Mihajlovic had also starred in scandals, such as when he demanded Serbian players, when he was leading the national team, to sing the national anthem. When the Muslim Adem Ljajic did not want to do it, he was expelled from the rally. In addition, more than once he had been denounced by rivals – such as the Frenchman Patrick Vieria – for racist insults on the pitch. In 2004 the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, who was wanted for war crimes, went to see Inter Milan matches in disguise because Mihajlovic was playing, who had always denied that he knew that Karadzic was in the stadium
As a player he was a defender or offensive midfielder, with a great ability to score goals from free kicks. His powerful shots, always well directed, made him one of the best specialists in these set-piece actions. With the Lazio shirt he would score three in the same match. And with Estrella Roja he would be European champion against Olympique de Marseille, with a free-kick goal in the semi-finals against Bayern. He would later become world champion against the Chilean Colo-Colo in the final played in Japan in 1991. In the last matches with the Red Star he ended up being sent off twice in matches against the Croatian Hajduk Split, one of them in the final of Cup, to fight with the Croatian Igor Stimac. Mihajlovic would accuse Stimac of telling him during the match “I hope our boys kill your family”, as the war had already started in the Vukovar region.
In 1992, Mihajlovic signed for Roma, where he could not succeed because there was a lot of competition from foreign players to fill the non-EU positions. Frustrated, he would leave for Sampdoria before returning to Rome to play for the city’s other club, Lazio, where he would become one of the heroes of the club’s radical, far-right fans. Mihajlovic would retire at Inter Milan after winning two Italian leagues, one with Lazio and one with Inter, as well as one Recopa and four Italian Cups. Married to an Italian model, Mihajlovic had coached several clubs, such as Turin, Catania, Fiorentina, Milan, Sampdoria and most recently Bologna, the club where he made it official that he was suffering from leukemia in 2019. Although he was able to return to the benches after an initial recovery, he relapsed and his death was announced today.
