Siniša Mihajlović, talented and outspoken footballer who courted controversy – obituary
He was deadly at free-kicks, and won the European Cup with Red Star Belgrade
Siniša Mihajlović, who has died of leukaemia aged 53, was a footballer and manager who played 63 times for Yugoslavia and was one of the best dead-ball experts the game has seen, still holding the joint record for free-kicks in Serie A, Italy’s top division, with 28 (alongside Andrea Pirlo); but he was an explosive, politically outspoken character with the shortest of fuses, and his career was littered with controversial incidents.
One of the best-known came during the 1991 Yugoslav Cup final between his Serbian team, Red Star Belgrade, and the Croatian side Hajduk Split. The match took place against a backdrop of tension and violence between the two regions, and only six days beforehand there had been a massacre in his home town of Borovo.
From the kick-off Mihajlović and Hajduk’s Croatian defender Igor Štimac were at each other, and Mihajlović claimed that Štimac told him: “I hope our guys kill all your family in Borovo.” He admitted spending the rest of the match trying to badly injure Štimac.
In the 70th minute a brawl erupted after another Mihajlović tackle, and both players were sent off. A month later the two sides met again, with the same result, a red card for both players. They were to remain sworn enemies.
Siniša Mihajlović’s life and career were emblematic of the disorder and chaos that tore apart his native Yugoslavia. He was born at Vukovar in Croatia on February 20 1969 to a Bosnian Serb father, Bogdan, a lorry driver, and a Croatian mother, Viktorija, who worked in a shoe factory.
He was brought up in Borovo, a suburb of Vukovar, and said that he felt both Serbian and Croatian. But amid the violence and turmoil of Yugoslavia’s disintegration his family home was destroyed by Croatian forces that included his best friend from childhood, and Siniša’s parents were forced to flee.
He recalled going back to his home town when his career was up and running, finding his ruined house – and seeing “two kids, standing there, holding assault rifles. They must have been 10 or 11 years old. What really struck me was their eyes. They were the eyes of an adult, but still in a kid.”
Mihajlović would subsequently attract much criticism for his friendship with the notorious Serbian warlord Arkan, who was assassinated in 2000. He insisted that Arkan was a “sporting friend”, as the leader of Red Star’s hardcore “ultras”.
But he was unapologetic. “I don’t condone the crimes he committed, but there are no good guys and bad guys in war, it’s a mess, and horrible things happen on both sides,” he said. “He was a hero for the Serbs in Croatia because he went there to save them from being massacred.”
Mihajlović’s career had begun with the local side, NK Borovo, then in 1988 he joined Vojvodina, helping them to win the league and reach the European Cup. In 1990 he joined Red Star Belgrade alongside such rising stars as Darko Pancev and Robert Prosinecki. Magnificent in defence or midfield, Mihajlović was already standing out with his dead-ball prowess, and when Red Star reached the European Cup semi-finals in 1991 he was man of the match in the second leg against Bayern Munich.
The final, against Marseille, was a dull affair, with Red Star sitting back, but Mihajlović contributed one of the penalties in the victorious shoot-out.
He was due to play at Euro 92 with Yugoslavia until they were suspended due the conflict raging at home. Denmark, brought in as a late replacement, went on to take the trophy.
By then Mihajlović had joined Roma, but they were in a fallow spell, and after an unhappy two seasons he moved on to spend four years at Sampdoria – more successfully, but still without trophies. He went to the 1998 World Cup in France with FR Yugoslavia, as the national side was now known, scoring once (and once in his own net) as they reached the round of 16, losing 2-1 to the Netherlands.
That summer he joined Lazio, where Sven Goran Eriksson was assembling a talented side. At the end of Mihajlović’s first season they won the last edition of the European Cup-Winners’ Cup, beating Real Mallorca 2-1 in the final, then in 2000 won the league and cup double (the league for only the second time in their history).
At Euro 2000 in France he was sent off in the first game but returned to lead FR Yugoslavia to the quarter-finals, where they were hammered 6-1 by the Dutch.
Back with Lazio, Mihajlović won the 2004 Coppa Italia, then spent two years at Inter Milan under his friend and former Samp teammate Roberto Mancini, before retiring at 37. In 574 club games he had scored 99 goals, and another 10 in his 63 internationals.
His career had had many highs, but also numerous lows. At the 1998 World Cup against Germany, TV cameras caught him spitting at Jens Jeremies; in 2000 he was accused of racism by Arsenal’s Patrick Vieira, who said he had called him “nero di merda” (black piece of s***); Mihajlović subsequently apologised, but claimed that the Arsenal midfielder had first called him a “zingaro di merda” (Gypsy piece of s***). The two later played together at Inter and got on famously.
After his playing days were done, Mihajlović became Mancini’s assistant at Inter, leaving in 2008 when Mancini was sacked. He went on to manage six Italian clubs and Sporting Lisbon, though without accruing silverware, and had an 18-month stint in charge of Serbia, which ended in failure to qualify for the 2014 World Cup.
In 2019 he announced that had leukaemia, but he carried on working. His last club was Bologna, who sacked him in September after a run of poor results.
Siniša Mihajlović is survived by his wife Arianna and by their two daughters and three sons.
Siniša Mihajlović, born February 20 1969, died December 16 2022