Sinisa Mihajlovic Biography

Sinisa Mihajlovic, born 20 February 1969 in Vukovar, is a Serbian football coach and former footballer, who played as a defender and was known as an excellent free-kick taker. He started his club career in 1988 with FK Vojvodina. He became a player of the famous Red Star Belgrade in 1990, with whom he won the European Cup in 1991.

He moved to Italy in 1992 after this huge success, playing there until the end of his football career in 2006. Initially, he played for AS Roma, however, in 1994 he switched to Sampdoria. He transferred to S.S. Lazio in 1998, winning the Cup Winners' Cup (1999) and the Italian league title (2000).

Sinisa was released from Lazio in the summer of 2004 and made a free transfer to Inter Milan, a team coached by Mihajlovic's old teammate Roberto Mancini. Sinisa won the Italian Cup with Inter in 2005, a success he repeated a year later and finished his football career.

He has the Serie A record for the most goals scored directly from free-kicks; in 14 years he netted 27 such goals.

For Serbia and Montenegro national team, Sinisa Mihajlovic has made 63 appearances and scored 10 goals. He made 62 of those appearances for the team called Yugoslavia, which he played with at the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Championship.

When his playing career ended, he did not leave Milan and was an assistant to Roberto Mancini between 2006 and 2008. He served as coach of Bologna from 3 November 2008 to 14 April 2009. From 8 December 2009, he took over the coaching of Catania.

All You Need to Know about Sinisa Mihajlovic Biography

Meanwhile, in early June 2010, he was appointed coach of Fiorentina. He was fired from his position as coach of Fiorentina on 7th November 2011. He took the job of coach of the Serbian national football team on 21 May 2012.

Later on, he coached the likes of Sampdoria, AC Milan and Torino FC and at the moment, he is working as coach of Bologna since 2019.

Sinisa Mihajlovic Information

Now that we know the Croatian coach much better, in this section of

Sinisa Mihajlovic biography

we will share more general information about him such as

Sinisa Mihajlovic nationality

to let you know him even better.

Sinisa Mihajlovic Bio

• Full Name: Sinisa Mihajlovic

• Nickname: Miha

• Profession: Professional Football Coach

Sinisa Mihajlovic Physical Stats

• Weight: 78 Kg

• Height: 1.85 m

• Eye Color: Dark Brown

• Hair Color: Grey

Sinisa Mihajlovic Football Information

• Position: Defender

• Jersey Number: 11

• Professional Debut: 1986

Sinisa Mihajlovic Date of Birth and Personal Info

• Date of Birth: 20 February 1969

• Birth Place: Vukovar, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia

• Zodiac Sign: Pisces

• Nationality: Serbian

Now stay tuned to this section of

Sinisa Mihajlovic biography

as we want to share some info about

Sinisa Mihajlovic childhood

.

Sinisa Mihajlovic Early Life

After his time with

, where he started playing football, he was purchased in 1990 by Red Star, the team with which he went on to win the 1990-91 European Cup. He was bought by

in 1992 for 8.5 billion lire, and made 54 appearances and scored 1 goal against Brescia, a goal in the UEFA Cup against Dortmund, and 5 goals in the Coppa Italia, one of which was in the final against Torino.

He was loaned to

in July 1994. The following summer he was purchased by Sampdoria and played a series of successful seasons in Genoa, proving himself as a specialist in free-kick goals.

Lazio

He made a permanent move to

in 1998 for a fee of around 22 billion lire. During his time with Lazio, he scored his first goal in the 1999 Champions League, in the first match of the group stage at the home of Bayer Leverkusen, which was drawn 1-1 thanks to the Serbian's free-kick.

During his tenure with Lazio, he netted several important goals, like the one against Chelsea, also in the

, which earned the team a 2-1 victory at Stamford Bridge. Before that, in Biancoceleste's 5-2 win over Sampdoria on 13 December 1998, he established a record for a hat-trick all from free kicks.

However, at the club, the Serbian was also noticed for certain indiscipline. During a Champions League match between Lazio and Arsenal in December 2000, he insulted Patrick Vieira with racist comments. Meanwhile, in 2003, he was heavily disqualified for 8 days for spitting and trampling on Chelsea player Adrian Mutu, and for throwing a small bottle at the UEFA delegate after he was sent off. After six seasons, he left Lazio.

Now stay tuned to this section of

Sinisa Mihajlovic biography

as we want to share some info about his Inter career.

