Bologna players sing to their coach Sinisa Mihailovic (from Instagram)
How do you even begin to sum up the life of Sinisha Mihailovich, who was cut short at the age of 53, but in terms of the intensity of his experiences and legacy would have been enough for ten people?
Perhaps we should focus first on his amazing free kicks, because this is probably the first association that his name evokes in most fans.
Mihailovich was a genius in the field - one of the best in history, the terror of goalkeepers who trembled every time he approached a stationary ball, no matter what the distance from the goal was.
Because Sinisha knew how to do everything with them with his divine left foot.
He liked to spin with the outside of the foot, specialized in performance with the inside, and also tore down nets with balls that flew at crazy speed.
He studied the goalkeepers' habits in advance, examined their psychological state, and adapted the performance to the circumstances.
There was no player in the history of the Italian league who scored more than his 28 free kick goals, and only Andrea Pirlo matched him.
Mihajlovic then congratulated the maestro, but emphasized that he had 315 games, and Pirlo 493. The Serbian is also the only one to score a hat-trick of free kicks, to win Lazio against former Sampdoria in 1998.
His skill level was exceptional by any standard.
How do you get it?
Mihailovich himself claimed that the foundations were laid in the yard of his house when he was a teenager, in training in front of the old iron door of the warehouse.
"I kicked at least 8 times a minute, that's 480 kicks an hour. I did it for at least 3 hours every day, so 1,440 kicks a day, about 10,000 a week, about 43,000 a month, about 500,000 a year. Millions over several years," he Book.
His love for the ball knew no bounds, and the ball loved him.
They are destined for great things together.
"480 kicks per hour".
Mikhailovich (Photo: GettyImages, Getty)
Almost in Zagreb, in the end in Belgrade
And maybe we should start from the yard of Mihailovic's house, but tell about its location in the village of Borovo, which is within the boundaries of the city of Vukovar - although in Croatia, but right on the Serbian border.
In the era of Yugoslavia, about half of its inhabitants were Croats, and about half were Serbs.
In the united country this was not of great importance - everyone was simply Yugoslav, even if the background was different, and there was a slightly different national pride.
Mihajlovic's mother was Croatian, his father Serbian - and this was not unusual.
Such "mixed" marriages were common in the area, and people did not foresee the horrors that would occur in due time.
So Mihajlovic was both a Serb and a Croat, and all paths were open to him.
In fact, at the age of 18, he was very close to signing for Dinamo Zagreb, where he was impressed by the future national coach Miroslav Blažević.
There were only two major obstacles - he was offered a contract as an amateur rather than a professional player, and at the same time the strict boss demanded a haircut.
Sinisha, who has been opinionated and stubborn for as long as he can remember, disappeared from the financial conditions and also stated that he would not agree to give up the mane of hair in any way.
In response, enormous pressure was put on him, and the coach of the young team, Mirko Juzic, threatened to remove him from the squad for the World Cup if he did not bend.
Mihajlovic refused, and really did not go to the tournament where his friends - Zvonimir Boban, Frederic Miatovic, Robert Prusincki and Davor Shuker - won the gold medals without him.
Instead, he signed with the Serbian Vejvodina Novi Sad uniform, and thus - without devoting a deep thought to the matter - he was defined as a Serb and not a Croat.
In a parallel world, it could have been different.
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He refused to give up his hair.
Mihailovich in the Red Star uniform (Photo: GettyImages, Getty)
Girls wrote to him on the walls of his house
And perhaps we should start the story there, in Vybodina, because already in his last season the young midfielder was its outstanding star on the way to a sensational championship in 1989, because the cases in Yugoslavia where teams outside of Belgrade, Zagreb and Split won the title were rare.
Maybe it's not Leicester model 2016, but something like Wolfsburg model 2009, and the rise has made Mihailovich a very sought-after star.
Red Star Belgrade broke their transfer record to bring him to the capital, and it was a bingo.
