Mihajlovic’s Bologna becomes a docu-series on Dazn

You see him again cheerful, uncompromising, angry, “threatening”, scathing, ironic, sarcastic, sweet, thoughtful, miraculous on that August 25th 2019 in Verona, live from the hospital, battist, full of anecdotes and motivational phrases and in a team that with him it became “Bologna United”. You see it as it is. As he is: Sinisa Mihajlovic. She comes out today “We are one” because today would have been her 54th birthday. On the Dazn platform, Bologna launches the story of the 2021-22 year: that of the 27 points at the end of the first leg (record ceiling), that of the 0-0 draw at San Siro against Milan when Mihajlovic is for the second time (in four years) remotely, the one in which after beating Inter at home he says to his boys, inside the locker room and via a computer screen, “you were heroes”. There is so much in these 5 half-hour episodes in which Mihajlovic tells the story of a year that sees everyone as protagonist, everyone in the foreground, even inside the changing rooms where De Silvestri and Soriano are the ones with the right words to right moment, in which Arnautovic gets pissed but also says “we played a phenomenal game” after losing it. A behind-the-scenes look at a particular season, in every sense: because towards the end of that championship Sinisa will try to react completely to a leukemia recurrence which he will then take on December 16, 2022.

An older brother

—

We cry, in front of one of the planned episodes. She is moved by it. Inevitably. Because the strength of man-Mihajlovic comes out once again. Genuinely. The docu-series opens with the destroyed faces after Bologna-Ternana 4-5 of the Italian Cup. Sinisa the next day she is in front of all the players in the room used as a technical meeting and says: “I’m not in a hurry. And we won’t leave here until everyone speaks, understand?”. The “series” goes by: there is the interval of Atalanta-Bologna 0-0 (“It’s not possible that, as c… is called, Ilicic plays games in front of us and then changes sides”), the defeat at Empoli which will lead to Walter Sabatini’s farewell (“Shame on him – says Sinisa -: there was no match and now we go to training camp every day and we train twice every day”), but also Udinese-Bologna where there is the deferred admission of an error by the referee, Napoli-Bologna with Sinisa already a grandfather (“I will never forget this evening because I think of my granddaughter: don’t ruin it”), then Arnautovic who says: “For me Sinisa he’s an older brother.” One at a time, the staff with De Leo and Tanjga but not only Raimondi and then Bazzani and Marchesi took the front row; the historical warehouse workers, the well-known faces, all the players and also the ex diesse Bigon. So, here is the period of the three defeats in a row and the victory in Reggio Emilia which decrees the 27 points at the end of the first round. “We have planned the high jump – says the president Joey Saputo -: and I wouldn’t ask if we hadn’t made important investments like we did. I don’t want people to think that I’m not interested in Bologna just because I’m away or I’m starting background to the team: because it is and must be the team in the foreground”.

I was looking at you

—

Then, here is the beginning of Sinisa’s new return to the hospital. The press conference at the end of March (“It can be seen that the disease is very courageous for wanting to face someone like me again”) and the 6 games with Mihajlovic remotely. Bologna United is back. Before Milan: “Let’s send the 70,000 at San Siro home sad”: Zero to zero and him connecting via computer. “You were great.” Then the victory against Sampdoria (“I introduce you to my doctor: he said that if you continue to win without me, he’ll keep me here, even if I don’t agree very much”), then the team under his window at Sant’Orsola and the victory over Inter. “You were heroic – says Sinisa via skype -: I am the happiest man in the world. And you know? I love you… I love you yes”. And down half a tear. But the unstoppable emotion comes before leaving the hospital and directing Genoa-Bologna 0-1. “I should be happy because I’m leaving here this afternoon. But I think back to this whole period, it’s crazy. I lived through hard and bad moments, I didn’t answer my children on the phone so as not to let them understand that I was weak, fragile and tired”. Break. “It was hard you know? And when I was sick, when I was down in the dumps and almost destroyed, you know what I did? I took your matches and smiled, proud of you”. And he cries. And he shows himself once again for what he is: a real man. Sinisa will always be Sinisa.