Inter

Between 2004 and 2006 he was with

, a team for which he became the oldest goal scorer in the league: he scored a goal in the Ascoli-Inter match on 8 April 2006 (1-2) when he was 37 years and 47 days old. He won 2 Italian Cups with the Nerazzurri team (he scored the final 1-0 goal on a free kick in the first final match against Roma) and a Scudetto, awarded to the Lombard club after the Calciopoli scandal.

National team

He took part in the 1998 World Championship and the 2000 European Championship with the Yugoslav national team, and in total, he made 63 appearances and scored 10 goals for the national team. Among these, he scored one at the 1998 World Cup on a free kick against Iran, netting the decisive 1-0 in the 73rd minute.

Sinisa Mihajlovic Profile

Following his retirement, Mihajlovic began a coaching career directly at Inter, serving as assistant to head coach Roberto Mancini for 2 seasons. When Mancini was fired at the end of the 2007-2008 season, he left the club.

Bologna

Mihajlovic was named coach of

to take over from Daniele Arrigoni on 3 November 2008. His Serie A debut was on 8 November 2008 at home against the Romans. The match ended in a 1-1 draw. He was dismissed before the end of the season for poor results.

Catania

He was appointed Catania's new head coach on 8 December 2009, replacing Gianluca Atzori. His contract was until June 2011. Having arrived at the club, which at the time was last in the Serie A standings, Mihajlovic debuted with a home loss to relegation rivals Livorno. Nevertheless, the following week his team put in a superb performance against Juventus, winning 1-2.

Successive good results, including 10 games without defeat, made him a revelation of the season, in part thanks to his staff, headed by former Argentine international striker Maxi López, who assisted Mihajlovic in keeping the team out of the relegation zone and provided a number of very impressive performances.

Yet another highlight of the season occurred on 13 March 2010, when

pulled off a historic result, a 3-1 Serie A victory over eventual Champions League winners Inter Milan. Mihajlovic stepped down as Catania coach on 24 May 2010.

Fiorentina

On 4 June 2010, he was named Fiorentina's new coach, taking over from Cesare Prandelli, who would himself replace Marcello Lippi as coach of the Azzurri.

was in 13th place in the league after 10 games in November 2011, with just 12 points. Mihajlovic was therefore fired. He was replaced by Delio Rossi.

Now stay tuned to this section of Sinisa Mihajlovic biography as we want to share some info about his

career.

Serbia

In May 2012, he became Serbia's coach, taking over from Vladimir Petrović, with a view to qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. He was forced to rebuild a team without Nemanja Vidic and Dejan Stanković. Nevertheless, he was unable to qualify Serbia for the World Cup in Brazil ahead of Belgium and Croatia.

Sampdoria

Following his spell with Serbia, he went on to work for two seasons as coach of Sampdoria, where he was quite successful, where he finished 7th in the second season and qualified for the Europa League. Following that, he stepped down as coach of Sampdoria.

AC Milan

He signed a 2-year contract as coach of the Lombardy club on 4 June 2015, succeeding Filippo Inzaghi after a mediocre season for

. While he had the advantage of introducing young players into the team like Donnarumma, Romagnoli, De Sciglio and Niang, the results and the quality of play were not good enough for a club that was looking to regain its waning prestige.

As a result, on 12 April 2016, after a 1-2 defeat at home to Juventus, he was dismissed as coach. His coaching tenure at AC Milan lasted only 9 months.

Torino

He was officially announced as the new coach of

on 25 May 2016, replacing Gian Piero Ventura. His debut on the Granata bench was on 13 August 2016 at the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino with a 4-1 home victory over Pro Vercelli in the third round of the Coppa Italia.

Using an aggressive 4-3-3 formation, Mihajlovic ended the first half of the season with the highest points tally of the Cairo era (29), but a weaker second half of the season saw Torino drop to ninth overall, with the sixth-best attack with 71 goals scored and the fourth-worst defence with 66 goals conceded. He was sacked on 4 January 2018, following a 2-0 defeat to Juventus in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals.

Sporting CP

He became

coach for 3 years on 18 June 2018. However, nine days later, with the departure of club president Bruno de Carvalho, he was also fired.

Bologna FC

He took the reins of Bologna FC in January 2019, succeeding Filippo Inzaghi as a coach. But on July 13, 2019, he would announce at a press conference that he was diagnosed with leukaemia and would have to put his coaching career on hold during his treatment for the disease.