He arrived in the middle of the season in which the team galloped to a magical journey in the Champions Cup, scored against Bayern Munich in the semi-finals, and beat Marseille in the final with a precise penalty in a duel at the end of a draw.
At only 21 years old, he was European champion, and one of the young rising stars in world football.
In addition to tremendous ability on the field, he is also endowed with natural beauty, a graceful smile, and also his hair - how good that he is not cut!
The secretary of the club called him Barbie, and her admiration for him knew no bounds.
The stories - or maybe they are urban legends - are quite amazing.
It is said that the walls in his building had to be frequently painted, because young women wrote their phone numbers on them in the hope that Mihailovich would call.
It is said that his car was once stolen, but when the criminals found out who it belonged to, the car was returned to Sinisha washed, polished and with a bunch of gifts inside.
Everyone wanted to be his friend, including politicians and people of the underworld, and thus connections were made with very powerful figures - including Zelko Reznatowicz, known as Arkan.
When the brutal civil war broke out, it was of enormous importance for Mikhailovich.
When the war broke out he was already in Rome.
Sinisha Mihailovich (Photo: GettyImages, Alessandro Sabattini)
chose not to execute his uncle
Because perhaps the story should begin with this war, which was tragic and terrible for everyone, and for Mikhailovich in particular.
The Yugoslavian national team was suspended from participating in Euro 92, but the professional blow was nothing compared to the rivers of blood.
All sides committed horrific crimes, and the city of Vukovar became one of the worst centers of the catastrophe.
First there was a horrifying massacre of Croatian civilians at the hands of Serbian forces, and then came the Croatian revenge on the Serbian residents.
The observer from the side will never be able to understand what happened to Mihailovic, who was already playing in Italy at that time in the Roma uniform, without daily contact with his family.
Arkan, who led the murderous Serbian organization called the Panthers, personally rescued the connection's Croatian aunt, his mother's sister, who was captured by Serbian forces - he knew who it was and ordered his men not to kill her.
According to the stories, he even made sure to smuggle Sinisha's parents to Serbia when Croatian forces raided Borovo.
Even more amazing was the story of his uncle, his mother's brother, a senior officer in the Croatian forces who was also captured by Serbian gangs.
For a long time the uncle used to tease his sister and make fun of her for marrying a Serbian man.
He was supposed to meet his death, but at the moment of truth, Arkan gave Mikhailovich the decision about his fate, and the actor asked to pardon him.
They did not hide their relationship.
Arkan (Photo: GettyImages, Mark H. Milstein)
The strong voice of the Serbs
Mihailovich never hid his connections with Arkan, who was defined as a war criminal.
When the mass murderer was eliminated, in January 2000, the star went to a league game in a Lazio uniform with a black ribbon in his memory, and in general he made sure to externalize the national aspect and be the prominent ambassador of the Serbian nation.
This is how his popularity in the country grew, and he was ready to pay the price.
He experienced far too much within the framework of the war, including the experience in the game between Red Star and Hajduk Split in 1991, in which the rival defender Igor Stimac - his former Yugoslavia teammate - told him: "I wish they would kill you all in the village."
In response, Mihailovich unleashed a series of violent fouls on Stimac in an attempt to end his career, and both were sent off with red cards.
Such events leave lifelong scars.
In general, Mihailovich was involved in many scandals, but perhaps his story should also begin with the ability to complete and forgive.
He was once involved in an ugly incident with Patrick Vieira - the French called him a "dirty gypsy", the Serbian called him a "dirty negro".
Or maybe Sinisha himself started?
You never know, but in the end they were good friends at the end of both their careers at Inter.
And with many Croatians, especially his peers, he maintained a fantastic relationship.
Slavan Bilić was a close friend, as was Alan Bukšić, with whom he shared a dressing room at Lazio and achieved great results.
The key player in his dream team.
Erickson (Photo: GettyImages, Alessandro Sabattini)
Brake number 11
Yes, perhaps the story should begin there, at Olimpico, because Mihailovich was a key figure in the dream team built for Sven Goran Eriksson.
