After his assault against Leroy Sané, he did not apologize to the Bayern star. This has changed now.
Union Berlin coach Nenad Bjelica has apologized to the national player after his sensational unsportsmanlike behavior against Leroy Sané. “I have now seen the scene several times and calmly. I reacted to the situation in a way that I should never have reacted,” the Croatian wrote on Instagram on Friday afternoon.
“I’m sorry for that and I would like to apologize to my team, my club and to Leroy Sané,” Bjelica continued. The coach caught national player Sané twice in the face with his hand in the catch-up game at FC Bayern on Wednesday during an argument on the sidelines. He was punished with a red card and suspended for three games on Thursday.
The 52-year-old had already publicly apologized to his team immediately after the game, but explicitly not to Sané. “He comes into the room to provoke me,” the coach said on Wednesday. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that he didn’t react appropriately. The Croatian was also fined 25,000 euros by the DFB. He was also sanctioned by the Union, as President Dirk Zingler told the “Berliner Zeitung”.
Press conference postponed at short notice
Despite the scuffle, he should remain the coach of the “Iron” for the time being. “Despite all the understandable emotionality in football, something like this shouldn’t happen to a head coach. A coach must remain confident in a situation like this and not allow himself to be tempted into unsportsmanlike behavior. He didn’t live up to his role model role at this moment. We have that clearly sanctioned as part of his contract,” said President Zingler.
The press conference scheduled for 1 p.m. on Friday before the game between Union Berlin and Darmstadt on Sunday (from 3:30 p.m. in the live ticker on t-online) was postponed at short notice to Saturday. According to the club, they want to discuss the processes surrounding the duel, reports “Bild”.
Another reason is that Bjelica’s representatives, assistant coaches Danijel Jumic and Nino Bule, do not speak German as well as the head coach himself.