Those ’90s were the golden age of Italian football, and Serie A. Ludicrously strong teams of AC Milan, Inter and Juventus always backed up with almost equally exquisite sides like Fiorentina, Lazio, Roma and Sampdoria. And a few dozens of the world’s top-notch players in all of those slots.Among them was a free-kick beast from former Yugoslavia, a bad-tempered but outstanding full-back and later centre-back Sinisa Mihajlovic. He firstly joined AS Roma in 1992, but his peak years were with Sampdoria and, subsequently, Lazio. The fact he nailed as many as 28 goals from free-kicks during his Serie A time tells a story of its own. Those few seasons he spent with Samp were the years of his definite confirmation as one of the best defenders in the world, capable of scoring from every single spot on the opponents half. Mihajlovic moved to Lazio in 1998 and continued his brilliant displays, embellished with one Scuddeto and Cup Winerrs’ Cup trophy. Fourteen years after landing in Italy, he decided to hang his boots at Inter Milan and soon engaged in a coaching career.##EDITORS_CHOICE##In truth, he’s still not as good a boss as he was as a player, but Mihajlovic is highly respected in one of the world’s most football-addicted countries. However, his coaching career and personal life have been faced with a vicious danger after he was diagnosed with an acute form of leukaemia in 2019.Mihajlovic in 2019 after diagnosed with leukaemia (©Emilio Andreoli/Getty Images)Since then, he underwent a bone marrow transplant after three cycles of chemotherapy. His club, Bologna, have supported him all this time and didn’t replace him despite his illness. Thankfully, Mihajlovic is successfully recovering and looks much better than just a few months ago.SUN: 20.00: (3.80) SAMPDORIA (3.50) LAZIO (2.10) We’re sure he’ll have a look at today’s skirmish of his two favourite sides from back in the days (17.00). And they’ll both definitely think of Miha once the ref gives them a free kick in the danger zone. Are there any successors? We’ll see in a couple of hours. SERIE 1 – ROUND 16SaturdayMilan – Salernitana 2-0 (2-0)/Kessie 5, Saelemaekers 18/Roma – Inter 0-3 (0-3)/Calhanoglu 15, Dzeko 24, Dumfries 39/Napoli – Atalanta 2-3 (1-1)/Zielinski 40, Mertens 47 – Malinovskyi 7, Demiral 66, Freuler 71/Sunday17:00: (3.40) Spezia (3.60) Sassuolo (2.20)17:00: (3.45) Venezia (3.40) Verona (2.25)20:00: (3.45) Sampdoria (3.50) Lazio (2.20)22:45: (1.27) Juventus (6.00) Genoa (14.0)Monday20:30: (2.65) Empoli (3.30) Udinese (2.85)22:45: (3.40) Cagliari (3.25) Torino (2.35)***odds are subject to change***
