Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Italian football podcast.
Speaker: I want to talk about Sinisa Mihailovic because he sadly passed away at the age of 53 from leukemia. And this was last week. He's having his funeral today, Monday, actually, as we are speaking, as we're recording. Very, very sad news. He was diagnosed with leukemia, first of all, I think three years ago or four years ago. And then he underwent treatment and chemotherapy and then
Speaker: Sadly, it returned and he underwent chemotherapy again earlier this year. Incredibly throughout all that time, he shows the strength of the man that he stayed as manager of Bologna during this time until eventually he left and he was let go, only in September actually, only a few months ago.
Speaker: Yeah, it's very, very sad. Very, very sad. Just another example of how horrible this disease, cancer, leukemia, how horrible it is. Because, you know, there isn't a stronger man than Sileso Milalovic and he was a real fighter. And it's just very, very sad. And I mean, I'm sad also because
Speaker: you know, he was, you know, he was part of my childhood, you know, I remember growing up like Red Star Belgrade, I were, you know, one of the first great club teams that I remembered, you know, what might be, in fact, the, probably the first, the first year of European Cup, it was just the year before the European Cup became the Champions League. The first year of European Cup football, club football that I can remember as a kid was that great Red Star Belgrade team, which Sini Simelevic,
Speaker: was in that was in that team and it was a fantastic team, you know, with Darko Panchev and and Jugovic and Savicevic. Prozinecki played as well, Robert Prozinecki. Yeah. And then they had Belo Dodice, the Romanian.
Speaker: And then they had Stojkovic, although he left the year before and he moved to Marseille, who then Redstar played in the final of the European Cup and it went to penalties. And then Stojkovic came on in extra time because he was a penalty kick specialist and he refused to take the penalty against Redstar Belgrade in that penalty shootout because Redstar were his team, the team of his heart.
Speaker: and yeah Mihalyevich was in that amazing amazing red star team and then obviously the breakup and the war in Yugoslavia you know that great red star Belgrade team was broken up and they all moved on and because Serie A was the biggest league in the world
Speaker: a lot of those players then well most of those players then moved moved to move to seria and you know so each of which went went to milan yugovitch went sampdoria then uven says then into the nazio you know pancha went in so it was a massive flop and and then of course so each of
Speaker: Mihailovich went to originally, he went to Roma, didn't he originally? He moved to Roma at first. Then he went to, then he went to Sampdoria where he joined up with Sven Goran -Eriksen, who we had on our podcast and told us a few stories about Mihailovich, didn't he, last year. And you know, Sampdoria, I mean, he was
Speaker: he was his free kicks. I mean, the thing that I remember the most about Mihalyić was his free kick taking. He was, for me, the greatest mid to long range free kick taker of all time for me. I have no doubts about that.
Speaker: His technique, his free kick technique was genuinely unbelievable. He scored a hat -trick of free kicks in the Serie A for Lazio, and he's the second person to do that in the Serie A. If I'm not mistaken, Beppe Signori did for Lazio as well a few years earlier, a hat -trick of free kicks.
Speaker: So he is in the free kicks above all. That left foot was insane. He was truly one of the greats of an era when Calcio literally ruled the world.
Speaker: You know, when he played for Rome, I played for Sampdoria. Sampdoria Sven told us, you know, go and check that interview. He said he was trying to convince, you know, he convinced him he should be a central defender. And Mihailovic wasn't entirely convinced. And then he said, oh, I'll give it a go. And then he did. And he turned out really well. So originally he was a left midfielder, left midfielder originally. Yeah. Yeah. And Sven, you know, convinced him to play in the middle of defense.
Speaker: And he revolutionized the role of the ball -playing defender in many ways because I mean, there has been ball -playing defenders predating him by a long way. I mean, obviously, you know, someone like probably Franz Beckenbauer was the first example of the Libro, the defender that brought the ball out from the fence and then joined into the midfield and then ubed into the attack and made an extra man when the team was attacking. And he had other Libros, you know, like
Speaker: Shirre and then Franco Berezi and Milan, you know, there had been ball playing defenders before, but I think what where Mihailovic kind of helped revolutionizing was more in terms of his his passing from out of the back, you know, those long diagonal passes from from left center back to the right wing and just just his use of the ball was, you know, he was he was like a defensive playmaker, you know, and now you see that today, you know, so many
Speaker: you know, defenders since then that have, you know, is important in the game now that the defenders have to be able to use them pass the ball. Whereas until then, you know, defenders were generally just about defending and he might get the the odd, amazing defender who could bring the ball out with from defense with maybe with a great dribble or, or, you know, you know, that sense, but not so much as a passer. And Mihailovic, really, and this is what Sven told us in the interview, he, he really did, you know, help
Speaker: evolved the game, the defender's game in that way. Now we see it all over the place now that that pass, we saw it with Materazzi, he used to do it for Italy a lot and Bastani does it a lot for the club and country now as well. Those especially left footed players that have that ability to do that long raking pass.
