If you’ve walked past Elland Road recently, and then glanced at it briefly, there is every chance that you will be included on the shortlist for the Leeds United job, it seems everyone else is/has been.
Since Garry Monk took his leave of the Whites, resigning a fortnight ago after not sharing the same vision/view as Andrea Radrizzani as to where the club needed to be heading, name after name has been put into the hat for ‘next Leeds manager’.
The latest one to appear from nowhere and into the reckoning is former Yugoslavian defender, and current Torino manager, Siniša Mihajlović. As written about earlier on The72, Mihajlović came from nowhere into the betting, originally hitting highest odds of 18/1 before drifting out slightly to odds of 20/1 with online bookmaker Sky Bet.
But who is Sinisa Mihajlovic, that’s what a lot of Leeds United fans might be asking themselves at this moment.
Five Things Siniša Mihajlović
1. The 48-year-old made his début for Yugoslavia on May 16, 1991 playing the full 90 minutes of a 7-0 victory over minnow the Faroe Islands. The last of his 68 caps, which brought about four goals was a 90 minute swansong at home in a 2-1 win over Mexico on February 13, 2002.
2. Away from the international scene, Mihajlovic started out his career at HNK Borovo before a 1998 move to Serbian side Vojvodina. He transferred in 1991 to fellow Serbian side Red Star Belgrade, with whom he stayed for 18 months. He started his Serie A career on July 1, 1991 with a £3.8 million transfer from Red Star to Roma, which two years afterwards was followed by a £5.1 million deal taking him to Sampdoria. After four years at Sampdoria, Mihajlovic made a big-money, £14.5 million switch to Italian giants Lazio where he stayed until a free transfer took him to final club Inter Milan – with whom her retired in 2006.
3. Mihajlovic made 315 appearances in Serie A scoring 38 times and providing three assists. Of these 38 goals, 28 were the result of free-kicks – a record he co-holds with Italian legend Andrea Pirlo. He is also one of only two players, the other being Giuseppe Signori, who have scored a hat-trick of free-kicks in a Serie A match which he did in a 5-2 win over Sampdoria in the 1998/99 season.
4. As a manager he’s only managed in Italian football, taking charge of: Bologna, Catania, Fiorentina, Sampdoria, AC Milan and current club Torino. Out of these sides, he’s managed the longest time at Sampdoria (68 games) and shortest time at Bologna (22 games). He also managed the Serbian national side for 19 games between May 2012 and November 2013.
5. He was manager of Torino when Pontus Jansson was loaned out to Leeds United during the very earliest part of the 2016/17 Sky Bet Championship campaign.