Back in their days together at Sampdoria, the Swedish coach shifted Sinisha to the position of the brakeman, and this was the brilliance, because from this position he enjoyed steering the game thanks to his excellent vision of the game and the left foot that knew how to put passes to any range of exactly a centimeter.
Despite the back position, he took the number 11 at Lazio and in the national team, and also saw himself as an offensive weapon at any given moment.
And so it was, on the way to winning the holders' cup in 1999, and the long-awaited championship in 2000, along with the Italian cup.
At that time, he was also one of the leaders in the Yugoslavian national team (meaning Serbia and Montenegro in practice), which displayed fine football in the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000, but were eliminated on both occasions by the Netherlands.
At Sampdoria and Lazio, Mihajlovic also connected with Roberto Mancini, and the two became close friends.
The Italian even coached the Serbian at Inter, and when Sinisha hung up his shoes, he immediately became the boss's assistant on the bench.
Thus began a special coaching career, in which Mihailovic knew high moments and low points, but was always respected by his players, and this is no small thing.
After so many years in the land of the player's boot, he was an almost Italian coach in spirit.
He dared to go against the flow, argued with presidents, and did not hesitate to rebel even against Silvio Berlusconi during his term in Milan.
He opened the door to a special coaching career.
Mancini with Mihailovic (Photo: GettyImages, Alessandro Sabattini)
Promoted Donnarumma at age 16
And he was right.
The conflict erupted when Mihailovic decided to promote 16-year-old Gianluigi Donnarumma to the team, and was met with skepticism from the big boss.
"If you don't want him to play, you'll have to fire me," said the Serbian - and Donnarumma played.
Last Friday, after the death of the revered mentor, the goalkeeper published an emotional post in which he thanked him for his trust.
Who knows how his career would have developed without him?
And this death was unexpected, because Mikhailovich had already recovered from leukemia once, and it seemed that his willpower would help him survive in all circumstances.
In 2019, being the coach of Bologna, he was informed that he was ill, but refused to stop working, maintained contact with the players even during the difficult chemotherapy treatments, assured them that he would come to the first game of the season, and did so against the doctors' advice, and even though his body was so weak who barely made it down the stairs.
"Football keeps me alive," he said then - and the players strengthened him greatly.
They even came to sing under his window in the hospital after victories.
It was a special relationship, and Mihailovich claimed that it contributed to his healing.
"I wouldn't change anything."
Mikhailovich (Photo: GettyImages)
"I never hid"
In a public letter he published when he was "born again" as he defined it, Mihailovich wrote about his life: "I have always been a difficult person. I have a strong character, and some see this as a source of problems. I never hid, and I often took positions that were uncomfortable for others. I felt that I was being judged without get to know me. I'm not a violent warrior as I've been portrayed, nor have I become a hero now because I talked about dealing with the disease. I never pretended, but even a strong person has weaknesses. I'm not perfect, and I never thought I was perfect. I was wrong, and I was wrong Even in the future. I paid for all these mistakes. Those close to me know that I'm nice, but it's better not to upset me. For many years, I preferred a bitter smile to a wholehearted smile. If someone looked at me, I began to think what they were plotting against me. I learned to control myself well More. People change over time, and I hope these changes are for the better. I have no idea what will happen in the future, but until now I wouldn't change anything in my life. I would make the mistakes again, and feel the pain again.Life can't be perfect, and if it was - it would be so boring."
That was about three years ago.
In March of this year, as part of routine tests, the possibility of the return of leukemia was detected, and Mihailovich required new treatments.
Later, it turned out that the situation was much more serious than expected.
In retrospect, the doctor who treated him said: "I have never seen such a violent version of the disease."
Did the decision of the Bologna management to fire him, against the wishes of the players, in September have an effect on the deterioration?
Hopefully not, but the bottom line is that it doesn't really matter either.
Mihailovich passed away, leaving behind countless fascinating memories, and many perfect free kicks.
His life was by no means perfect, and in too many ways it was tragic, but he was a legend, and will remain so even after his death.
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