“Great football player”
Ex-Croatia star dies at the age of 39
04/19/2025 – 9:08 a.m.Reading time: 1 min.
After football training, the athlete wanted to go home. However, Nikola Pokrivač did not arrive there. He died in a car accident.
The Croatian football mourns: Nikola Pokrivač is dead. The former international died in a traffic accident on Friday evening. As the association announced HNS, the incident occurred in the city of Karlovac. Pokrivač was 39 years old.
HNS President Marijan Kustić said in a message: “In this shocking and unimaginably sad moment when we have lost a young life, there are no words of the consolation. I can only express my deepest condolences to Nikola’s family and his relatives, and the HNS and the Croatian football family will help you in these difficult moments.”
Kustić also spoke about Pokrivač as a “great football player who lived for football until his last moment in this world”.
The midfielder ended his career in 2015 because of a serious illness, but most recently he was still active – for a club in a lower division. According to media reports, Pokrivač was on the way back from training when the accident occurred. With the 2008 European Championship participant, three teammates were sitting in the vehicle. They were seriously injured. Another person died in the collision with several cars.
Pokrivač ran 15 times for the Croatian national team, including at the European Championship 2008. In his career, he played for AS Monaco and RB Salzburg, among others, where he also worked under coach Huub Stevens.