The football manager who died in the middle of a match ‘complained about the meal he ate’ just hours beforehand.
Mladen Zizovic collapsed during the first half of his team’s, Radnicki 1923, game in the Serbian SuperLiga against Mladost Lunaci on Monday (3 November).
Medical staff immediately attended to the 44-year-old, and he was rushed to the hospital after receiving emergency medical assistance, with a brief suspension to play.
However, the football match was abandoned 20 minutes later when players and staff were told that the manager had tragically died.
Advert
“With the deepest sorrow, we inform the public, fans and sports friends that our head coach, Mladen Zizovic, passed away during last night’s match between Mladost and Radnicki 1923 in Lucani,” a statement from the team said.
“Our club has lost not only a great specialist but above all a good person, a friend, and a sports worker who, with his knowledge, energy, and nobility, left a deep mark in the hearts of all who knew him.
“Football Club Radnicki 1923 extends its sincerest condolences to his family, friends, and everyone who shared a love for football with him. Rest in peace, Mladen.”
With footage on social media having gone viral of the manager collapsing, his death clearly left players from both sides devastated, and one has since spoken out about the complaints he had made not long before.
Mehmed Cosic, who was on the pitch at the time for Radnicki, says Zizovic had reported feeling unwell just hours before the heart attack.
He said he felt ‘stunned’ by the incident and was ‘replaying the movie’ of the incident in his head.
“He [Zixovic] was giving me instructions, turned around and at one point I saw that he was talking to the referee by the benches. Then he went towards our bench, turned to the others and said "I'm not feeling well, I'm not feeling well’,” Cosic told Bosnian outlet Faktor.
“He fell, you saw everything else. In the video that appeared on social networks, you can also hear screams.
“They say he complained about the fish, said he wouldn’t eat it anymore. That’s what he was talking about. There were no problems during the warm-up, the game started, everything was ok.”
Cosic said the players believed the manager would ‘be with us again’ as they hoped the ‘worst wouldn’t happen’.
“We believed that he would come back and be with us again, and that we would celebrate the victory. Then there was complete shock. The referee suddenly stopped the game. Someone said ‘he died’. Everything stopped in an instant,” he added.
Jess Battison