{"id":14522,"date":"2025-11-04T14:06:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T12:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/serbian-top-flight-soccer-clubs-coach-dies-during-match\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:27:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:27:05","slug":"serbian-top-flight-soccer-clubs-coach-dies-during-match","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/serbian-top-flight-soccer-clubs-coach-dies-during-match\/","title":{"rendered":"Serbian top-flight soccer club\u2019s coach dies during match"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\" data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Serbian top-flight club FK Radnicki 1923\u2019s coach Mladen Zizovic died during a league match on Monday, the club said in a statement on social media.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"x_ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Media reports said Zizovic, 44, suffered a heart attack during the first half at Mladost Lucani.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Former Bosnia midfielder Zizovic was appointed as the Radnicki 1923 head coach less than two weeks ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\u201cOur club has lost not only a great professional, but above all a good man, a friend, and a sportsman who, with his knowledge, energy, and nobility, has left a deep mark on the hearts of all who knew him,\u201d the club said in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Zizovic was rushed to the hospital after his collapse. Several players broke down crying on the pitch and the Serbian SuperLiga match was abandoned when the news of his death reached officials.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\u201cHis untimely departure represents a tremendous loss for the entire football community,\u201d the Serbian football association (FSS) said in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14523,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-14522","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Zizovic was rushed to the hospital after his collapse.","published_date":null,"news_description":"Zizovic was rushed to the hospital after his collapse.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19143,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14522\/revisions\/19143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=14522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}