However, the club's sporting director Walter Sabatini confirmed the management's desire to keep the Serbian in the team's coaching role until the expiry of his recently signed contract. As of the 2021-22 season, he is still in charge of the club.

Now stay tuned to this section of Sinisa Mihajlovic biography as we want to share some info about his playing and coaching style.

Style of Play

Gifted with a powerful and accurate left foot, he is regarded as one of the greatest specialists of his generation in the free-kick performance: he got this reputation while playing for Red Star when his shot became the subject of study of some researchers of the physics department of the University of Belgrade, who calculated a maximum speed of 160 km/h. In Italy, he further improved his shooting skills: at first focused on power, his shots became progressively more precise.

Nicknamed Sergeant for his strong temperament, he is a coach renowned for the determination and strictness with which he encourages his players to give their best, in addition to his tendency to give confidence to the younger members of the squad.

Reception

He is widely known as one of the best footballers of his generation and one of the few players with great free kicks. Since starting his work as a coach, he has managed to establish himself among the new generation of talented coaches.

Sinisa Mihajlovic outside Football

Outside of the football world, he has friendships with some controversial personalities. He dedicated an obituary to his friend Željko Ražnatović (who was also the leader of the Red Star ultras, the team in which Mihajlovic played), a well-known Serbian criminal accused of crimes against humanity. Regarding Ratko Mladić, a general charged with genocide, he said: "Mladić? He is a great warrior who fights for his people."

He attended mechanical engineering high school and was then an outstanding student, but as he claims, this was ruined by repeated absences from class due to football. He even fell on the correctional code of a mathematician who did not justify my occasional absences from classes due to football. According to himself, out of fear of her, he enrolled in and finished high school where mathematics no longer would be his nightmare.

Sinisa Mihajlovic Personal Life

In this section of Sinisa Mihajlovic biography, we will take a deeper look into his personal life and share some information about things like

Sinisa Mihajlovic life story

and

Sinisa Mihajlovic religion

, stay tuned.

Family, Children and Relationships

Sinisa Mihajlovic was born in Vukovar on February 20, 1969. He is from a working-class family and a mixed marriage. His father Bogdan is a Serb from the village of Kukulje, near Banja Luka, and his mother Viktorija is Croatian. His father was a truck driver and worked in Građevinar and the mother was a rubber and footwear factory worker. Sinisa also has a younger brother, Dražen.

He married the famous Italian presenter Ariana, and the couple has five children. They met each other in 1996 in Rome, and in 2005 they got married in a monastery in Sremski Karlovci. Ariana and Sinisa have two daughters - Victoria and Virginia (who took part in the Italian reality show "Island of the Famous") and also sons Miroslav, Dušan and Nikolas. Sinisa also has an illegitimate son, Marko.

Philanthropy

Sinisa has always helped charity causes during his career. He and his wife, on their wedding invitations, asked everyone that they do not want gifts, but instead, everyone who wants to give them something should help the Home for Orphans Children's Village in Sremski Karlovci. He is also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

Legal Issues

At the end of Torino's Coppa Italia match against Juventus on 3 January 2018, he was insulted with racist epithets by MP Massimo Corsaro, through a message posted on Twitter; Mihajlovic later announced his intention to sue the Milanese MP.

Just one year later, before the final of the same competition, he got involved in an argument with police officers who -according to Mihajlovic - directed racist accusations against him.

Sinisa Mihajlovic Career Statistics

In this section of Sinisa Mihajlovic biography, we will take a deeper look into his career stats, both as an international and club player.

Club

Between 1988 and 2006, Mihajlovic has played a total of 574 matches, scoring 99 goals, which is a great number for a defender.

International

Between 1991 and 2003, Sinisa made a total of 63 international appearances for his country, with 62 of them for Yugoslavia and just one for Serbia and Montenegro in 2003. He was part of the Yugoslavia team in the 1998 World Cup in France and scored a goal against Iran.

Managerial

As of 28 August 2021, he has managed his teams in a total of 389 matches and with 141 wins, 122 draws and 126 defeats he has a win ratio of 36.25 percent.

Sinisa Mihajlovic Honors

He has won all of the titles and trophies of his career during his playing days, which include Yugoslav First League, European Cup, Intercontinental Cup,

, Coppa Italia, UEFA Cup Winners Cup, Supercoppa Italiana and some others.

Of his individual titles and awards, we can include FR Yugoslavia player of the Year, Serbian Coach of the year, Gazzetta Sport Legend Award and some others.

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